Andy_Johnson's Blog

El Nino and La Nina are strongly correlated with rainfall patterns in Central Florida. The basic rule is that strong El Nino winters are wet in Central Florida and strong La Nina winters are drier than normal. This is clearly shown in the graph below (the link is http://www.srh.weather.gov/tbw/images/tbw/nino/tpaavgr
ain.png)

But this time all the rules seem to be thrown out. We are in a strong La Nina pattern and yet our rainfall in February was well above normal and we continue to see strong cold fronts with squall lines and severe weather threats in Central Florida fairly often. La Nina is a cooling of a large portion of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Even though it is far away, its effects on our weather in the past have been fairly consistent. This year is an exception.

That is one reason why meteorology and science, in general, is so fascinating to me. There is always something we can learn that doesn't "fit the patten". It makes us re-evaluate what we think we know and try to further explain it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to the reason why this La Nina is different from the others?