It’s official: El Niño has formed, and climate experts expect the natural phenomenon to strengthen this winter.
The federal agency forecasts a 63% chance of a very strong El Niño this year, which “would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950,” National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials wrote Thursday. Historically, the climate pattern has increased the odds of wet, stormy weather across California, especially the southern part of the state.
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But because the Bay Area sits on the northernmost edge of the wet zone, intense rainfall is less guaranteed than in Southern California. Still, experts said human-caused climate change may be changing that equation.
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