Scientists at NOAA and the Scipps Institute, in contrast, forcast a strong La Ni a to develop into late 1998. La Ni a forecasts have been available, the public has used the forecasts in a wide variety of ways to make major decisions. For instance, the Peruvian government has used data and forecasts to plan crop layout and selection as heard on a recent NPR program. Most recently, the California Department of Water Resources started offering sandbagging classes available to the public. Incredibly, these classes filled just as fast as the sandbags did.
Some scientists feel that the climatic phenomena are becoming more frequent due to global warming.
Still yet, some people believe that the El Ni o and La Ni a events are simply part of a larger cycle of climatic changes. Unfortunately, we have been studying these events far to short to tell.