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Health & Fitness

La Nina, El Nino, Es Importante?

Humans (that includes most of us) like to feel important and that leads to "tasty gossip tidbits" being "augmented" in the retelling.

Humans (that includes most of us) like to feel important and that leads to “tasty gossip tidbits” being “augmented” in the retelling. Unfortunately news people and even scientists (no kidding) can be infected with this tendency to overhype the importance of what they are saying. This is also true of predictions of El Nino and La Nina.

The tropical oceans circulations associated with an El Nino and La Nina years do have a significant effect on the weather in those regions. However, the farther northward we go from the tropics the lower the effects.

By the time our distant shores are reached there is a better chance of a warmer and drier winter in El Nino years and a wetter and colder winter in La Nina years. The word on the street is that this year is shaping up to be another La Nina winter.

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The truth? The variation here of winter to winter weather is ginormous (sorry).

The bottom line? Every winter here contains the possibility of large and cold snow storms and periods of disastrous flooding.

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What should you do? Of the three little pigs, Practical Pig had the best advice for this situation. La Nina or El Nino, always prepare for the worst.

Es Importante? Not at our latitude.

 

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