La Niña event could spell trouble for SoCal drought levels

As La Niña strengthens in the tropical Pacific, forecasters say California could once again face drought concerns.

As KNX News' Nataly Tavidian reports, La Niña typically brings drier weather to the Southern US, and projections expect this latest event to linger through the winter months.

Even though the state has recently seen relief from drought, the potential for a stronger La Niña is concerning, particularly as record heat and low precipitation levels have already increased the need for rain.

Climate scientist Tom Di Liberto tells KNX News, "We're still waiting for this La Niña to get going, so we have a better sense of its potential strength."

Di Liberto said, "Normally if we have a moderate or strong La Niña, it can lead to impacts across the West Coast and the southern tier of the United States, especially where you tend to see below-average rainfall."

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If you go back to 2020, when we saw the last robust La Niña, Southern California only received about five inches of rain, whereas on average, SoCal gets about 15 inches.

Scott Larimore, senior Meteorologist with the Weather Channel , said, "I think with the two-season surplus that we're coming off of, we'll be fine for a pretty decent La Niña event this winter - if it happens."

He said the trouble would come if we started getting multiple events in a row: "That's when the drought becomes cumulative and starts to really hurt."

The biggest question is how strong will La Niña building now become. Experts expect more clarity in the fall.

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