El Nino affecting our December

Rick and I were just talking on Monday about how we have not had hardly any rain and it definitely has not flooded. Then came the rain!! It looks like we will be getting more rain than snow this winter due to the El Nino pattern. Below is the article from WSAZ about our December weather.


http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/El-Nino-Effects-into-December-359778621.html


One thing that I will be pointing out to my students is that just because the temperature is warm this year does not mean it is global warming and the end of the world. While we know that there is a warming trend, this year will probably be warmer than winter in a couple of years. We have spikes like this. In fact, Tony mentions a Christmas morning at 76 degrees back in the 80s. I am hoping to be able to get my students to understand how to look at climate and to look at the warming trend over a long time period with the spikes up and down. Like the dog walking video we watched in class.