ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) – Georgians braced for more rain Tuesday after a deluge flooded streets and homes, killing at least six people Monday.

Atlanta firefighter Stephen Webb carries a dog to safety Monday at the Peachtree Park Apartments.

Widely scattered showers were forecast for early Tuesday, with some areas expected to get up to a quarter-inch of rain an hour, falling on already saturated ground.

Days of heavy rains prompted Georgia's governor to declare a state of emergency Monday in the 17 counties hardest hit by flooding.

Gov. Sonny Perdue's announcement followed three deaths in north Georgia's Douglas County, one death in Gwinnett County and another in Carroll County, where a 2-year-old child was ripped from her father's arms by fierce floodwaters while he struggled to hold on to bushes, officials said. CNN affiliate WSB later confirmed a fourth death in Douglas County.

Those counties, near Atlanta, were among the 17 included in the state-of-emergency declaration.

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The biggest fire extinguisher in the world – a converted 747 – is now helping firefighters push back the flames north of Los Angeles.

The deadly Station fire is now burning into more remote areas of the Angeles National Forest. Firefighters say containment's at 28 percent but they're still worried the flames could spread to communities like Pasadena and Arcadia. CNN's Rob Marciano reports.

No matter where you live in the country, chances are you've seen some strange weather this summer. The experts say that it might have something to do with the weather phenomenon known as El Niño. It's making a comeback.

Gene Norman worked on weather monitoring technology for NASA and is now the chief meteorologist at KHOU-TV in Houston. Norman spoke to John Roberts on CNN’s “American Morning” Monday.

John Roberts: We know how much you love El Niño. Explain what happens here in an El Niño year.

Gene Norman: The way to think about El Niño is it's kind of like a pendulum out in the Pacific Ocean. The water temperatures fluctuate between being warmer than normal and being cooler than normal. Now we are back into an El Niño phase. We’re monitoring abnormally warm water out there and what that tends to do is shift the pattern of jet streams. It intensifies the subtropical jet streams so it brings that tropical air from the Pacific out across the southern United States. That should lead to a wetter winter and stormier spring for us here in the South. And with Texas being in a drought for the last two years, that's great news. Across the Northern Plains and over to the Great Lakes and the Northeast, we're looking for a somewhat warmer winter with perhaps less snowfall than you all have been experiencing.

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