El Niño in 2007

[ben t]

So the NOAA (http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2699.htm) and others seem to be saying that el niño will be with us in 2007. Can anyone share from experience what that might look like for AT hikers this year?

Thanks,
_Ben

[Spirit Walker]

It doesn't usually affect the east coast much. It is more the western trails, especially the PCT, that are affected by El Nino. (e.g. lots of rain/snow in the southern California mountains).

[Topcat]

It does push the jet stream north, making for milder weather through the winter. Early birds could be rewarded this year.

[Cuffs]

It doesn't usually affect the east coast much. It is more the western trails, especially the PCT, that are affected by El Nino. (e.g. lots of rain/snow in the southern California mountains).

From the few bits of news I watch, I think el nino affects every part of the US...

from NOAA...
Typical El Niño effects are likely over North America during January-March 2007, including warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the northwestern and northern United States, wetter-than-average conditions over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, and drier-than-average conditions in the Ohio Valley and in portions of the Pacific Northwest. Global effects that can be expected during December-March include drier-than-average conditions over most of Malaysia, Indonesia, northern and eastern Australia, some of the U.S.-affiliated islands in the tropical North Pacific, northern South America and southeastern Africa, and wetter-than-average conditions over equatorial East Africa, central South America (Uruguay, northeastern Argentina, southeastern Paraguay and southern Brazil) and along the coasts of Ecuador and northern Peru.

[rafe]

It doesn't usually affect the east coast much. It is more the western trails, especially the PCT, that are affected by El Nino. (e.g. lots of rain/snow in the southern California mountains).


The mountains of central MA and southern NH are entirely without snow pack at this point. That could mean a summer of dried-up streams and springs. Lakes that normally would be frozen and snow-covered are have no ice at all. None.

[Spirit Walker]

Yes but is that El Nino - or just this year's weird weather?

I've lived in the mid-Atlantic for the past 14 years and every time there has been an el nino year the weathercasters say that it will probably not make much difference here.

[bfitz]

My crystal ball says lotsa rain, but I have no scientific basis for the claim.

[greentick]

Seems like the one I remember from 1996-7 or so it rained every day for a month here in the Atlanta area. That was during early winter I think.