SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The weather phenomenon known as “La Niña” is shaping up in the Pacific Ocean along the equator south of Hawaii, according to Alex Tardy of the National Weather Service.
Typically, it means less rain and warmer temperatures during the winter in states like California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.
Temperatures, on average, will rise a few degrees than normal throughout the winter months and into the spring.
“We could still see large storms and colder temperatures in La Niña. For winter months, we typically see less rainfall, and we see warmer conditions because of less rainfall,” Tardy said. “And we tend to go into dreaded word of drought, what I want people to remember with La Niña you get a lot more variability, you get a big storm with a lot of rain, maybe snow in the mountains, but then you go about four weeks when you don’t have anything.”
According to Tardy, the dry and warmer weather happens because La Niña pushes the storm trek further north to places like Seattle, British Columbia and Portland.
“I would say Arizona and Texas are more susceptible to a dry and mild winter, and they are definitely in line to having a mild winter and more expansion to the drought,” Tardy said.
Tardy also said this happens, on average, every three to four years.
