It’s a Bird. It’s a Plane. No! It’s El Nino!!!!

Hanna did a happy dance in the car this morning. Researchers are reporting the return of the weather affecting ocean current better known as El Nino!

Able to suppress hurricanes and ski seasons in a single shift, this super power of the weather world has decided to grace us once again with his presence.

So why am I happy? Well, this is a quote from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) press release about the return of El Nino:

…warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States… drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

Do you know what that means for Cleveland? It means that hopefully we will have a warmer winter and not as much snow. Although the snow thing is pretty iffy, as most of our snow fall comes from lake effect or from the Michigan/Canada area, but Ohio Valley is not too far below us and it may effect us.

Anyhoo, as a dedicated freeze bunny, I am happy to cheer on anything that will make Cleveland a warmer place. Plus, it means that I may get to pretend for a another winter that I live in zone 6 instead of zone five. More survivors in my garden is always a good thing.

But my dear El Nino has a dark side. A severe El Nino effect can cause drought, flooding and extreme temperature changes in some parts of the world. Farmers in Australia are so fearful of the news of El Nino’s return that apparently there was a run on sheep in the slaughter markets yesterday after the information was released. The farmers cited the fear of El Nino driven drought and grain famine for the sell off.

But scientists are saying that so far, this only appears to be a mild case of El Nino, which I think is good. El Nino on a nice Prozac/Valium/Lithium cocktail. Just enough so he is pleasant company here but not a raging weather psychotic elsewhere.