La Nina faded away, it occurred shortly from the last part of 2016 to very early in 2017, U.S. Weather forecasters said on Thursday. It was recorded as the shortest and the weakest in the United States compared to previous occurrences.
La Nina is the cooling of water in the equatorial Pacific that occurs at irregular intervals and has something to do with widespread changes in weather patterns but less extensive and damaging in their effects. In tropical countries, it is always associated with colder, long and heavy rainy season. When La Nina fades away shortly climate shifts to normal.
ABC News reported that last year it lasted only four months, starting October 2016 and disappeared in January 2017. Usually, La Nina lasted for one year or longer. This year La Nina fades away shortly, according to University of Washington atmospheric scientist Mike Wallace. Although it was considered as the shortest but it left unusual cold in Alaska, Western Canada, and Northern U.S.
Mike Halpert of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center said that many computer models show that formation of El Nino will come this summer or fall, yet no prediction NOAA has made until now. He said further that strong La Nina, unlike this year which fades away shortly usually followed by its opposite a strong El Nino. That's why if this year's short La Nina has been followed immediately by El Nino it would be fairly unusual, according to CTV News.
The swift exchanges of occurrence by El Nino and La Nina happened rarely, it was just in 1960 when El Nino and La Nina occurred alternately and lasted for 3 years. This year as La Nina fades away shortly will cause meteorologists seasonal or long-term forecast tougher. It is the so-called neutral condition. Wallace said that in the forecast game big signals are better.
Forecasters in the U.S. will continue to call for warmer than normal temperatures for much of the United States. Halpert said that you can't really go wrong if you are forecasting above-normal temperatures for a large part of the country because that's what you get.
