CA Faces A Hotter Than Normal Summer. Here's Why.

CALIFORNIA — California has seen its fair share of June gloom this month, but the Golden State may still be in for a toasty summer, according to updated seasonal predictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released Thursday.

The NOAA's temperature map shows a 33 percent to 50 percent likelihood of a warmer-than-average summer, especially in Northern California. When high-pressure systems develop along the West Coast, the California sun shines unimpeded by clouds and the marine layer, bringing warmer temperatures. The early emergence of El Niño prompts meteorologists to forecast such conditions throughout the summer.

Amid El Niño's unusually early arrival, new seasonal outlooks from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center continue to favor above-average heat in California and most of the country from July through September.

Long-range outlooks are far from a sure thing, but climatologists are factoring in the emergence of El Niño in their predictions. While the weather phenomenon's effects tend to be more muted in the summer months, it has been associated with some of the hottest years on record. Its early formation and potential strength have spurred some warnings that it may overperform this year, besting the last "super" El Niño in 2016.

The summer solstice — the longest day of the year and the astronomical start of the season —arrives Wednesday morning in the Northern Hemisphere. However, it may take California a little time to catch up in the weather department. In the near term, temperature outlooks continue to tilt in favor of cooler-than-average temperatures persisting across most of the state through the end of the month.

"The global oceans are very warm right now and I'm afraid that is putting us into territory that we don't have much experience with," Michelle L'Heureux, the chief of the Climate Prediction Center's El Niño-Southern Oscillation team, told Axios. "It is a little bit nerve-wracking."

El Nino's effects will be more apparent in the Southern Hemisphere over the next few months, but if it continues to gain steam as expected, California may be in for another active winter, too. Usually reaching peak strength between December and February, El Niño tends to spells wetter conditions for the southern portion of the U.S., including California.

The Climate Prediction Center will release its next set of three-month predictions around the middle of July.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.