Thank you for the very informative article. However figure 2 classification scheme is interesting. You used "difference from average precipitation" with 6 and 12 inches of variance as rough demarcation values. Yet of course, 'average precipitation' varies markedly across the nation. Drier areas such as the Inter-Mountain West and Desert Southwest will never show strong variance with this classification scheme because annual precipitation there is lower overall. In other words 6 inches is a large amount for these areas, whereas 6 inches for the West Coast and Gulf Coast is a smaller variance from normal. A classification scheme that shows something like "percentage of difference from average precipitation" would be more normalized and thus give a more accurate representation of El Nino impacts for regions. Thank you.