El Nino won't bring relief for California scientists say

A drought stricken California may see some very limited relief this summer, at least according to scientists from the U.S. Climate Prediction Center.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The Center's monthly forecast revealed that warming temperatures in the Pacific Ocean continue to create conditions that have a 70% chance of causing an El Nino to occur this summer.

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In California, there are hopes that this El Nino may help end the drought that has plagued the state for years, but scientists say that this El Nino is likely to be only moderate in strength.

"We are slightly favoring a moderate strength El Nino. While we are not ruling it out at this point, we are not expecting to see the next great El Nino," said Mike Halpert, acting director of the CPC.

Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, agrees. "We are going to have an El Nino. The Question is the strength," he said. "It hasn't taken off in the last month the way one might have thought if it was going to be a really major event."

The summer months are the prime time for El Ninos to develop.

"We are on the precipice of actually having it here. The ocean has reached the minimum temperature but we are waiting to see the interaction with the atmosphere. It is certainly within the realm of possibility that it does become a very strong event but it would take some interaction with the atmosphere that we are not seeing right now."

El Nino is a climate phenomenon where storms and rainfall normally reserved for East Asia occurs in North America, usually bringing wetter winters to California and Texas and curtailing the strength of hurricanes in Florida and the Caribbean.

While El Nino storms can be a boon to North America, they can wreak havoc in South America and worsen bad droughts that are already affecting Asia, Africa and Australian.

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