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If you pay attention to the weather, you have probably noticed that this year, it was a bit, well, well, weird . There was a spring snow storm in northern California, a record Heat wave In the southwest, and manufacturing rains in the northeast. And it turns out that this wilderness year does not show any signs of slowdown. An El Niño event is on the way - and should stay during the winter in the United States

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) Climate prediction center (CPC) said there was a 30% chance that it was a "historically strong" event. Read the rest to find out what it means and how El Niño could have an impact on your region.

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Your first question after learning that it will be a year of El Niño can be: "What is it?" You're not alone. The phenomenon is complex, and because it does not happen often, we do not learn much.

Fundamentally, El Niño is a climatic scheme This has to do with the trade winds in the Pacific Ocean. As a rule, these winds blow west, taking warm water from South America to Asia and allowing cold water to rise from the depths. During a year of El Niño, these foods weaken and hot water is pushed back to the west coast of the Americas, according to the NOAA.

Conversely, during the years of the Niña, these winds are stronger than usual, according to the NOAA. The events of El Niño and La Niña occur every two to seven years; They do not work on a fixed schedule, but scientists can predict them for months in advance.

Most of the years, these events have an impact on our weather in a fairly predictable way. The warmer waters mean that the northern areas of the United States become dry and warmer, while the Gulf coast and the Southeast are wet-and have increased floods, explains the Noaa.

In relation: Here is why it rains every weekend in the northeast, according to science .

Different years of El Niño bring different levels of intensity - and if you ask a meteorologist on this year, it will be a Doozy.

"The team promotes at least a solid event with a chance of 75 to 85% [of an event historically strong] until November and January," wrote the CPC. "There are three out of ten chances of a historically strong event which competes in 2015 to 2016 and 1997 to 1998."

An El Niño Fort means that sea surface temperatures will be at least 2 degrees Celsius (or 35.6 degrees fahrenheit) warmer during the season.

"We only saw four (historically strong events) in our historical file, dating from 1950," wrote Emily Becker , Associate director of the Cooperative Institute of the University of Miami for marine and atmospheric studies, via Fox time . "The stronger the El Niño, the more it will probably affect the global temperature and the rain / snow models in an expected way."

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Northern states, such as Washington, Montana, Northern Dakota, southern Dakota and Minnesota, can expect a warmer and drier than usual winter, according to the Noaa . By ABC News , there is a chance that it is a more humid winter than normal winter in the northeast.

In southern California and southwest, prepare for the rain. For example, during events from 1997 to 1998, California experienced levels of precipitation which were 150% above the average.

Beyond that, "on the coast of the American Gulf and the Southeast, these periods are more humid than usual and increased the floods," explains the Noaa.

Every year El Niño are not alike, and it is difficult for scientists to predict what everyone will bring. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

"Scientists have identified a set of typical American impacts This was associated with past events of El Niño, "writes the Noaa." But "associated with" does not mean that all these impacts occur during each episode of El Niño. They can occur as often as 80% of time or as rarely as 40% of time. ""

In other words, prepare for the worst, but take things day by day.

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