I spent a whole evening reading about the la and el trying to make sense of it. I think this is what I know.
There isn’t a whole lot of correlation with devastating drought. We have been la nina now for two years, it is neutral now but supposedly strengthening for fall and for a third year, a rare event.
La Nina is cooler water in the Pacific with winds blowing to the west causing cool water to rise along South America. It means dry and hot for us but not always just generally. Last year and 2020 were not bad rain wise but the hay was sparse even though we had plenty of pretty even rain. Temps were off though. Cool Spring with sudden hard onset of heat.
El Nino is when the winds die and the Pacific warms bringing hot to the SW and lots of rain to the Gulf Coast and california. The jet stream moves a little south. Generally it is associated with cooler and wetter in the south but drier in the SE. You would think with warming in the Pacific the Jet Stream would not move southward.
It is very hard to find any definitive discussion that is simple, not rambling bs, is current and so forth.
We are in for the third la nina year in ‘22. Summers usually are neutral and allegedly we are in a semi-neutral state. All-in-all, I don’t think the boffins really know what it does. I know it is hot and dry and there is a whole lot of summer left to go. If this is La Nina I’m ready for her to get out of Dodge.
you got it correct, that is how la nina/el nino work, i am past ready for her to leave, Cal needs rain very badly.