Forecasters say the chances are diminishing that El Niño will bring rain to California. Ed Joyce reports from Sacramento.
The NOAA Climate Prediction Center analysis shows a 60-to-65 percent chance of the warm ocean condition known as El Niño developing this fall and winter. The report also indicates a strong El Niño is not expected and a weak event is likely.
Michelle Mead is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
She says a weak El Niño won't end the California drought.
Mead: "Unfortunately there is very little correlation between weak El Niño events and above normal precipitation.”
Mead says El Niño events are tied to potential for a wet winter in Southern California and a 'poor predictor' of winter rain across Northern California.
She says next month's analysis could provide more certainty whether El Niño will develop at all.
