Luckily for you, but not so much for the West. Some of us rather enjoyed the -PDO/-ENSO stretch.

Kind of figured we were going to pay for the warm spring at some point. Hopefully there is some more consistent warmth by the second part of May. I forgot how cool last May was. I do recall having a low in the 30s at the beginning of June.

That huge 3+ year Niña 98/99 - 00/01 stored a massive amount of heat in the oceans, more than 2X what was released during the 97/98 Niño. Which is why there was such a substantial spike in temperatures afterwards. Same was true after the recent 3 year Niña from 2020/21 to 2022/23. Ideally after a strong/super Niño you want to avoid a snap back into La Niña to take advantage of the heat release long term. We have been stuck under a Niña/enhanced state baseline for decades now, which is responsible for the accelerated warming. Luckily this might be an opportunity for a change. We just recently came off a very strong Niño, and the upcoming strong/super niño is unlikely to flip back to La Niña for 2027/28 given the alignment of the QBO and stage of PMM/IPWP vacillation cycle. CERES data reveals substantial baseline increase in Outgoing Radiation from the TOA layer since the 2023/24 Niño, so the system has been shedding heat very efficiently (a marked change from previous years).

BN sucks tho

Latest drought monitor.