Batten down the hatches
When Hurricane Marie’s name comes up, our weather and surf is directly affected. As you probably know by now the alphabetical list of named storms is repeated every six years so the names we are using here in 2026 were last used in 2020, 2014, 2008 and so on. Every time Marie’s name comes up, something happens! In 2002, we got a big swell from her. In 2008, Marie’s outer bands dropped almost an inch of rain here in Laguna. In 2014, Southern California saw one of the biggest hurricane swells hit from August 24-27.
In 2020, we got nearly an inch of rain from you guessed it, Hurricane Marie. Here in 2026, Marie’s name came up and of course Marie was the center of attention in Laguna and outlying areas. It’s getting to the point that she has become the atmosphere’s drama queen. I saw that coming as early as last week when she blew up into a Category 4 almost overnight when she entered our swell window as she moved to the NW. The show isn’t over yet, as new systems off Mexico’s west coast are getting their act together as we speak.
Hawaii is also in on the action with big waves and lots of rain from a (once) Category 5 hurricane that is moving to the north only a couple 100 miles to the west of the islands. There won’t be a direct hit from this system, but Kauai is getting nearly a foot of rain and giant swells on its south and west shores. It’s not over for the islands though, as Nele is located about 600 miles ESE of Hilo and presently plowing to the WNW with the Big Island which is a target at this point. The water temp in that area is running about six degrees above normal at 83 degrees, well above the 80-degree threshold to maintain a hurricane’s strength.
Now we have Norbert, Odile and Polo waiting in the wings and possibly setting their sights on areas around the Baja Peninsula on the Pacific West Coast at some point. Here on the 6th of September, we’re approaching the peak time for formation of Eastern Pacific tropical systems. Could this season be the year when we run through the entire alphabet? We did it once and that was 1992 when there was a moderate El Niño going on, but this one is a gorilla El Niño as the NOAA and National Hurricane Center fondly calls it.
We’re currently on pace to use all 25 names this time around. We’ve never had to resort to the point of employing the Greek alphabet, but the Atlantic has twice. They use only 21 letters from the alphabet and those occurred during a strong La Niña event. It’s the opposite of a La Niña when the Atlantic is on steroids – and the Pacific is just the opposite with minimal storm formation when the upper-level shear winds are much stronger than normal. They blow the tops off the development and maturation of clusters of thunderstorms. In addition, surface ocean temps are much cooler than normal from strong upwelling, thus stunting the growth of any tropical systems.
Bottom line here – we’re only halfway through this move so just in case to be on the safe side, batten down the hatches. All it takes is one. In 1850, a Category 2 hurricane made landfall near Point Loma in San Diego and on September 25, 1939, a high-end tropical storm moved ashore near Long Beach. Both events happened during a strong El Niño.
ALOHA to everyone!
