We have been in La Niña for a few years, and it still is looking unrelenting. That certainly has been evident in our record high temperatures last summer, and I’m sure the scorching heat of it won’t be forgotten by the average person easily.

El Niño and La Niña are climate patterns that originate from the Pacific Ocean that end up impacting the weather worldwide. El Niño impacts surface water in the Pacific Ocean, which becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than they normally do. The weather impact of this is different worldwide, so how do the weather patterns show?

There is an 82% chance that our long lasting La Niña will end by springtime, which means during March-May, neutral conditions will reign. Once it does, and once El Niño comes into fruition, temperatures are not typically affected, but a wetter season is predicted. That would likely be welcome noting our very dry seasons as of late.

Around the west coast, El Niño will bring much heavier rain and the likely chance of flooding. El Niño will also prove to bring droughts to the western Pacific (including Australia). It’ll cause drought, desertification, and loss of crops in Asia.

With La Niña, since it has been our state for much longer, the effects are much more evident to us. The warmer conditions and drought we faced the last few summers was all La Niña, and the flooding in Asia can be attributed to La Niña too. Climate change does not help this case either, making weather more extreme and likely to change.

All we can do now is prepare for what the world hands us, so get your umbrellas and raincoats ready for El Niño! Oklahoma is bound to finally feel the rain once more.