El Niño unlikely to be California drought savior

Rather than pinning hopes on a possible El Niño in the Pacific Ocean to alleviate the California drought, a UC expert suggested the state's residents should continue to prepare for the worst, reported Inside Climate News.

Reporter Amy Nordrum noted in the story that El Niño conditions only bring heavy rain one-third of the time. It would take an exceptional El Niño, the type that only happens 15 percent of the time, to return California water levels to normal.

"I think we really need to be prepared for more drought," said Doug Parker, director of the UC California Institute for Water Resources. "There's a pattern of dry years happening so there's a higher probability that next year will be a dry one."

Parker said he is primarily concerned with replacing the water that Californians are using.

"The key is that a lot of our drought management comes from the groundwater and that's a great resource during the drought, but you have to put that water back in the ground," said Parker. "It's how we're going to get through the next drought."

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