In Southern California, many students and faculty at California Baptist University have been feeling the recent effects of El Niño, the projected winter weather phenomenon.
The second peak of El Niño for California has not yet shown itself, but has resulted in above normal temperatures for this time of the year, along with strong winds. There are still a few months ahead, however, that could bring in possible rain and storms.
El Niño refers to the warming of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, which also impacts the weather. This year’s El Niño is one of the strongest in the last 18 years.
El Niño continues to warm the surface, with little to no rain, but the storm is likely to remain neutral by late or early summer of 2016, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It does, however, have the possibility of turning into La Niña in the fall. This could mean the opposite effect of unusually cold temperatures.
Dr. Natalie Winter, associate professor and program director for marketing, said she made sure her kids had rain boots when there were weather reports about the big storm, but later realized her kids did not need them.
“Many meteorologists don’t know why the El Niño wasn’t as bad as they had thought it was going to be,” Winter said. “We haven’t experienced much of El Niño in February, since we barely did in January, but I’m not really sure what to expect now.”
With the recent heat and wind, El Niño was one of the main focuses this year, yet many people expected it to be worse than it has been.
Carissa Williamson, sophomore health science major, said it has felt average.
“We had a few bigger rainy days that California hasn’t seen in awhile, but I don’t feel like it was necessarily a storm in the sense that it wasn’t something we have never seen before,” Williamson said.
Katie Houchin, junior health science major, said she enjoyed the rain and the cold weather but is not enjoying the current heat and wind.
“I am from the sunniest city in the U.S. — Yuma, Arizona — and it was cooler there than it was here in California,” Houchin said.
