How escalating El Niño will affect Edmonton's climate

According to officials, a super El Nino is intensifying across the world. What's being described as possibly the strongest weather anomaly of its kind. In this trajectory continues, it may be stronger than anything since our monitoring began. Despite the historic weather phenomenon, Edmonton might not be feeling as much of the effects as areas closer to the Pacific Ocean. It's a naturally occurring phenomena that we see every few years. Essentially, an El Nino is a periodic warming up of the surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, which can affect temperature and precipitation across North America. A super El Nino can affect weather patterns even more. Environment and Climate Change Canada predicts these shifts won't be making their way to our province just yet though. Generally, we only see the effects of the El Nino in western Canada in the winter months. But that doesn't mean Alberta is in the clear. Clarksdale forecasts above average temperatures for the month of September and rain. We're not always that great at forecasting precipitation in the longer range just because it's so highly variable. But surprisingly for September for the province of Alberta, it's indicating that there's a better chance it's going to be wetter than average. Environment and Climate Change Canada expects Alberta will have a warmer and drier than average winter as a direct result of the amplifying El Nino. Trissa Mattershed, CBC News, Edmonton.