Strong El Niño signals are pointing to a cooler Texas winter with above-average precipitation, though forecasters said the media label “Super El Niño” does not imply extreme weather impacts.
Texas tends to get more winter rain during El Niño because the jet stream shifts into a more favorable track and pulls additional Pacific moisture into the state.
Forecasters said that wetter pattern is not a drought cure and does not typically correlate with severe South Texas cold snaps, though one or two minor ice events remain possible in a normal winter.
Four strong or very strong El Niño winters since 1990 each produced more than the average 1.90 inches of precipitation, and none recorded snow during meteorological winter.