El Nino to bring wet winter to North Coast

The possibility of more rain on Monday could be the latest in what forecasters are predicting will be an overall wetter-than-average year.

"It is really early in the season," National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Tettinger said Friday. "Usually our rainy season doesn't get going until next month."

"But it does look throughout the season, when it's all said and done, that there's going to be more rain than usual" along the central and Northern California coast, he said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's Climate Prediction Center announced in June that an El Ni? year was on the horizon. The means warm Pacific Ocean conditions could shift tropical storm patterns, altering the strength and position of jet streams and storms across the United States.

The agency confirmed its outlook Thursday, saying El Ni? conditions were tilting in favor of wetter conditions throughout the state, as well as other southern states.

"We expect El Ni? to strengthen and persist through the winter months, providing clues as to what the weather will be like during the period," said Mike Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center.

The storm Monday and Tuesday was an indication of the wet weather pattern, arriving early and bringing the significant rainfall more common to storms later in the season, Tettinger said.

"Right now we're kind of in a transition period," Tettinger said. "It's weak-to-moderate El Ni?