Weird winter weather strikes South

With the general talk about the weird weather that has occurred so far this winter, we have even more interesting weather to look forward to. From 70 degree weather in the middle of December to a wet and warm Christmas, we may have even more unusual weather to deal with before everything goes back to the typical Alabama weather.

However, many people are confusing our odd Alabama weather with the El Niño occurrence this year. An El Niño is actually a warming of the Pacific Ocean by a few degrees. This produces odd weather events all across North America. The main effect of El Niño in the United States is a dramatic increase in rainfall and a warmer winter. This produces El Niño influenced weather that is dramatically different from the usual climate this time of year.

A good example of what Alabama may experience over the next few months will be more rain, storms and dramatic weather changes. We may also see more flooding due to El Niño influenced cold and warm fronts. This years’ unusually strong El Niño is expected to finally die out in the late spring months and return us to our normal weather.