Indications of an El Nino Winter

Words by Morgan Williamson | Photos by Ryan Foley 

Strange times are here! Well, at least El Nino is. But we hope your 2015’s been a weird one. If you’ve been in California, soaking in water that’s warmer than anything recorded in the last 50 years and thinking where the hell are the waves? Your resilience or continuous bitching is about to turn to froth. At the moment there are three hurricanes spinning in the Pacific, geared to shoot fun swell to the West Coast of the US and Hawaii. And we all just adore a hurricane swell!

That uncharacteristic Super Typhoon Atsani links back to El Nino. You know the one that sent hollow fare to Japan then made its way over to Hawaii? She was built for pleasure. So far the season for Pacific Typhoons has been record breaking. Typically Hawaii would only see energy from these storms during the winter cold seasons, which obviously tends to happen much later than August. The last time Hawaii saw a similar swell this early in the season was back in ’09, between Obama’s inauguration and the death of Michael Jackson. That storm in ’09 just so happened to be the start of an El Nino winter. What we are looking at currently is an El Nino event that’s Arnie Schwarzenegger in Conan the Barbarian strong. Sea temps are on average two degrees above normal and there’s a 90 percent shot of an El Nino winter in the Pacific.

In order to replicate the magic that happened in ’83 and ’97, the trade winds need to weaken up a bit and the warm water in the central pacific’s got to wash easterly. This El Nino everyone’s been chattering about is shaping up into something real. According to Magic Seaweed larger than the average winter swells are on the horizon as autumn drifts into winter. Hurricanes in the east pacific have been running amuck, El Nino is fuelling the fire and its a goddamn blood orgy of swell that we’re waiting for.

Cue mindless sprints into the warm waters, high fives, smiles and vibes. El Nino is upon us.