La Ni帽a could enter rare third straight year. Here鈥檚 what that means
Meteorologists are monitoring the potential for a 鈥渢riple-dip La Ni帽a,鈥 an unusual resurgence of cooler-than-normal sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific. While such a phenomenon might seem remote, La Ni帽a plays an enormous role in our weather stateside.
In addition to helping juice up tornado season in the spring, La Ni帽a has been known to supercharge Atlantic hurricane season when it sticks around into the summer and fall.
La Ni帽a is the opposite of El Ni帽o, which are both sides of the coin that make up ENSO, or the El Ni帽o Southern Oscillation. El Ni帽o represents ENSO鈥檚 positive 鈥渨arm鈥 phase, while La Ni帽a is the opposite. The effects of the different phases are wide-reaching and significant, with implications on the weather experienced all across the globe.
If La Ni帽a manages to hold on through the fall and into next year, becoming a true 鈥渢riple dip鈥 event, it could have the following additional effects:
Worsening drought conditions in the Southwest and elevating the fire danger since La Ni帽as tend to result in reduced precipitation in the region
Raising the odds of a relatively cold, stormy winter across the northern tier of the United States and a mild, dry winter across the South, not unlike this past winter
But looking ahead this far is pretty speculative because computer models are challenged to make accurate ENSO forecasts at this time of year; forecasters refer to this as the spring predictability barrier.
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