Prep for some snow days because El Niño is coming this winter.

The largest El Niño since 1997 will hit North America and is predicted to stay until the spring.

What is an El Niño, besides some Spanish vocabulary directly translated to “the little boy”?

“El Niño is a natural phenomenon that occurs when unusually warm ocean temperatures develop in the Tropical Pacific. The warmer the ocean, the stronger the El Niño,” Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz, Meteorologist and Hurricane Specialist at NBC10 said in an email interview with The Blackfriar Chronicle.

“The mechanisms for how El Niño develops and strengthens are not well understood. But it has been reported on for centuries, so it is nothing new,” he said. “The phenomenon has always been occurring, but this year’s El Niño is a very big one. There is a very high chance of torrential weather hitting our area this winter, which means a chance of days off.”

El Niño this year started forming a few months ago and will likely continue through winter. According to Schwartz, it has already been connected to the unusually active hurricane season in the Eastern and Central Pacific and usually suppresses tropical activity in our part of the world.

Assistant Head of School Mr. Valyo determines all canceled days. He makes the call by seeing what the biggest school districts around Malvern are doing and using his own personal judgement to determine if the school day is canceled.

Mr. Valyo also consults the head of maintenance to see if the condition of the campus is good enough for the day.

If there are too many canceled days in a year, then there are repercussions. “We would have to add some days at the end of the year or take away part of Easter vacation,” Vaylo said.

Students are hoping that this year’s El Niño causes some bad weather.

“I like days off,” Sean Upadhyay ’19 said.