Dry Western U.S. May Not Get Help From El Niño, Forecasters Say

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The chances that an El Niño weather pattern will bring much-needed rains to parched areas of the West have fallen from 80 percent to 65 percent, according to a new analysis by weather experts. They add that if the warm-water system does appear, it would likely be a weak one.

Some Californians had been hoping that El Niño would break the state out of a three-year drought. But as member station KQED reports, government climatologist Bill Patzert says of the prospect of a strong El Niño this fall and winter, "It's a flop."

He added, "That El Niño that was really coming on like gangbusters in the spring has virtually disappeared at this point. Unless we see a miraculous resurgence, any hope for an El Niño soaking this winter is pretty much in the rearview mirror."

On the positive side, forecasters see even less of a chance that El Niño's opposite number — La Niña, which would bring more dryness — will form. And the West Coast could also get some help from Pacific storms, they say, if a high-pressure system stays out of the way.

"We could have one wet, cold storm after another making its way down the length of California," Patzert says, "and that would certainly be sweet."

From a statement issued Thursday by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center: