Actually, the weather folks say this is a non-typical year, since the El Nino that started to develop over the summer fizzled. It's a year of what they call "La Nada" (nothing). Interestingly, some past "La Nada" years have seen some extremely violent storms. However, the weather folks are not predicting one way or another.

I've learned a lot following Dr. Cliff Mass' weather blog. He is a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle and highly respected among Pacific Northwest meteorologists. While he concentrates on western Washington, a lot of his posts cover general west coast weather. I don't have the time to go look up specific posts, but he has been posting about "La Nada" since late summer.