WEATHER BEAT: Weakening El Niño Could Equate to Active Hurricane Season

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weatherbeatlogoAccording to NOAA, the strong El Niño that we experienced over the winter, which gave us overall mild conditions and that one really bad blizzard in January, is now beginning to weaken. By this summer, El Niño could be a thing of the past and we could actually be talking about La Nina. In today’s column, I will discuss what a departing El Niño means for our summer weather.

With the departure of a strong El Niño, we should ideally see a summer that is not extremely hot, but it will not be cold either. The biggest thing that we need to watch this summer is the Pacific Ocean. After one of the strongest El Niño’s in recorded history, the exiting El Niño will not necessarily mean below average sea temperatures in the Pacific. In fact, I suspect sea temperatures will still be warm enough to produce quite a bit of storms coming across the country.

Another thing to consider is the Atlantic hurricane season. Believe it or not, but we actually already had our “A” storm which was Hurricane Alex way back in January, but that’s really just an offspring of 2015’s hurricane season in my opinion; however, some say it’s a sign of things to come this summer. The 2015 Atlantic Hurricane Season was actually very inactive. My prediction is that we will see 15 named storms this season with as many as 10 storms becoming hurricanes.

With that said, it should be noted that El Niño and La Niña overall are just two of many factors that impact our summer weather. In fact, this weekend, I am actually expecting a phenomenon known as the “Omega Block” which is forecast to bring well above average temperatures into our area by this weekend and into next week. This surge of warmth is coming just days after temperatures were well below normal.

What is an Omega Block you ask? It’s essentially called an Omega Block because the jet stream is shaped like the Omega symbol over the east coast which allows extremely mild temperatures to surge north into our region. El Niño or no El Niño, there’s really no stopping a weather pattern like that.

If you have any questions regarding this topic, please feel free to contact me at my Facebook page using the link provided below.

My favorite thing to do is study the weather. It is truly fascinating. Nothing beats a good thunderstorm. I became very interested in weather when I lived in Okinawa, Japan for four years and was actually inside a super typhoon.

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