Plenty of strong El Ninos were decent, but unfortunately this wasn't one of them. Over the past several years it really hasn't mattered what ENSO has done because the extra tropical Pacific has sucked. Anyone who has a clue knows this wasn't a prototypical super El Nino with a huge GOA low...its sucked because we can't shake the west PAC warm pool that continues to favor Maritime forcing, regardless of ENSO.