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Mar. 6: Should We Leave Behind ‘El Niño’ and ‘La Niña’ As Rain Predictors?

The weather terms “El Niño” and “La Niña” have long been indicators of how wet a year is likely to be. El Niño years are typically predicted to be super wet years, while La Niña years are considered dry. But new research suggests those forecasts aren’t always accurate. We speak with UC San Diego oceanographer Rosa Luna-Niño about why – and what she suggests we look at instead.

Plus, the latest news headlines, including: Mass worker protests in Kern County and why two eagles in the San Bernardino Mountains are now internet celebrities.

A Valley native, Elizabeth earned her bachelor's degree in English Language Literatures from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her master's degree in journalism from New York University. She has covered a range of beats. Her agriculture reporting for the Turlock Journal earned her a first place award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.
Kerry Klein is an award-winning reporter whose coverage of public health, air pollution, drinking water access and wildfires in the San Joaquin Valley has been featured on NPR, KQED, Science Friday and Kaiser Health News. Her work has earned numerous regional Edward R. Murrow and Golden Mike Awards and has been recognized by the Association of Health Care Journalists and Society of Environmental Journalists. Her podcast Escape From Mammoth Pool was named a podcast “listeners couldn’t get enough of in 2021” by the radio aggregator NPR One.
Jonathan Linden is a podcast producer at KVPR. Born and raised in Riverside, he's a Southern California native. Jonathan's passion for public radio began at a young age when his brother would play NPR while driving him home from middle school. He earned his B.A. in journalism from Biola University in 2019.