00:00We are building to a super El Nino right now. You're getting the extremes of weather all over the world.
00:05Periods of extreme rainfall in some sections of the world. Periods of extreme heat and drought in other sections of
00:11the world. Landslides. High elevation rain, which leads to massive runoffs. Reservoirs that fill. You might even have dams that
00:18could be threatened. These can have large scale ramifications for humans.
00:21A super El Nino is blowing into town. And it could make this upcoming winter especially brutal in many parts
00:29of the U.S. Everything from sudden unpredictable storms to bursts of warmer weather in some unlikely places. What is
00:37a super El Nino? Why is it happening? And how will your region be affected?
00:41I'm Mike Bettis. I'm an on-camera meteorologist at the Weather Channel. We're talking El Nino and winter.
00:47This year we're anticipated to have a super El Nino. It's a term we've really never used before. And what
00:54it equates to is an El Nino that is the highest in recorded human history.
00:59And so the warming of the Pacific waters is greater than any time we've ever experienced.
01:03In this particular instance, El Nino is going to be likely the greatest, warmest El Nino we've ever seen.
01:10Generally speaking, when you have a really strong El Nino, you're getting the extremes of weather all over the world.
01:17Periods of extreme rainfall in some sections of the world. Periods of extreme heat and drought in other sections of
01:22the world.
01:23And so these can have large scale ramifications for humans.
01:26So what will winter look like? That's what we're wondering here in the U.S.
01:30El Nino this winter will likely be most profound on the West Coast and then in our Southern states.
01:36And what that means, we're probably going to have a very active southern branch of the jet stream, which stays
01:42very wet, very active.
01:44So the Southwest U.S., in particular, Southern California, but maybe the Four Corners as well, could see very significant
01:51precipitation this winter.
01:53For Southern California, in previous strong El Nino years, we've had major atmospheric river events.
01:58And that tends to lead to massive flooding.
02:01This could be a high-impact event, I would say, especially in Southern California and as you get into Arizona.
02:08These might be locations where we get a tremendous amount of rain.
02:12And especially in California, I think that's going to have disastrous consequences.
02:16Generally speaking, for the Northeast, I wouldn't anticipate massive changes from average.
02:21Having said that, I'd anticipate a little bit warmer than average.
02:25Doesn't mean we won't get cold outbreaks, but maybe it would tend overall to be slightly warmer.
02:30And I think generally on average amounts of snow are maybe just a touch above.
