SOUTHLAND – (INT) – Mother Nature continues to defy predictions of climatologists based on the El Niño-La Niña cycle of ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) issued its last advisory on the short-lived La Niña Thursday and shifted the long-term outlook to a 50 percent chance of another El Niño for the Northern Hemisphere the second-half of this year based on warming sea surface temperatures.

The last El Niño failed to generate anticipated heavier rains in Southern California during the winter of 2015-16. This winter, the Southland has been soaked with the heaviest rains and mountain snow in several years under the drier La Niña conditions.

Several times since December, atmospheric rivers have taken aim at California and the Pacific Northwest.

The Pacific oscillation has shifted into neutral, according to the CPC, and is likely to remain there through the spring.

The CPC has not explained why the climate oscillation seems to be having an opposite impact on Southern California's weather over the past two years.

Story Date: March 9, 2017