The latest U.S. winter outlook spells trouble for dry California, which is suffering from a severe drought and the ongoing El Niño weather pattern.
Forecasters say parts of the Southern and Central California deserts are in the grips of the worst wildfire season in years, which has not yet been reflected in the numbers.
But for some reason, the outlook for Southern California is particularly concerning, while the numbers from the northern regions are not.
California is facing two-and-a-half times more fire-related deaths than last year, with more than 2 months to go until November. Last year, the worst was August and September.
The most recent drought that Californians are facing isn’t just one that’s going to take a long time and cost a lot of money, it also is happening right before Thanksgiving.
When a drought is on its way, it just means that the state is missing out on things that a normal dry season might bring.
In fact, you can see from the way the maps look that California is already missing out on a lot of things.
“In the spring and summer, California had two or three times the normal rain,” said Jason Samuels, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
“Now the state is faced with the prospect of a dry winter followed by wet spring followed by three months of fire season and with the onset of El Niño weather patterns and potentially wetter summer, we already got that dry and dryer than normal climate coming in that is going to be very hard to live with.”
The dry, dry winter outlook for Southern California and the Western U.S. as of this morning is grim.
“In the spring and summer, California had two or three times the normal rain,” said Jason Samuels, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
“Now the state is faced with the prospect of a dry winter followed by wet spring followed by three months of fire season and with the onset of El Niño weather patterns and potentially wetter summer, we already got that dry
