November 16, 2015: The Mountains of the Salt Lake valley rim a foggy sky. Highland High junior meteorologist, John Strate, looks up to into the white soupy mess of clouds on his way home from school.

“These mountains are getting hammered,” he says to himself.

Other thoughts of southeastern winds and low pressure rolling in on the valley storm through his head. Strate examines his multiple weather sources via his smartphone and weather radio. He finds that the valley has received above average precipitation. Then he hears that northern winds have driven much of the precipitation southward. His mind is fluttering with all of the data. His research has shown him the reason for the weather trends that have been affecting us: El Niño is coming.

El Niño is caused by central and Eastern Pacific warming. Every two to seven years it becomes stronger. Global weather trends are affected by this phenomena. Since the planet doesn’t gain or lose any water overall, when one place is drier, another place becomes wetter. This means that a strong El Niño may cause one area of the world to have a drought one year, while another place floods.

“El Niño is a huge factor in the severity of our fall and winter seasons” Strate explains, “It plays a big role in how much moisture the west gets.”

This year’s El Niño is expected to be the third strongest one on record. In 1997, the last large El Niño caused above average snowfall in the Salt Lake valley.

Most meteorologists agree that this year’s El Niño could be above or below average. Southern Utah is expected to be affected more dramatically than our mountains because of its global positioning. Salt lake is in what is called a zero zone which basically means that no one can predict what will happen at this point.

John Strate Is fascinated by the weather and how it will affect how our lives work. When large events like El Niño come into play, he just can’t get his head out of the clouds.

“This winter could be stronger or weaker than normal,” Strate says, “But one thing is for sure, winter is coming, so get ready to put on your snow tires and start dressing warm.”