How Did Our El Nino Winter Fare?

How Did Our El Nino Winter Fare?

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Story Published: Apr 10, 2003 at 10:33 AM PST

Story Updated: Mar 13, 2008 at 12:13 PM PST

By Steve Pool

SEATTLE - You probably heard a lot about our "El Nino" Winter, and indeed, it somewhat lived up to its reputation. El Nino winters usually mean warmer and slightly drier than usual.

And temperatures were generally about 1.5degrees above normal this winter. Only October and February came in cooler that usual, and January was the second warmest on record.

For rain, after a nearly bone-dry fall, we made up some ground in December, January and especially March, which was nearly twice as wet as normal. We finished just an inch below normal for the winter season in Seattle, and are about 3.5 inches ahead for the calendar year. Mountain snowpacks are running about 80% of normal.

El Nino is fading, and generally doesn't affect us in summer anyway, but long range outlooks are calling for a warmer than average summer, and a dry late summer.

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