It is official. It is an El Nino year because the government has
said so. Problem is for those living in the Desert Southwest, it
just doesn’t seem like it with the very dry winter experienced
so far.  Paul Brown, University of Arizona vegetable specialists
at the UA Yuma Agricultural Center, agrees with the government
forecast because since September Pacific trade winds along the
equator have weakened and ocean temperatures off South America
have cooled and water off Indonesia and Australia is warming,
the telltale signs of El Nino.  Brown told the 17th annual
Desert Vegetable Crops Workshop in Yuma, Ariz., recently that
this portends a wet winter weather cycle in the Southwest, and
wet spring weather for the Southern tier of the U.S.  The
weather so far is more like La Nina, the drought-producing
opposite of El Nino. El Nino and La Nina cycle ever three to
seven years.  This weather pattern along the equator, said
Brown, is one of the best indicators for long range forecasting
meteorologists have and theref