A glancing blow of arctic air mixed with a surge in moisture is setting the stage for an extensive and very dangerous ice event. The most likely corridor of icing with a mixture of sleet will occur from west-central Texas to the Tennessee and Lower Ohio Valleys. The ice accretion from Texas into Mid South may approach a half inch or more through Wednesday and cause power outages and travel issues. Read More >
El Niño: A warming of the ocean surface, or above-average sea surface temperatures (SST), in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. Over Indonesia, rainfall tends to become reduced while rainfall increases over the tropical Pacific Ocean. The low-level surface winds, which normally blow from east to west along the equator (“easterly winds”), instead weaken or, in some cases, start blowing the other direction (from west to east or “westerly winds”).
https://psl.noaa.gov/map/clim/sst.anom.anim.year.htm
Northern Sierra Precipitation (8-station Index in Sacramento Basin)
Central Sierra Precipitation (5-station Index in San Joaquin Basin)
Southern Sierra Precipitation (6-station Index in Tulare Basin)
Maps
El Niño 2015/16: A Historical Perspective (NCEI)
U.S. Risk of Seasonal Extremes During ENSO (ESRL)
ENSO across NOAA
El Niño/Southern Oscillation (NCEI)
ENSO Research and Monitoring (ESRL)
Societal & ecosystem impacts