A rapidly strengthening 2026–27 El Niño is expected to peak this winter, bringing storms, flooding, and tornado risks across the southern United States, while the north experiences milder, drier conditions and reduced snowpack. Globally, drought, wildfire, agricultural disruption, and record heat may intensify. Get regional forecasts, timelines, and preparedness steps.
The ocean is already running a foot above the tide tables, three hurricanes’ worth of surf has torn up the Southern California coast, and NOAA now favors a wet winter from San Diego to the Oregon line. How to prepare for El Niño in California: king tide dates, atmospheric rivers, burn scar debris flows, and what to do this week, this month, and this fall.
Your homeowners policy does not cover flooding. The separate policy that does has a 30-day waiting period, and the NFIP’s authorization runs out December 11, right as the El Niño storm track sets up across the southern U.S. What Florida’s insurance meltdown teaches the rest of us, what a flood policy covers, and what to do this week.
Reduce, reuse, recycle… but who’s actually doing it? Here’s how big the average American footprint really is, why the top 1% leave a much bigger mark, and the habits I use to live lighter, ranked from free to $$$$. No guilt, just values in action.
A quarter inch of rain in fifteen minutes can turn a freshly burned slope into a river of mud and boulders. The warning system has long leaned on a model built from Southern California canyons, then applied to the entire West. A new USGS update refits it for three regions and beats the old version by roughly 15 to 60 percent, with fewer false alarms. A strong El Niño is on the way, so read this before the next storm.