El Niño has been changing weather patterns in the US this winter season and has now reached California. El Niño is a natural phenomenon that may help California in its dehydrated state right now. These weather changes have caused and will continue to cause a lot of snow days in some places in California and rainy days at Wilcox, all the way until March.

Since California has been in a drought for four years, rainy days do not come often for Wilcox students. It is apparent that not all people are fond of the recent weather, or are very accustomed to the temperature and rain. “Due to the cold and rain it has been necessary for me to wear warmer clothing which I don’t have much of,” says student Hannah Warner. Jackie Ng shares, “It makes it harder to walk to class because all my books and backpack get wet.” Ella Jevtic adds, “Since El Niño, the creek has started smelling worse, which is irritating when you are trying to walk to class.”

All the rain seriously affects our Wilcox soccer teams as well. Alex Buckwalter, a JV player claims, “The rain makes everything really muddy so our cleats tear up the fields. The mud also gets in our cleats, making us slip and fall.” JV player Clarissa Guglielmelli says, “Our fields aren’t turf so when we play after it rains it gets really muddy and it’s hard to run.” However, the rain and mud doesn’t stop the determined soccer players. “Since it doesn’t rain a lot in California, it makes it fun to play in the mud and rain because that doesn’t happen a lot,” Guglielmelli states. Varsity player Olivia Wallace adds, “The muddiness has created a challenge which makes us play harder.”

El Niño is a weather pattern that occurs about every two to seven years few years because of warmer than average water temperature in the Pacific Ocean. During a regular year, surface winds along the equator cause cold water to rise near the coast of South America. This keeps the central Pacific water cool. During an El Niño year, the winds are weaker, which causes warmer waters to be pushed west along the equator, and they form a warm water pool in the western Pacific. Warm seawater creates a lot of moisture in the air above so the area of the Pacific Ocean near Chile and Peru, which become warmer than usual, and changes the usual weather such as increased rainfall.

El Niño changes the climate in places that are all across the globe. In the Americas, El Niño can cause wetter, drier, or warmer weather, depending on the different place. For California, this means some much needed rain. According to scientists at the NOAA and Columbia University, “There is a 96 percent chance that El Niño conditions will remain through March and a 62 percent probability they will continue through May.” So, student should probably prepare for this wet weather for the next few months.

Even though more rain is coming down on us than average, it does not mean that the California drought is over. Although all the water is helping, it is going to take several rainy seasons to undo the four dry years that are the California drought. The spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources stated, “four years of drought have left California with a water deficit that is too large for one El Niño year to totally overcome.” Even with all the rain El Niño will bring, it still will not be enough. According to the San Jose Mercury News, “the government’s weekly “drought monitor” update showed that 69 percent of California remains in extreme drought, barely changed from three months ago, when it was 71 percent. The scale measures more than 40 indicators, from soil moisture to snowpack to reservoir levels.”

Just because we will be experiencing plenty of rain over the next few weeks and months does not mean that California isn’t still dry. It is important for Californians to conserve all the water they can to help this dehydrated state. Whether students find this rainy season to be annoying or enjoyable, the rain storms are here to stay.