Weather officials are saying the upcoming El Niño is continuing to shape and will likely be worse than the storm in 1997/98.
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The Climate Prediction Center, the National Centers for Environmental Protection, the National Weather Service and the International Research Institute for Climate and Society released an El Niño and Southern Oscillation Diagnostic Discussion on Thursday, which updates the status of the upcoming El Nino.
The newest information states “there is an approximately 95 percent chance that El Niño will continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2015-16, gradually weakening through spring 2016,” according to the report. “Several atmospheric and oceanic anomalies reflect a strong El Niño.”
Related: El Niño Preparation Begins For Los Angeles County Sheriff’s, Santa Clarita Search And Rescue Teams
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories recently released side by side images of the latest image showing the growing sea surface height, which is used to determine how much heat is in the ocean.
“The year-to-year and, even, decade-to-decade changes in the ocean that indicate climate events such as the El Niño, La Niña and Pacific Decadal Oscillation are dramatically visualized by these data,” according to NASA JPL officials. “Sea-surface height is the most modern and powerful tool for taking the “pulse” of the global oceans.”
Related: Remembering El Nino ’98; Santa Clarita City Prepares For Possible Storm
NASA’s newest image and an image from nearly the same day in 1997/ 98 show similar sea surface heights, leading scientists to believe this winter’s El Niño is going to be just as bad, if not worse.
“This El Niño continues to rank among the strongest in our records, which start in 1950,” according to a report by Emily Becker, a research scientist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The most recent report can be found here.
“We take preparation very seriously,” said Travis Lange, environmental services manager for Santa Clarita, in a previous story. “We have crews clean out storm drains and catch basins throughout the year.”
The city has a list of “sensitive areas” in the Santa Clarita Valley that may not drain very well, Lange said, in a previous story.
“The list gets less and less every year due to the city working on making sure the flow lines work properly and water doesn’t pool,” Lange said, in a previous story, adding that the city keeps those areas in mind during rainfall.
While weather officials warn, and prepare, for the upcoming El Niño, the Santa Clarita Valley is expected to have warm temperatures reaching into the mid 90’s for the rest of the week.
A 50 percent chance of rain is expected for Saturday, according to Weather Underground.
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Yowza! So is there anyway the SCV water companies can supply their SCV customers with water collection barrels so we can collect and store the rain water so we can use it to water our plants when it’s not raining? Just a thought! Anyone have ideas on how we can make this work?