01/11/06 La Nina`s return?

There sure have been some interesting developments in our region's weather since the start of the New Year. And according to Charles Ross of the National Weather Service in Spokane, there is no sign that the rainfall that ushered in 2006 is going to go away any time soon. ROSS: It's stayed pretty actively wet right on through until now and we don't see any big changes in the weather patterns. It doesn't look like we are going to really at least quiet down the storm track any time soon. At least not through the remainder of January, according to Ross. Then again, some Northwest residents may be praying for the rain to stop, based on weather related challenges. Mudslides in Western Washington and Oregon that have resulted in Amtrak route closures and houses sliding off foundations. Flood warnings along coastal rivers at least through today. But the rain is not just a west side concern. Now that is not to say that growers in the Inland Northwest, especially in the Columbia Basin of Washington and much of Eastern Oregon and Southern Idaho are complaining too loudly about the above normal soil moisture at this point.. But go farther south into areas like South Western and South Central Oregon where work with some crops can still be done, and field work has pretty much come to a halt because of the weather. U.S.D.A. meteorologist Brad Rippey says while our region, and much of the western U.S., is getting soaked, the flip side effect has occurred in the Southwestern and Southern plain states. Drought levels increased to the most severe rating in Texas and Oklahoma where wildfires have broken out over the last month, and where the winter wheat crop faces severe weather stresses. So with all this weird weather, Brad Rippey, is the nation in the middle of a La Nina weather pattern, as in the flow of unusually cold ocean temperatures from the equator? RIPPEY: At this time, there is no strong signal coming from the Ecuadorian Pacific, the source region for our El Nino's and La Nina's. In fact, Rippey says at best our nation's weather patterns are sliding towards a weak La Nina but that it takes weeks, even months for those oceanic conditions to effect weather patterns downstream. So what about the cool wet weather along the Pacific Coast and much of the Northwest of recent days? Rippey says it falls in the realm of normal weather patterns for this time of year, and shouldn't be construed as either a La Nina or for that matter, an El Nino pattern.