Full Coverage: El Niño in California

The El Niño-fueled storms that have swept through Northern California in recent weeks have swelled some of the state’s largest reservoirs to encouraging levels even as the state’s drought persists.

For much of this year, some of the world’s most vulnerable people have found themselves in the grip of El Niño, a profound and confounding natural disaster that brings with it severe floods, severe drought and, potentially, more intense and more frequent cyclones.

Clouds over Los Angeles County were seeded with silver iodide to increase the amount of rainfall during Monday’s storm, marking the first cloud seeding done by the Department of Public Works since 2002.

With a new El Niño storm bringing rain to Southern California, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has posted a public service announcement -- from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Rain Room.”

Nothern Califronia was bracing for heavy winds, rain and snow this weekend, while Southern California is expected to get a lighter version of the El Niño storm.

Here at one of the snowiest places in the country, Ed Bischoff marveled at a view that had been absent for years.

By this point in winter, Southern California was supposed to be dealing with rains and flooding, not brush fires and beach weather.

Southern California was supposed to be dealing with rain, floods and mudslides from El Niño at this time of year.

Higher-than-normal rainfall associated with El Niño has diminished the risk of wildfires in California for the next four months, according to a national fire agency report.

Southern California was cleaning up Monday after El Niño-driven winds caused damage, power outages and the death of one person.

In an old shingled house on Beach Boulevard, salt water sprays the living room windows above the garage.

El Niño-fueled storms have left apartments teetering on a cliff’s edge near San Francisco, and snow has piled up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, with the water content 111% of normal.

Apartment buildings lining a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean in Pacifica, Calif., are in peril after recent El Niño storms severely eroded the crumbling bluff.

Los Angeles is facing sunshine and warmth this week even as El Niño remains strong 1,000 to 2,000 miles south of California.

Ever since climate experts first predicted El Niño last year, California officials have been tamping down expectations that this winter’s rains would bring significant drought relief.

With a couple of weeks of rain and snow behind them and more on the horizon for the Sierra Nevada in Northern California, state water officials expressed cautious hope that this El Niño season could lift California out of its historic drought.

When the first hints of El Niño developed last year, experts believed that the brunt of the rain would occur in Southern California rather than Northern California.

When El Niño storms hit Southern California, Pacific Coast Highway is the first line of battle between man and nature.

The much-anticipated El Niño rainstorms have finally come, and all this cold, wet weather is a great excuse to dive into some beer styles that are known for their bold flavors and warming alcohol content.

For the last several months, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have sounded a lot more like salesmen than bureaucrats.

This week’s El Niño-generated storms provided Burbank city employees a dry run, so to speak, at addressing some of the challenges that come with heavy rains.

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For the first time since the 2010-11 ski season, Mt.

The first major El Niño storm system finished its path through Southern California on Thursday, giving officials a chance to study both the behavior of the storms and how officials responded to them.

Southern California was soaked on Thursday with another storm driven by El Niño, sending powerful waves crashing against oceanfront Malibu homes and delaying power restoration for thousands of mountain dwellers in the Big Bear area.

Coming after days of rain that washed away hillsides and flooded freeways, the next El Niño storm, set to hit Southern California on Thursday, will focus its damage on the coastline, the National Weather Service said.

Another El Niño-fueled storm soaked Southern California on Wednesday and brought with it flooding, mudflows and even a small tornado that struck Orange County in the early afternoon.

At the end of Wood Avenue in South Gate, unseen behind its levee, the ephemeral giant strained in its cage.

Los Angeles County and its municipalities’ current plans to accommodate the homeless throughout the El Niño season are “unconscionable and grossly inadequate,” according to a report recently released by the county’s Civil Grand Jury.

As the latest El Niño rainstorm moved into Southern California, there were already signs that the combination of rain and gravity was creating problems.

Another El Niño-fueled storm soaked Southern California on Wednesday and brought with it a heightened risk of flooding and mudslides -- even snow.

The next in a series of storms rolling through Southern California on Wednesday is bringing with it the risk of severe thunderstorms and a slim chance of a tornado, the National Weather Service said.

Michael Salisbury shook uncontrollably as he waited, soaked to the bone, for the Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library in Venice to open at noon Tuesday.

The first major El Niño storm of the season arrived at this small Ventura County beach town Tuesday morning, and it didn’t take long for that potent combination of fire and rain to cause problems.

The first major El Niño storm of the season slammed into Southern California on Tuesday, setting new rain records for the day and causing various traffic headaches.

As the winter storms of El Niño began to pummel Southern California this week, Los Angeles County officials said federal funding to clean out debris from the Los Angeles River and control flooding has not materialized.

With the formal arrival of El Niño storms this week, city and state officials are sharing survival tips like crazy.

To understand the power and potential dangers of El Niño, look at satellite images of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

Few Los Angeles stereotypes are as enduring — and at least partially true — as the one about how badly residents drive in the rain.

El Niño hit Southern California on Tuesday morning and is already causing minor flooding on some roads and sidewalks.

The first of a series of El Niño-related storms hit Southern California on Monday, drenching highways and soaking potentially unstable hillsides, authorities said.

With El Niño looming, Huntington Beach is preparing its infrastructure and residents for expected winter storms.

Among the Angelenos most vulnerable to the ravages of the predicted El Niño storms are the homeless people who sleep outside, especially those camping near dangerous flood zones.

An intense October rainstorm that pounded the Grapevine’s barren hillsides offered a sober preview of what El Niño might unleash in the rest of drought-stricken Southern California.

The weather phenomenon known as El Niño tends to mean different things to different people.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved $20,000 to keep a Highland Park homeless shelter open during looming El Niño rains, as advocates called on the city to pledge $100 million a year to fund longer-term solutions.

Los Angeles officials have failed to safeguard the city’s growing homeless population as torrential storms approach, and instead are permitting rampant development that is driving more people into the streets, advocates said Friday.

Los Angeles leaders on Wednesday allocated $12.4 million for emergency relief to get homeless people off the streets before the anticipated El Niño winter storms bear down on the city.

A powerful El Niño continues to gain strength, the latest forecast released Thursday said.

With the looming threat from El Niño’s heavy rains approaching, state and federal officials Wednesday emphasized the public’s role in helping prepare for what could be a record-setting wet winter.

Early snows have gifted Western ski resorts, including in California, with their best start-of-season conditions in years, triggering snow sliders’ recurring fever dreams of an epic winter.

Pushing seine nets ahead of them like vacuum cleaners, biologists and a dozen volunteers on Friday launched the first inventory of fish in the Los Angeles River to determine the effects of the coming El Niño-fueled rainy season.

When a sudden, powerful storm pummeled Boyle Heights in October, one poorly placed mattress wreaked havoc on the neighborhood.

Jason Haas’ plan for El Niño involves oats, sweet peas, vetch, clover, sheep, alpacas, a llama and a couple of donkeys.

A fog of suffocating smoke settles over the Indonesian countryside, sickening hundreds of thousands of people and triggering an environmental crisis.

One of the most powerful El Niños on record continues gathering strength and is looking increasingly likely to bring heavy rains to key Northern California areas that provide water for the rest of the state, according to a new forecast.

El Niño continues to gain strength in the Pacific Ocean, climate experts said, with unusually wet conditions expected to hit California between January and March -- and perhaps into May.

If there was one piece of advice Laguna Beach fire and marine safety officials stressed during a storm preparation workshop this month, it was this: Respect the water.

A key location of the Pacific Ocean is now hotter than recorded in at least 25 years, surpassing the temperatures during the record 1997 El Niño.

As experts continue to predict a wet winter because of El Niño, California officials continue to take a cautious approach when it comes to easing water conservation measures amid the state’s four-year drought.

The strong El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is becoming even more powerful, setting the stage for an unusually wet winter in California that could bring heavy rains by January, climate experts said.

Steve Lang has weathered cycles in the roofing business many times during his 40-year career, but his Bell Gardens company has never seen anything like the wild swings recently.

Who talks about the weather in Southern California?

It’s not unusual for thunderstorms to drench Death Valley this time of year, but this October was different.

Gary Serrato watched as a tractor worked its way across a field of dried-up weeds, slicing the sandy dirt into orderly furrows.

If El Nino rainfall predictions are correct, this fall and winter could be the answer to drought-relief prayers.

A “Godzilla” El Niño is on the way, and Los Angeles city leaders are warning residents to be prepared.

An early-season storm that blanketed mountains from Northern California to the Central Valley with snow showed tangible results on the state’s historic drought, new federal data show.

Rare summer rainstorms fueled by a strengthening El Niño helped Southern Californians breathe easier this year by sweeping away smog, air quality officials say.

Los Angeles schools are getting roofing repairs and stocking up on sandbags in anticipation of heavy El Niño rains this year.

In a span of two days, starting on Halloween, hunters and hikers found three sets of skeletal remains off of forest trails.

The nine homeless men living inside a concrete storm drain in Orange County believe they are ready for the floods likely to come raging through if El Niño brings the deluges forecasted to arrive about a month from now.

El Niño may be destined to bring an onslaught of downpours to drought-parched California, but don’t let it rain on your style game.

A 19-day autumn thoroughbred meeting, the shortest in Santa Anita history, came to a close Sunday, and now starts the planning for what could be an unpredictable winter meeting that begins on the day after Christmas.

Hurricane Patricia, one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded, is being fueled by El Niño, a weather phenomenon that continues to gain strength in the Pacific Ocean, scientists say.

With drenching El Niño rains anticipated to begin more than a month from now, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is urging Californians to buy flood insurance, even if they live in areas of low to moderate risk.

The Republican members of California’s delegation are demanding a government plan to store the deluge of water that could come with El Niño this winter.

City staff report outlines measures the city is taking as it prepares for coming storm season.

The storm that slammed into the high desert and mountains of Southern California this week was one for the record books.

For the first time in 30 years or so, a poisonous sea snake has been spotted on a Southern California beach, drawn far north of its usual habitat by what naturalists think are the warming ocean waters because of El Niño.

Few places would benefit more from a winter of El Niño-driven rainstorms than this massive, rapidly depleting reservoir in the desert 90 miles southeast of Los Angeles.

The National Weather Service now expects El Niño to bring greater-than-average rainfall to virtually all of California, forecasters said for the first time Thursday.

Los Angeles County officials are ramping up preparations for a winter of what forecasters warn could be heavy, El Niño-driven storms.

An El Niño that is among the strongest on record is gaining strength in the Pacific Ocean, and climate scientists say California is likely to face a wet winter.

Forecasts of an approaching El Niño winter have ski resort operators dreaming of the kind of snowy peaks that were a common sight in California before a four-year drought dried up the state’s $3-billion ski industry.

With weather forecasters expecting that Southern California will face one of the most severe El Niños on record this winter, city officials in flood-prone Newport Beach are busy preparing for heavy rains.

A possible record-breaking El Niño is attracting dozens of sharks, even hammerheads, off the coast of Southern California, experts say.

It swamped streets, spilled into buildings, sent mud in motion and roiled rivers where rescue crews aided those swept up in the water overflow.

Climate change might have a nasty bite.

Amid forecasts of a possibly record-breaking El Niño, California voters are being careful not to get their hopes too high that it will finally wash away the state’s stubborn drought.

El Niño is on track to become one of the most powerful on record, strongly suggesting California could face heavy rainfall this winter, climate scientists say.

With expenses ballooning for a makeover of the John Anson Ford Theatre, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved spending $8.6 million more on the project, raising the cost to about $66 million.

It started in October 1997 in Mexico, when a hurricane fueled by El Niño slammed into Acapulco, causing massive flooding and hundreds of deaths.

With forecasters predicting a winter of heavy rains thanks to El Niño, officials are beginning to plan for potential flooding.

With forecasters saying that this winter’s El Niño could be among the most powerful on record, officials preparing for the expected downpours are focusing their attention on vulnerabilities in Southern California’s flood-control system.

It started in October 1997 in Mexico, when a hurricane fueled by El Niño slammed into Acapulco, causing massive flooding and hundreds of deaths.

In another sign that El Niño is gaining strength and could soak California this winter, sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean have increased to their highest level so far this year.

For months, scientists have been saying that the El Niño weather pattern this winter could finally put a dent in California’s four-year drought.

Yes, it’s hot, but the real story is the humidity.

It’s the middle of the summer, but it felt a bit like winter in the Sierra this week as a storm dumped four inches of hail on Interstate 80 around Donner Summit.

How does El Niño work, and why might it bring rain and snow to California this winter?

After lashing Southern California this weekend, El Niño’s strange weather has moved north -- hitting Yosemite National Park.

A washed-out bridge on Interstate 10 that cut off a vital shipping route with Arizona, mudslides in Moreno Valley and snarled Southern California freeway traffic from heavy weekend rain is only a preview of problems that could come with a strong El Niño this winter, forecasters say.

A swath of eastern California offered a dramatic view in recent days of the powerful climate forces buffeting the state.

Californians should brace themselves for one of the strongest El Niño events to hit the Pacific Ocean in years.

Will California get a wet winter and maybe a little drought relief?

El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean that were first identified in March are strengthening, federal scientists said Thursday, renewing hope that the next winter could be a long-awaited wet one for California.

In Texas, Oklahoma and Mexico, destructive storms flooded communities and unleashed a tornado, leaving more than two dozen dead.

When it comes to disasters, El Niño giveth and El Niño taketh away.

El Niño is here, but don’t expect the Pacific Ocean circulation phenomenon to do much for the drought afflicting California and the western U.S., forecasters said Thursday.

Few things in the world of Southern California weather generate more curiosity, research, debate and occasional trash talk than El Niño.