Lately, our weather has been more humid than usual and has been plenty hot. I was talking to my parents in San Diego yesterday and they were having rain! And the day before, it had absolutely poured (at least by so-cal standards). That is very unusual for Southern CA in the summer.
Apparently the El Nino pattern has definitely set up, and we are expected to get more humidity than usual as long as it lasts, maybe even all the way through the winter. There is a good chance it will bring more rain than usual to Southern CA, but it may not help Northern CA or the Pacific Northwest at all.
Something I read recently said that even if the El Nino brings plenty of rain, it is not likely to be helpful in terms of recharging the water supply systems. In other words, it may help in some localities, and it may help with non-irrigated agriculture, but it is not likely to provide much relief to irrigated agriculture or parched cities, because it will not be falling in a way that recharges our reservoirs and statewide water system.
The other long-term wildcard is the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which looks like it is entering its decades long warm cycle. Too soon to say for sure, but it looks likely. The warm water in the northeastern Pacific is probably partly responsible for the droughts in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, and is also probably the culprit for the super cold winters in the eastern half of the country.