What comes next after El Nino subsides?

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The third and fourth grade students whom I work with at Cedar Grove ES asked me what will happen once the El Nino conditions begin to subside, and I admitted that I really wasn't sure. So, we used the internet and looked it up! We found a website that answered our question! Discovery News has a great article with videos and graphics at http://news.discovery.com/earth/weather-extreme-events/will-la-nina-follow-one-of-the-strongest-ever-el-ninos-160410.htm.

This article suggests that this strong El Nino season may be followed by a La Nina event. Like all good science learning, once we heard that- we had to know what kind of weather changes we might expect in a La Nina event for our area. We also wondered why it is that scientists aren't exactly sure what will come next- and it helped us understand that there are still so many questions that still need to be answered. We did learn that when there has been a strong El Nino event, like this year's El Nino, then it is often followed by a La Nina.

We are going to learn more about what causes the La Nina conditions and what will happen in our area to change our weather if we do go into a La Nino phase after this strong El Nino that brought us warmer temperature and more precipitation to our area.

How will your weather conditions change if we do have a La Nina this fall?

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According to what I have read...Hurricane season could hit Texas hard in 2016 thanks to the swinging pendulum of global weather patterns.
In spite of a very mild hurricane season, 2015 became Texas' wettest year on record thanks largely to El Niño. The way I understand it is that the phenomenon should subside through coming months, but could pass the baton to its sister, La Niña, which typically brings its own mix of severe weather to our Lone Star State.

Were you affected by the severe rain and flooding that hit Houston last week?

I am anticipating the fun the students will have after we look at the data further and establish the years of gradual and extreme changes in and around our area. Later they will use their data patterns and project "what if" and consequences over a broader area of south Texas. Is it a consequence that we got our taste of extreme weather just last week as unusual severe hail storm in and around our school area.