When Does El Niño 2015 Start?

NASA JPL

When does El Niño 2015 hit the United States? Forecasters are calling for a particularly strong weather pattern this year, but how and when will California and the U.S. be effected?

El Niño is a weather anomaly that occurs at irregular intervals of two to seven years. It is caused by a warmer-than-usual water temperature increase in the Eastern Pacific and can cause wild weather fluctuations throughout the world. In the United States, El Niño is typically noticed in the fall. Accuweather writes that weather will be noticeably different come late September, with the most extreme weather patterns beginning in December and continuing into February.

As El Niño continues into the winter months, beneficial wet weather will bring relief to drought-stricken California along with the rest of the southern United States, while the northern portion of the country is expected to have a drier and milder winter.

However, this El Niño is no normal El Niño. Because of its torrential downpour risks, it has already been nicknamed the “Godzilla El Niño” or “Bruce Lee El Niño” for its ability to bring the most rain and tropical cyclones to the Pacific Southwest since 1950, when records began. But this year’s El Niño is still comparatively weaker to the “Super El Niño” that hit in the 1997/1998 season, writes The Weather Network.

Still, it’s something to watch not just for Americans, but for the entire world. CNN reports:

…if El Niño comes on as strong as current projections seem to indicate, we can say with some level of confidence that coastal South American countries will see above average rainfall and flooding over the next 6-9 months, while countries on the other side of the ocean like Australia and Indonesia will likely see drought.