This year’s El Niño looks a lot like 1997. What happened then?

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2026 El Nino forecast explained

2026 El Nino forecast explained

(NEXSTAR) – This year’s El Niño is shaping up to be the strongest in recorded history. That makes it tough to compare to prior years, but if we wanted to look to history for answers, we should go back in time to 30 years ago.

Looking at trade wind patterns, Columbia University climate scientist Azhar Ehsan said in a September media briefing that this year’s atmospheric evolution looks similar to that of 1997, when one of the strongest-ever El Niños formed.

That winter was characterized by broken records and “unusual extremes,” climate researchers said in an April 1998 National Climatic Data Center report. It was the country’s second-warmest and seventh-wettest winter since 1895.

The super-strong El Niño contributed to chaotic weather from coast-to-coast. While the Northeast was hit with ice storms, the Southeast and California were drenched with flooding rain. Deadly tornadoes also tore across Florida.

Typically during an El Niño winter, the southern half-to-third of the country is wetter than normal, while the northern states are warmer and drier.

In the winter of........

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