As the 2009 hurricane season draws to a close, Tropical Storm Ida threatens to enter the Gulf of Mexico and end the below-average season with a bang.Ida, which hovered over Nicaragua on Thursday, is expected to travel over Honduras where it will encounter mountainous terrain, which could possibly break up the storm, said Louisiana State climatologist Barry Keim.  However, if it survives its passage through the mountains and emerges in the Caribbean Sea, it could remain a tropical storm for three or four days and possibly make its way into the Gulf of Mexico on Monday morning, Keim said. Assuming Ida makes it into the Gulf, the National Hurricane Center forecasts its landfall in southeastern Louisiana, which would mark the first recorded hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana during November and the end of a relaxed hurricane season.Keim attributed the “relatively quiet” 2009 hurricane season to El Niño, a weather pattern during which years occur when there are unusually warm ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  At present, this hurricane season has only had nine named storms. A typical hurricane season has 10 — but he said most years since 1995 had above average hurricane activity, including the 2005 hurricane season with 28 named storms, one of which was Hurricane Katrina. Nan Walker, professor and            director of the Earth Scan Laboratory, said El Niño events occur every two to seven years, and we are currently experiencing a “weak” El Niño. During years when there are a lot of hurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean, particularly in the Western Atlantic, Walker said there are not many in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. She attributed this relationship to El Niño. “Generally, whenever there’s an El Niño in the Pacific, we have fewer hurricanes than normal,” Walker said. In addition to experiencing fewer hurricanes, Walker said El Niño years are also marked by lower temperatures. “El Niño, in terms of weather here in Louisiana, tend to create relatively cool and wet winters,” Keim said. “More than likely … we can expect a wetter [winter].”The southeastern portion of the United States is forecast to have            lower than normal temperatures, while the southern coastal area is forecasted to have more precipitation than usual, according to Climate Prediction Center forecasts. For instance, Keim said the most recent “intense” El Niño was in late 1997 and into early 1998 when Louisiana saw a “whopping” 15.43 inches of rain in January. Other recent El Niño years include 1991, 1992 and 1993, when Louisiana received about 10 inches each January.A normal January, like 1994 through 1997, saw about six inches of rain each year, Keim said. However, the estimated 12 inches of rain that drenched Baton Rouge during October should not be attributed to El Niño, Keim said. Past El Niño years did not see its effects in October but in December, January and February.