Oh, Great
Just when I was anticipated a relatively calm hurricane season it turns out El Niño has two personalities, one stormier.
Normally an El Niño, a large pool of warmer than usual water in the Pacific, helps to hold down the number and strength of tropical storms, and it looks like one is forming this year. Now they tell us that if the pool is more in the central Pacific than the eastern, it can make the season worse.
The central Pacific form is being referred to as El Niño Modoki after the Japanese scientist who discovered the difference the location makes in the effect. We still don’t know for certain which type is forming, but the last time an El Niño Modoki formed was in 2004. I got smacked by hurricane Ivan and the peninsula was crisscrossed by storms from both coasts [Bonnie, Charley, Frances, and Jeanne].
