Forecasters: Weak El Nino winter; drought to continue

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- No relief in sight: That's the word from federal forecasters who are now saying California's drought is expected to continue into next year. The hope of a wet fall and winter appears to be drying up as fast as many of the state's water supplies.

Forecasters looking at the next three months say the anticipated El Nino winter weather event doesn't look promising.

The newest satellite images of the Pacific Ocean offer a glimmer of hope for an El Nino: Ocean surface-level temperatures are above normal.

"It's a little bit of good news, but not enough good news," said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Patzert has been following the changes in the Pacific. He says right now, at best, it would be a moderate to weak El Nino.

"A normal year, we'd be looking forward to some rainfall, but the patterns are very much like they were last winter. And so the big difference between last year and this year, it's just drier," said Patzert.

That's a big concern for those who bring us our water. The Metropolitan Water District says it used two-thirds of its reserves over the last two years.

"We prepare for these droughts, but we're in year three. If next year is year four of a long-term drought -- and this last year is as worse as we've ever seen in Southern California, throughout California -- so we can't go on like this indefinitely," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Kightlinger says it's one of the worst droughts in 500 years. He spoke Monday at an event sponsored by Town Hall Los Angeles. Community leaders listened as he told them there is growing demand and no new supply.

"We're going to be pushing conservation throughout the service area, hang on to as much water as we can, and keep our fingers crossed that we get a little more rain next year than we've had the last few," said Kightlinger.

Forecasters say even if this December is wet, it still will not be enough to help us out during this drought. California will need several years of rainy winters just to get the reservoirs even close to back to normal.