El Nino Coming Again

It looks like part of the reason the 2006 hurricane season has been fairly tame is a building El Nino in the eastern Pacific ocean:

El Nino, an extreme warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean that wreaks havoc with world weather conditions, has formed and will last into 2007, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Wednesday.

The El Nino has already helped make the Atlantic hurricane season milder than expected, said a forecaster for the NOAA.

"The weak El Nino is helping to explain why the hurricane season is less than we expected. El Ninos tend to suppress hurricane activity in the Atlantic," said Gerry Bell, a hurricane forecaster for NOAA.

I don't know what El Nino's do to your neck of the woods, but out here on the Holy Coast they bring us much heavier rain than we normally get. An average year in Southern California is worth about 14 inches of rain. During the last El Nino we had well over 30, and if we have some big fires during the Santa Ana wind season (which starts any day now), heavy rain means mudslides and all kinds of problems.

El Nino's are not our friends.