"History shows a strong El Niño may mean huge snow for D.C. this winter or almost none"

All or Nothing at all.

We keep getting the question, what does the strong El Niño mean for Washington, D.C. this winter?

During the five strongest El Niños since 1950, winters either featured among the most paralyzing snowstorms in Washington, D.C.’s history or hardly any snow at all.

Why such variation? El Niños tend to have two primary effects on U.S. weather which play out in complicated ways over the Mid-Atlantic: 1) They push the average position of polar jet stream north, which favors warmer than normal air over the region 2) They intensify the moisture supply along the southern jet stream, increasing the potential storminess.

Slate: "A super-strong El Niño is now off the table"

.@Slate los niños got off the table and headed for the border. Where you been Slate?
— Lem (@Lemang01) July 17, 2014

El Niño may return this year

"Government forecasters issued an alert Thursday saying there’s a 50 percent chance that warming El Niño conditions will develop during the summer or autumn — potentially bringing rain to drought-stricken California and the South, as well as fewer hurricanes along the East Coast and higher temperatures across the globe.

The last El Niño watch was in 2012, although it fizzled out unexpectedly, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

But when the weather phenomenon struck in 1997-98, it was blamed for all sorts of calamities, from devastating floods in South America to droughts in Southeast Asia.

The El Niño cycle can take up to seven years to develop as weak trade winds allow warmer water from the Pacific to move east as part of a climate event that usually sticks around nine months to a year."

NBC