My take on the current status, forecast, and impacts of El Niño 2026 - written for general audience I heard radio hosts laughing crazily about "Godzilla" El Niño this morning. I laugh about that, too. I don't even love the word "super" before El Niño. Anyway, here's what's up.

ONI takes an average of SST anomalies over a broader region in the eastern equatorial Pacific. As of the close of August, we were already just a few tenths of a degree Centigrade from breaking the previous ONI record (2.5°C), set in the winter of 2025/26.

That 3.5°C would beat the previous record (winter of 2025/26) by about 1°C, which is a lot—40% stronger.

Sea level: Sea level anomalies play an important dynamical role in ENSO development, but it’s also a societally relevant impact. Along the coastline stretching from Mexico to Peru, the sea level is currently elevated by about 200 mm (8 inches) relative to normal.

Now that we're a couple months from the peak of this impressive #ElNiño, here's a graph that puts the current state and the forecast into a historical perspective. This should probably be a clear record.