In the December episode of the CLIMAS Southwest Climate Podcast Mike Crimmins and Zack Guido discuss the difficulty of characterizing a climate phenomenon (in this case El Niño) on a weather time scale, especially as media, the general public, and climate scientists are all hungry to explain day to day events in terms of where they fit into larger climate patterns. They go over the recent events of October, November, and early December, before looking forward at what later this Winter is likely to hold in store (hint: all signs still point to a wetter than average winter!).