Had 1/4 inch since midnight here. So far mostly been soaker rain and boy are plants loving it! Only going to pick up about 350 cfs at Porter then back down hill for the flows. https://www.nwrfc.noaa.gov/rfc/

Rain was needed as the ground was starting to dry out way to much for this time of year.

Yeah, it was cracking.

Well 28G had it right because we got way more rain than forecast and it is still raining! Radar has everything coming from the Northwest so it is not heat wave time either with highs in low 60's on down the road here.

Well it is looking more and more like a record El Nino. The next NOAA ENSO forecast will arrive June 11.

A "very strong" El Niño could wreak havoc


El Niño events occur every two to seven years, when shifts in wind and current patterns in the tropical Pacific Ocean cause sea surface temperatures to rise 0.9 F (0.5 C) above historical averages, resulting in profound knock-on effects on the global climate. The world is rapidly exiting the neutral phase.

The world's most recent El Niño spanned from May 2023 to March 2024 and was partially responsible for 2024 being the hottest year on record. If the upcoming El Niño is strong or very strong, 2027 could surpass the previous record, according to Climate Brief's State of the Climate assessment, published April 21.

In fact, the impending El Niño may itself break records. "Confidence is clearly shifting higher on potentially the biggest El Niño event since the 1870s," Paul Roundy, a professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany, wrote on X on May 5.

If a "super" El Niño does occur, it could rival the strongest on record: a catastrophic 1877 event that spurred the 1876-to-1878 global famine. The famine killed over 50 million people, or 3% of the world's population at the time.

Although the social, political and economic landscapes have changed since the 1877-to-1878 El Niño, the upcoming event could still seriously threaten food, water and economic security around the world, Deepti Singh, head of the Climate Extremes and Impacts Lab at Washington State University, told The Washington Post.

"What is different now is that our atmosphere and oceans are substantially warmer than they were in the 1870s, which means the associated extremes could be more extreme," Singh said.

More recent examples demonstrate the threat of strong and very strong El Niño phases. For example, an El Niño in 1997 to 1998 led to an estimated global economic loss of $32 billion to $96 billion.

NOAA ENSO forecaster Nathaniel Johnson recently told Live Science that a very strong El Niño would impact fisheries and crops, as well as heighten the risk of wildfires and hurricanes in parts of the world.

"You've got more people that are living in poverty already and if you get a reduction in crop yields because of drought or flooding [from El Niño] then that drives prices even higher," Liz Stephens, a professor of climate risk and resilience at the University of Reading in the U.K., told the BBC. "So we're looking at potentially quite huge humanitarian impacts this year, especially if the crisis in the Middle East continues."

The next NOAA ENSO forecast will arrive June 11.

Wow, never ending summer of droughts and weather doom. Kinda sounds like this state’s epa’s constant forecast of fires, droughts and the greatest of “little boys “ heading our ways.

Kinda tiring and never ending it is. One could check out the U of W’s Cliff Mass’s weather blogspot. Likely we’ll make it thru this.

Enuff said by this old El Niño , so have a safe summer, and catch a fish or three........