A strong El Niño is predicted to help ease drought conditions in some, but not all of California.
The U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook, released Thursday, Oct. 15, by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center shows a strong El Niño improving drought conditions across central and southern California by the end of January...
"For the Southwest, El Niño associated climate anomalies favor an enhancement of the early wet season," the CPC says. "Therefore, drought improvement is favored across central and southern California."
But the drought is forecast to persist or intensify across northern California, northern Nevada and all of Oregon and Washington...
Despite the outlook for improvement, the drought in California isn't going away. Halpert says "a wetter-than-average winter is unlikely to erase four years of drought."..
The next seasonal outlook will be issued November 19.