To understand the power and potential dangers of El Niño, look at satellite images of the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

 

At least four storms were brewing — the farthest still getting going in Asia — and all aimed at California.

 

It’s this pattern, a series of back-to-back-to-back storms seemingly arriving on a conveyor belt, that concerns officials bracing for potential damage from the predicted winter of heavy rains.

 

“El Niño storms: it’s steady, not spectacular. But it’s relentless,” said Bill Patzert, climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. “It’s not 10 inches in 24 hours and nothing afterward.