El Nio could be brewing up a major storm

El Nio is growing stronger and could last until early spring.

This year, the National Weather Service is predicting a warmer than normal winter season.

“El Nio is a water off the coast of Chile in the eastern Pacific,” said senior meteorologist Jeff Hedges.

So what does that mean for Idaho?

“For us it doesn’t have that big of an impact, we don’t get much precipitation out of an El Nio, matter of fact it pushes temperatures up. So we’re looking at above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation during the winter months,” said Corey Loveland, senior service hydrologist.

“But us, we’re kinda in that band of anything can really happen, generally in an El Nio pattern we can be very wet and receive a lot of snow, or it can be generally just kinda normal,” said Loveland.

The past couple winters have been dry, so scientists are hoping for a wet winter.

The last time El Nio made an impact was back in 1997; eastern Idaho faced severe flooding.

The National Weather Service reports the best time to predict an El Nio weather pattern is in July and August.