Behold the Child

According to NASA, El Niño is back in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The enfant terrible of global weather patterns recurs every three to seven years. The last major El Niño in 1997-98 brought disastrous flooding to California and corresponding drought to Southern Asia and Australia. According to Bill Patzert at the NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "The present conditions indicate that the intensity of this El Niño is too weak to have a major influence on current weather patterns. But, if the ocean waters continue to warm and spread eastward, this event would likely strengthen, perhaps bringing much-needed rainfall to the southwestern and southeastern United States this winter." We shall see.