2026-2027 Record-breaking El Nino

[Terpeast]

35 minutes ago, mitchnick said:

Average for last 5 days ending 384 hours off the 0z Geps fwiw.

At least its showing up on modeling, now lets see if it actually verifies. 

[GaWx]

OHC monthly rose to a new record high that last month had set (note these aren’t adjusted for GW in a “relative” sense, but they’re still very impressive):

2025   11    -0.02     -0.33      -0.46
2025   12     0.26      0.01      -0.03
2026    1     0.64      0.45       0.49
2026    2     1.08      1.02       1.15
2026    3     1.38      1.39       1.36
2026    4     1.85      2.07       2.24
2026    5     1.67      1.97       1.99
2026    6     1.79      2.14       2.26
2026    7     2.03      2.50       2.96
2026    8     2.19      2.75       3.20

 The following image is for the same longitudes as that for the 3rd column and it jibes fairly well:

Prior to 2026, this had been the record high for the last 2 columns:

1997   10     1.35      2.05       2.56

[GaWx]

 The new relative OISST (not ERSST) has just been released and the change from July jibes well for Nino 3.4 with the slope of the graphs we’ve been following (though as I’ve also been saying the weeklies/last 2 months are notably cooler than what the cyclonicwx graphs have been suggesting).

2026    7      2.84     1.73     0.34      1.38
2026    8      3.35     2.52     0.11      1.78

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/data/indices/rel_mthsst9120.txt
 
  This 1.78 is a new record high (back to 1981) for August Nino 3.4 as it barely beats the 1.74 of 1997. Here are the warmest Augusts since 1981:

2026 1.78
1997 1.74
2015 1.30
1987 1.24
1982 1.19
1991 0.82
2002 0.80
1994 0.72
2004 0.71
2023 0.63

 Note that Nino 3 rose twice as much and Nino 4 fell 0.23! Also, Nino 1+2 rose the 2nd most at 0.51. All of this indicates that this Nino has been becoming increasingly E based and that the W portion of Nino 3.4 is what is holding it back vs what model projections had been.

 Also, note that Nino 3.4 rose only 0.4C from the July avg to the Aug avg. I say “only” because several models were suggesting (as I’ve posted about several times) a record rapid rise for 3.4 of ~1C. It remains to be seen what the rise was per ERSST, but it’s clear that August didn’t warm nearly as much in 3.4 as model consensus had suggested, which has caused some at least near-term cooling of progs in some models’ recent runs.

 Here’s the latest OISST relative 3.4 chart through Sept 1st: STILL no sign of resumption of warming with it practically flat the last 31 days!

 

The CDAS (not relative) agrees with the continuing flatness:

[GaWx]

To add to the above, here are Nino 3 and Nino 4 (note that these aren’t relative, but that’s ok since my point is to show the slopes):

Nino 3: still a slow rise through Aug instead of nearly flat like 3.4:

Nino 4: had been falling through Aug 17th though a bumpy net slow rise since: