During the summer of 1997 satellites showed a swelling balloon of warm water in the Pacific Ocean, hovering near

the equator. Meteorologists issued warnings. El Niño, the set of weather conditions that periodically brings severe storms and floods, became a household word that summer. On the West Coast, people stockpiled sandbags and cleared flood control channels.

In January 1998 the storms hit. Author Brian Fagan describes El Niño's onslaught of the California coast that year:

Storm after storm blew onto the waterlogged coast. A ferocious downpour in the mountains behind Ventura in southern California sent a flash flood rushing down the river west of the city. Within minutes the floodwaters rose over the main link between Los Angeles and San Francisco, drowning cars and blocking Freeway 101 for eighteen hours. Hundreds of motorists spent the night in their cars waiting for the waters...