LOS ANGELES - Despite the weeklong rains deluging California, the Golden State should experience a drier than average winter thanks to the La Nina climate phenomenon, forecasters said Wednesday.
Just because a series of pre-winter storms drenched the state "doesn't mean the entire season is going to be like this," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA center said California should be drying out in the first three months of the new year. Its outlook is driven mostly by a strong La Nina in the tropical Pacific. The phenomenon is marked by a cooling of the tropical Pacific Ocean, which usually means drier than normal winter conditions in California and the Southwest.
There are other factors besides La Nina that affect local weather. The latest storm system was caused by cold polar air clashing with warm, moist air to create the wild weather, said Bill Patzert of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"Even though La Nina is very strong, what's really dominating the weather is the Arctic Oscillation in the short term," Patzert said.
If La Nina remains strong as forecasters expect, California should see drier conditions from January to March.
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NOAA Climate Prediction Center: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov
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