Past El Niño years won’t help meteorologists determine what this winter will look like, the National Weather Service said in a Tuesday morning update, because conditions this year are not typical. An El Niño was declared in May, meaning sea surface temperatures are warmer than normal in the equatorial eastern Pacific. This region of the ocean typically drives large-scale atmospheric patterns that impact us locally, said Courtney Carpenter, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento, in a video update. Here’s what El Niño conditions mean for California, and what meteorologists predict winter in the northern parts of the state will be like, as of late November:

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