With the relentlessly hot days and uncomfortably warm nights it may be difficult to fathom such a drastic and imminent weather pattern change bringing a much cooler and wetter fall and winter.  After all, the last few fall and winter seasons have seen a sustained pattern of frustratingly dry and warm drought weather. You can blame it on the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge (RRR) of high pressure that would not budge or break and covered  the entire US West Coast from San Diego all the way to Alaska.  The RRR term was coined by a really smart PHD student at Stanford University by the name of Daniel Swain who shares his knowledge and passion for weather here:
https://twitter.com/Weather_West

I’ve had a strong interest in the subject of all things weather since my dad bought me one of those nifty little weather band radio boxes in 1980.  My passion for all things weather (and surf/swell)  often led me to view the fascinating and large satellite photos of the North Pacific Ocean posted on the Palomar College meteorology lab walls.

With the current vast encyclopedia of satellite data and weather models available on the world wide web my excitement and interest has grown.

If anyone mentions to El Nino is coming you can confidently tell them they are wrong.  El Nino is here and it appears to have a possibility of the strongest of the modern record keeping era.

This means large ocean swells and relentless rain producing storms for San Diego and the Southland are coming.  Trust me when I say you will be hearing the phrase atmospheric river a lot in the coming months.

An amazing visual of how unprecedented the current state is:

Lindbergh Field San Diego historical rainfall totals since 1965 are shown here:
http://www.sdcwa.org/annual-rainfall-lindbergh-field

There was officially 18″ of rain in the 1983 El Nino and 17″ in the 1998 event.  Some data shows that up to 30″ of rain fell in certain locations.
Considering we only received 5, 6.5 and 7.9 each of the last 3 drought years, we would all be wise to begin preparing now!

See article below for some good tips on how best to protect your property:
http://www.realtor.com/advice/home-improvement/is-your-home-ready-for-el-nino/

Some great history from the huge floods of 1997:

http://photos.mercurynews.com/2015/10/08/el-nino-storms-of-1997-98-pummeled-california/#16