El Nino VS the California Drought

Do you remember the late 90’s? During that time there were a few things that you just couldn’t escape: Celen Dion’s My Heart Will Go on was mandatorily played every 12 minutes across all stations.  There was the TMI of the Lewinski scandal. And there was this other weird thing that you couldn’t stop hearing about, El Nino.   El Nino, was—and is--- a weather pattern that forms every 2-7 years, but in 1997-98 it was having its most powerful year on record. So much so that the force of nature became a cultural one as well. Inspiring bits on SNL, and becoming the nations favorite scape-ghoat, something to blame not just bad weather on, but virtually anything from the market to a missed fly ball.  Since then El Nino has dissipated both as wheatear and as cultural icon, but this year scientists suspect that “The Boy” may could be due for a come back.   So we wanted to look at not just what El Nino was and how it worked, (What is it anyways?) but what it might mean for the areas of the country that have become defined by another force of nature, drought. El Nino after all, if it is a strong one, could deposited a lot of rain on the California, and that could be a game changer for a region plagued by forest fires and water shortages. But how this will effect California and whether or not the wet weather will come at all is still an open question. So on todays show we wanted to ask, is El Nino friend, or foe?    Plus later in the show, we try our a flame thrower in the show (at least the idea of one.) and muse, is this Stupid or Amazing?    Please subscribe to How Your World Works podcast on iTunes, and let us know what you think of the show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices