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Essay On California Drought

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Since 2013, California has been in one of its worst droughts in 100 years. The 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 winter snowpacks were among the lowest recorded. In January of 2014, many reservoirs across California dropped to critical water levels. But the California drought may improve soon.
A few months ago we entered a phase called El Niño, which is apart of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). ENSO refers to a band of warm water which affects the weather patterns across the globe. El Niño is in reference to one of the two phases, which is associated with certain weather patterns. The El Niño cycle is on an irregular basis of two to seven years, where warm waters accumulate along the equator in the Pacific Ocean, affecting both temperature and rainfall. In California, El Niño often causes large amount of precipitation, for …show more content…

Certainly, studies show that there is a high likelihood of El Niños bringing rainfall to California. Out of the past five strong El Niños, four brought about heavy rainfall, and the average rainfall was over 140% California’s rainfall. However, if we look at the weaker El Niño cycles in California, only five out of the past 18 weaker El Niños had above average rainfall. In fact the California drought in 1976-1977 was actually during a weak El Niño phase. So what does this mean for California now?
The good news is that there are many indications that the current 2015-2016 El Niño will be a strong one, having a chance to become the most powerful on record. This El Niño has a 95% chance of continuing in the Northern Hemisphere though spring of 2016. The Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow says this winter’s El Niño could rival the strongest on record, an intensity that would “have ripple effects on weather patterns all over the world.” This El Niño so far has the same intensity as that of 1987-1988, which was notorious for mudslides and flash

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