High-tide flooding on October 24, 2017, submerged roads and parking areas along Dock Street, in the historic heart of Annapolis, Maryland. Photo by Will Parson, Chesapeake Bay Program. Used with permission. NOAA’s National Weather Service is predicting El Niño is likely to emerge by July 2026 and continue through the winter, and for many locations in the U.S. this could mean more high tide flooding . To understand why more flooding is expected, it helps to understand what El Niño is and what it does. El Niño (and its counterpart, La Niña) are the warm and cool phases of a natural climate pattern across the tropical Pacific known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, often referred to as “ENSO.” The pattern shifts back and forth between the cooler and warmer phases every two to seven years. There’s also a phase in between, ENSO Neutral, when sea surface temperatures are generally close to average. This neutral phase can last for months or years.…