El Nino Is Coming

It's official, after weeks of speculation meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have confirmed today from their El Niño Southern Oscillation headquarters in Maryland it's going to be an El Nino year.

What can we expect from the infamous weather system for 2009-10?

For now meteorologists at NOAA are predicting an weak to moderate El Nino, but predict the weather phenomena to strengthen in the winter.

So just how much rain will be produced by this El Nino. If it's an weak-to-moderate El Nino Southern California could receive no more than an average amount of rain. Meteorologists say if the El Nino condition strengthens, as NOAA is predicting, Southern California will receive above-average rain fall.

So to answer the question in simple terms, it remains to be seen how much rain we'll receive.

While Southern California desperately needs the rain to offset the drought, El Nino brings its own set of problems. During the 1997-98 El Nino produced flooding throughout Southern California. The worse El Nino was during 1982, which damaged the Santa Monica Pier and produced an small tornado near downtown Los Angeles.