5 ways to prepare for El Niño’s extreme weather this winter

Résumé détaillé

From packing an emergency kit to protecting your home, use our guide to get ready for heavy rain, flooding, and snow.

You may have heard about El Niño — the natural, recurring phenomenon that releases heat from the ocean into the atmosphere, influencing temperature and precipitation around the world. Its effects will differ this fall and winter depending on where you live, but heavy rainfall, flooding, and snowfall are some of the most likely impacts.

There’s a lot of information available on navigating extreme weather, so we came up with five things you can do to prepare right now, from packing an emergency kit and bookmarking your local National Weather Service page to knowing how to stay safe around floodwaters.

If you’re having trouble finding your local department, you can search for your state or territory here — but it’s easier to type your city or county name followed by “emergency management” into Google to quickly find the closest agency in your area. In larger cities, emergency management is often a standalone agency; in smaller communities, fire chiefs or sheriffs may manage emergency response and alerts.

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If you’re not signed up for alerts from your utility company about power outages in your area, now is the time to do that, too. Your utility company likely has an app or dedicated website for reporting outages and tracking when power will return. For example, the Nebraska Public Power District, the power company that serves Nebraska, has an outage map here, as well as a mobile app.

Many people find out about disasters in their area via social media, so it’s important to make sure the information you’re receiving is correct. Below is a list of reliable sources to check and our guide to spotting misinformation about extreme weather.

If you’re in a rural area or somewhere that isn’t highlighted on the agency’s maps, keep an eye out for local alerts and evacuation orders.

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