The following questions and answers are from an interview with Peter Bellin, the department chair of environmental and occupational health at CSU Northridge.

What causes El Niño?

El Niño has to do with ocean current and wind patterns on pacific ocean. The sea surface is as much as 18 inches higher in the western Pacific than in the eastern Pacific. These trade winds are one of the main sources of fuel for cold ocean current.

When can we be expecting El Niño?

Most of the rain will be in January and February.

How often does an El Niño occur?

Minor ones every five to 10 years the last largest one that we had was in 1982-1983 and 1997-1998.

To what extent will it help us with  our current drought?

El Niño would make an improvement but most of the rain goes back to ocean. It  will take multiple years to completely recover from the drought.