Since 1951, there have been 26 El Niño events. Of those, 11 have been weak, 7 moderate, 5 strong and 3 very strong. Overall during all of them, rainfall in Southern California averaged 126% of normal. In the Bay Area it was 109% of normal.

During two of the three very strong El Niños, the winters of 1982-83 and 1997-98 were among the wettest in recorded California history, with massive Sierra Nevada snowpacks and major flooding.

The third, in 2015-16, was something of a bust. Hyped as a “Godzilla El Niño,” that event did see big winter storms, but they ended up hitting Oregon and Washington, dashing hopes of breaking a California drought, which didn’t end until big storms finally arrived in 2017.

Are You Ready To Fight El Nino?