There is a lot of talk out there of an El Niño winter. For those of you who don’t know what that means, then you’re going to have to read about it somewhere else, because I am not a weatherman. What I can tell you, is what El Niño means from a surfer’s point of view. It means get ready for consistent big waves for this winter season.
Basically, what happens during an El Niño year is that the wind directions and speeds change, causing the water temperatures to be thrown off in a variety of places. This makes for an abnormal amount of storms that are situated perfectly to throw large surf at the North Shore of Oahu and California. The North Shore will most likely be slammed by large swells from these storms frequently this year if this El Niño continues to develop the way it is.
One thing to be aware of is that constant big swell doesn’t always mean clean surf, and during an El Niño year the surf can be extra stormy, making for some not-so-good conditions for surfing. Regardless of what the conditions are like, I think it’s safe to say we’ll see some big waves this winter. Maybe this explains the consistent surf we’ve had early this season.
For more information about what is going on, check out Surfline’s feature on the developing situation.
