Feds forecast a weak and fleeting La Nina coming next month

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal forecasters see a weak and short-lived La Nina coming, probably next month. The flip side of El Nino changes weather patterns worldwide, often bringing drier weather to the southern parts of the United States, including drought-struck California.

Climate Prediction Center deputy director Mike Halpert forecasts a 70 percent chance that La Nina will arrive next month. Conditions - mostly cooling of the central Pacific - are almost there, but not quite.

Forecasters had long expected this La Nina, but last month conditions reversed and forecasters called their La Nina watch off. Now it's back on.

La Ninas usually mean wetter winters in the northern Rockies, Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley, as well as Indonesia and the Amazon. And usually it is drier in the western and central Pacific.