While we already have a lot going on right now after facing a hurricane and still working to fight the fires raging in the west it seems more may be added to the table soon. In recent times a La Nina pattern has appeared in the Pacific Ocean according to Fox News which means things could get much more intense.
This La Nina could basically increase the activity we’re seeing of our hurricane season and fuel these wildfires further depending on how things unfold according to Fox News and well, those two things are quite saddening to hear as so many have been affected by both things as of late. This kind of thing is something we all need to be aware of because we are all in this together and with so many struggling right now, we need to be united more than ever. Sure, 2020 might be close to its end but it sure is giving us a run for our money.
ABC 7 wrote as follows on this breaking things down a bit:
As wildfires rage up and down California, federal weather officials say the possibility of any relief in the form of rain is slight due to a La Nina weather system that has popped up in the Pacific Ocean.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday that the system, which often means a busier Atlantic hurricane season, a drier Southwest and perhaps a more fire-prone California, has formed.
Meteorologists had been watching La Nina, the cooler flip side of the better known El Nino, brewing for months.
“It doesn’t look like we’re going to have any precipitation as far as we can look,” said Eric Boldt with the National Weather Service.
It’s not guaranteed, but typically, La Nina years are drier, which not only means less rain but a delay in the arrival of the rainy season and therefore a delayed fire season.
“From Central California to Southern California and wanting the fire season to end early, you probably didn’t want to roll the dice and get La Niña,” UCLA geography professor Glen MacDonald said.
The more land that burns, the more land is exposed to mudslides when the rain finally does come. Combine that with drought conditions in 13 of the last 18 years and an extremely dry winter could prove disastrous for the state which has already seen a lot of it this year.
“So we still have a lot of stressed trees, we have still a lot of groundwater, aquifer water that’s depleted, so really we have a long term drought in place,” Boldt said.
With so many places on fire, many are hoping and praying for rain but this La Nina could essentially be something that keeps that from happening as it is much drier which is noted above. Rain right now would make a big difference in putting out these fires but things do not seem to be working in our favor right now. As this burning rages on in several states, things are becoming increasingly hard to try and contain.
This hurricane season we already knew things might be more active than usual but things are really weighing heavily on all of us, aren’t they? With more several tropical storms named and other things being watched closely, we do not necessarily know how long it will be before another one makes its way to land. Honestly, it feels like this year every time we take one step forward we also take two backward.
This La Nina could end up making our coming winter much colder than we otherwise would be expecting and well, that’s not going to be fun for anyone. To learn more about all of this take a look below. While it might not sound that intense to some, it could be the issue that keeps pushing other problems forward.