If you haven’t yet heard the townspeople say “Godzilla is coming, Godzilla is coming” then you probably haven’t been watching a whole lot of news. For months now, meteorologists and other geo weather experts have been warning southern Californian’s of the “Godzilla El Nino” that is expected this winter; particularly in the months of February and March 2016. It is important to note that El Nino doesn’t necessarily mean hurricane-type winds or ravaging storms but rather a mere consecutive pattern of moderate size storms with no break in between. The warming of the sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean allows the jet stream that is typically redirected from southern California to pass through all season long. Some of the pacific jet stream prediction models are suggesting that southern California will receive more rain than we did in either of our two previous El Nino winters in 97’ – 98’ and 82’ – 83’.
So, what can we do to prepare for this anticipated very wet winter? Well, quite a bit actually. The LA Times recently published a very good article about 28 things you and your family can do to get ready over the next couple of months. Some of these recommendations include fixing leaks, cleaning gutters, assessing your window glazing compounds, storing emergency repair material, checking the tire tread on your car, purchasing new windshield wipers, trimming your trees, considering flood insurance and many more. For more detailed information about these and other preparedness measures view the article @ http://www.latimes.com/home/la-hm-el-nino-20151017-story.html
Additionally, last week was the 2015 California Flood Preparedness Week and the California Department of Water Resources, the sponsor of this campaign, still has some very good reference material on their website accessible @ http://www.water.ca.gov/floodsafe/ca-flood-preparedness/fpw_home.cfm
Lastly, UCI is taking the El Nino warning very seriously and has established a working group made up of several essential campus departments to prepare for and mitigate against the substantial amount of water we may see here on campus in an effort to safeguard the community and it’s assets.
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