A strengthening El Niño season could bring much-needed rain to California this year — but it also threatens the parched state with a greater chance of mudslides if the rain falls too fast, according to a CNBC analysis. Over the past six decades, moderate to strong El Niño events have been correlated with an average of five more inches of annual rain in California. The Climate Prediction Center predicts there's a 90 percent chance that an El Niño will last through summer. But if the rain falls too hard or too fast on California's rugged mountains, the rainfall could trigger potentially disastrous landslides.
