
Los Angeles is facing sunshine and warmth this week even as El Niño remains strong 1,000 to 2,000 miles south of California. It’s the third week without big storms this month. But El Niño is not wimping out.
Put simply, it’s too early for El Niño-influenced rains to arrive in Southern California.
During the last two strong El Niños on record, the heaviest rains came during February 1998 and March 1983, said Bill Patzert, climatologist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge.