La Niña 2020 - No Sure Thing - Golden Gate Weather Services

La Niña 2020 - No Sure Thing

The NOAA Climate Prediction Center (CPC) announced this morning that we have entered into a weak La Niña pattern that is expected to last through the winter. https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml

Image: https://mcusercontent.com/204b7b5836feabf8f536d0226/images/b040f4f6-7e60-4e71-b135-9eeb47853aa1.jpg

But, what does that mean as far as this winter's rainfall across California and the United States? Given past climatology, it can mean almost anything! This is dramatically illustrated by the past two La Niñas, both weak, which occurred in the winters of 2016-2017 and 2017-18. Their rainfall patterns looked dramatically different, especially in the West and California. See https://www.ggweather.com/ca_enso/ca_lanina.html and https://ggweather.com/enso2016/us_lanina.html

For comparison in California, below are the seasonal percentage of normal rainfall for the 11 La Niña events since 1950:
Image: https://mcusercontent.com/204b7b5836feabf8f536d0226/images/2288a803-c16b-4a15-9081-b85cd9787efc.jpg

And likewise, the precipitation anomalies for the United States.

The bottom line is that with most ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) events, and especially with weak La Niñas, there is no clear signal that can be used as a predictor. What is often forgotten, is that while ENSO events have a strong influence on a given year's weather, they are not the only game in town and the impact of ENSO is influenced by a myriad of other interacting factors like the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific North America (PNA) pattern, Arctic Oscillation (AO), Pacific Decadel Oscillation (PDO), Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), etc. STAY TUNED!

Jan Null, CCM
Certified Consulting Meteorologist
Golden Gate Weather Services
Email: jnull@ggweather.com
Web: http://ggweather.com
Twitter: @ggweather

Jan Null

Jan Null has been a meteorologist in the San Francisco Bay Area for 50 years and is frequently seen on television and heard on the radio when weather is in the news. Twenty-six years ago he founded a consulting firm, Golden Gate Weather Services, after a 24-year career with the National Weather Service. Mr. Null is a Bay Area native, having grown up in Oakland and lived in the East Bay until 2006 when he moved to Saratoga. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science from UC Davis in 1974 and his Master’s from San Jose State in 1992. Jan joined the National Weather Service in 1974 at the Weather Service Forecast Office in Redwood City. He worked as an operational forecaster throughout his career, including 13 years as Lead Forecaster. During his tenure at the NWS he also served as Meteorologist-in-Charge at the Center Weather Service Unit at the FAA’s Air Traffic Control Center in Fremont. He also did extensive research into the relationship between El Niño, La Niña and California rainfall and throughout his career he was a frequent media spokesperson for the agency. Jan has also been an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer at San Francisco and San Jose State Universities where he taught one evening a week for nearly 30 years. In 1998, Jan founded Golden Gate Weather Services, a consulting firm that specializes in forensic meteorology. He frequently serves as an expert witness in litigation where the weather is a factor. This often involves reconstructing past weather events or as his wife refers to it: “CSI Weather”. Mr. Null is also an internationally recognized expert of the sad topic of the heatstroke deaths of children in vehicles. After the death of a child left a vehicle in San Jose in 2001 he did a comprehensive study of vehicle temperatures that was ultimately published in Pediatrics in 2005. Since that time he has spoken at numerous national conferences and worked with a wide variety of child safety advocacy groups and agencies to raise awareness about the dozens of children who die from hyperthermia in hot vehicles each year. This data continues to be updated at NOHeatstroke.org. In his spare time he is a serious amateur photographer, specializing in wildlife and landscapes. Jan is married to Susan Hollis, a lifelong Saratoga resident and Realtor. He has two adult children in the Bay Area and the world’s most adorable 9-year old granddaughter and 4-year grandson.

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