" If El Niño is present this fall, it increases the odds that we will have a quiet Atlantic hurricane season. El Niño typically brings high wind shear to the tropical Atlantic, disrupting hurricanes and tropical storms as they try to form or intensify. Conversely, El Niño favors a more active than usual Eastern Pacific hurricane season, by lowering wind shear there and increasing water temperatures. If we get a strong El Niño this winter, it would increase the odds of breaking California's streak of four consecutive dry winters, and put a decent dent in their crippling drought. As we saw this past winter, California can still get low precipitation and drought conditions during a weak El Niño event. If El Niño builds and stays through the summer, warmer waters in the Pacific could lead to a wide-scale coral bleaching event, resulting in massive die-off of coral."