After a blistering summer of record heat, raging wildfires and unpredictable storms, federal scientists on Thursday said a warm, wet winter driven by El Niño is in store for California and much of the rest of the country. The first winter outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that a strong El Niño will remain in place through at least the spring, with further strengthening possible over the next couple of months. … The forecast also favors wetter-than-average conditions in many regions of the country, including nearly all of California, the southern Plains, Texas and the Southeast. Widespread drought will persist across much of the central and southern U.S., but not in California, where the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay area have the highest odds in the state of above-normal rainfall.

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• The Washington Post: NOAA winter forecast calls for warm winter for many, snowy for some
• Nature: New study - Restructuring and serving web-accessible streamflow data from the NOAA National Water Model historic simulations
• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: International ocean satellite monitors how El Niño is shaping up