La Nina is Coming

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center announced that La Nina conditions have begun in the Pacific Ocean and will likely last until the spring. La Nina is the opposite of El Nino and usually results in more rainfall across Indonesia and northern Australia, as well as in the Amazon Basin and in southeastern Africa and below-average rainfall across the eastern half of the equatorial Pacific and eastern equatorial Africa. Unfortunately, La Nina events also favor increased Atlantic hurricane activity. The last La Nina was in 2000-2001 but was a relatively weak event compared to the 1998-2000 La Nina.