Solar System . Volcanoes 101 . Site map . Strong Cold water in this image covers a large area along the equator. This indicates a well-entrenched La Ni a.
Warm water is confined to the northwest.
Weaker Warm water in the northwest has expanded to the central Pacific and south to the equator. Cold water along the equator has shrunk, indicating a weakening of La Ni a. Though weakening, La Ni a continues to exert a strong influence on world weather, bringing heavy precipitation to the Pacific Northwest and upper Midwest. For Southern California, the general pattern should continue to be dry with occasional winter storms. Although this feature is not fully understood, scientists say it is adding energy to winter storms coming out of the North Pacific, which is fueling volatile weather across the rest of the country.