Forecasters are now predicting the strongest El Nino weather pattern in 50 years. El Nino occurs when water temperatures rise above normal across the central and eastern portions of the Pacific and can bring higher than normal winter rains to the West. Arizona State University climatologist Randy Cerveny will tell us more and also update us on the monsoon.
Reservoirs for the Salt and Verde Rivers, such as Roosevelt Lake, have been refilled to levels they were at last year, thanks to snowmelt. Salt River Project, which manages the system, reports the reservoirs also received a boost from a better-than-average monsoon season. Charlie Ester, SRP’s manager of Water Resource Operations, will discuss the status of water levels in the reservoirs that supply much of the water for the Phoenix area.
An update on the drought that’s gripping the nation and a look at Arizona’s monsoon season with Randy Cerveny, a professor of geographical sciences who directs the meteorology program at Arizona State University.
What is the prediction for this summer's monsoon? Tony Haffer, Meteorologist-in-Charge of the National Weather Service Phoenix office, joins us to track temperatures and rainfall amounts expected this summer, and to discuss the new calendar-based start date for the monsoon.