EL NINO FIZZLES OUT FORECASTERS ISSUE DOWNGRADE, BUT HEAVY RAINS STILL POSSIBLE.Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer Put away the umbrellas, open the windows, don't worry about the deluge - weather forecasters said Thursday that the predicted El Nino winter of rain is so far a no-show. ``Right now we haven't seen El Nino's face,'' said Bill Patzert, a research oceanographer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena, who had raised his forecast to strong El Nino rains last month. ``El Nino has turned his back on us and is weakening as we speak.'' Added Jim Ashby, a climatologist cli·ma·tol·o·gy n. The meteorological study of climates and their phenomena. cli  ma·to·log for the Western Region Climate
Center in Reno, Nev.: ``It's kind of a bust so far, but we still
got a couple of months left for bad weather.''
National weather forecasters have downgraded the impact of the warm equatorial current that has wreaked drought in Australia Drought in Australia is defined as rainfall over a three month period being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that region in the past.[1] This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to . While the U.S. Climate Prediction Center forecast a 53 percent chance of above-normal precipitation for next month, forecasters now call for between a 43 percent to 48 percent chance of rain, decreasing to 38 percent in March and April. So it's a lot less likely that El Nino will bring torrential downpours as fierce as those in the winter of 1997-98. ``It's not over till the fat lady sings "Fat lady sings" can mean:
``I'm always a little bit leery of saying too much about February till it comes and goes.'' There have been at least seven El Nino events in the past 25 years - some destructive, others barely noticeable. The El Nino phenomenon, a warming of water in the equatorial Pacific waters off South America that steers storms toward California and across the southern United States The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States. , ``will shape weather patterns through spring 2003,'' weather experts predicted last month. Their forecast predicted a possible replay of the 1991-1992 El Nino winter, when four storms during Feb. 9-18 left eight people dead and caused $125 million in damage in Los Angeles, Ventura, Kern, Orange and San Bernardino counties. Damage that winter, when 21 inches of rain fell on downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , totaled $523 million statewide. The San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. experienced widespread flooding, and 15-year-old Adam Bischoff was swept to his death down the Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. . When El Nino struck again in 1997-98, downtown got 31 inches of rain, more than twice the 15-inch average. Massive downpours led to seasonal records in such areas as Chatsworth (44.19 inches), Simi Valley (40.05 inches), Northridge (36.10 inches) and Long Beach Airport (29.68 inches). That year, El Nino dumped a record 310 inches of snow at Mountain High. But despite the prediction of a strong El Nino year, Los Angeles has received 5.7 inches of rain since July, 95 percent of normal. This month, it has had no rain at all. While weathermen Weathermen: see Students for a Democratic Society. Weathermen American terrorist group against the “Establishment.” [Am. Hist.: Facts (1972), 384] See : Terrorism like Patzert have revised their forecast to normal or below-normal rainfall - continuing a four-year drought - others say winter could still rain buckets in Southern California. Northern California has received higher-than-average rainfall, leaving ample snowpack snow·pack n. An area of naturally formed, packed snow that usually melts during the warmer months. snowpack 1. in the Sierras. ``None of the computer models predict any rainfall for the rest of the month, and the first week of February, (though) I still think this year will be wetter than normal,'' said James Murakami, staff meteorologist at the Atmosphere and Sciences Department at the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. . ``All it takes is 4 inches in February and 4 inches in March, and you're back on the wet side.'' CAPTION(S): chart Chart: NO SHOW FOR SHOWERS? Weather forecasters acknowledged Thursday that El Nino storms predicted for this winter had not arrived, but said February and March could still bring rain. SOURCE: Daily News research |
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