The current El Nino continues to strengthen and will probably end next Spring.
"All international climate models surveyed by the Bureau of Meteorology indicate El Nino is likely to strengthen, and is expected to persist into early 2016," the bureau said. Those models project the event could last until next April.
A overview of what this means for the world can be found here.
Economic winners include the U.S., China, Mexico and Europe, while India, Australia and Peru are among El Nino's biggest losers.
California does have one potential remaining issue that could cause the drought to continue: The Blob.
It was a tangled feedback process between hot, dry soil, the strong ridge, and the blob — all working together to enhance the ridge itself, leading to more hot, dry weather. The wintertime pattern has been so domineering that West Coast meteorologists dubbed it the "ridiculously resilient ridge."
As a California resident with limited oceanic-atmospheric knowledge I wonder if anyone out there can add insight to the last article. It seems that this El Nino is really strong and the most The Blob can hope to do is to weaken it. All that energy needs to go somewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @02:36PM
Here in San Diego, we've already had record breaking rainfall amounts for the month of July, with more due today. Although our localized rain will not help the drought in the rest of the state, our lawns are getting green and my rain barrels are full. Drivers are still stupid when it rains, lots of accidents.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @02:40PM
And the last time we had an El Nino this strong, there was major flooding with road washouts. It was said somewhere that this El Nino may be even stronger than those in the past.
(Score: 1) by angst_ridden_hipster on Wednesday July 29 2015, @08:36PM
yeah, the El Nino in ... '02? thereabouts? flooded my Mar Vista back yard during one short downpour.
I should probably get myself some sandbags in advance of this winter.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:20PM
No, It was around 1982-83 I believe.
(Score: 2) by AndyTheAbsurd on Wednesday July 29 2015, @03:14PM
Drivers are stupid when it rains everywhere. I've lived in Florida - where it rains virtually every day in the summer - for a dozen years, and - although it hardly seems possible when you see how they drive in the sunshine - drivers do get stupider as soon as the rain starts falling here, too.
Please note my username before responding. You may have been trolled.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 29 2015, @03:56PM
The L.A. area has seen its all-time July rain records shattered when they got almost twice the old record in one 2-day storm.
But the new record is still less than one inch, and the hills are still grey-brown.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday July 29 2015, @09:25PM
We had like 1 1/2 days of rain in July here in San Diego, the weekend before last. So if you're talking "record breaking" for "last July," yeah, I guess you're right.