California bears the brunt of El Nino

KMSP, Minneapolis - One of the strongest El Nino seasons in a long time continues to divide the country when it comes to weather. Here in the Upper Midwest, we take an indirect blow from Mother Nature during an El Nino season. Yes, our winters usually trend milder and less snowy, but in the western part of the country its a totally different set up. Check out the storm track below.

STORM TRACK

You can see the jetstream (orange arrows) is all bent out of shape. The jet stream is the highway that these storms take on their trips from the Pacific to the Atlantic. You can see storm number 1 heading for the Upper Midwest, Storm number 2 headed for Arizona, and storm number 3 poised to strike in a few days. The common thread that ties all these storms together is that their first stop on this journey across America is California.

HEAVY RAIN

The map below shows the accumulated rainfall from just the past 48 hours, Wednesday-Thursday, and the amounts are huge, by drought stricken California standards. Like bruises on body, red areas on the map show the storms first assaults. These areas have seen as much as 5 inches of rain, while 1-2" soaked the LA Basin.

For more information on how El Nino effects California, click on this link for great insight from the National Weather Service https://noaa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/?appid=d28594d0f342409aa8caa0349e02119a