Hurricane season the slowest since 1941 - thank the Super El Nino weather cycle | Eastern NC Now

The Atlantic hurricane season this year is the slowest since 1941 and is expected to stay that way.  The reason is that not only are we in an El Nino weather pattern, but it has developed into a  Super El Nino.  An El Nino pattern creates weather conditions that make it more difficult for hurricanes to form and strengthen.  A Super El Nino does that on steriods.

There are downsides to a Super El Nino for our region, however.  One is an increase in atmospheric temperatures in summer and an increase in nor'easters in winter for our region. It also means winter will be wetter than normal.

The El Nino / La Nina cycle is caused by water temperatures in a part of the Pacific either heating or cooling, and the pattern alternates between a few years of El Nino and a few of the reverse La Nina.  The last Super El Nino was in 1997, and the strongest one was in 1877, They impact wide areas of the globe, but are particularly felt here in North America.

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/el-nino-crushes-atlantic-hurricane-activity-lowest-1941

The El Nino / La Nina cycle is one of a number of long term weather patterns that shift back and forth.  Another is the multi-century heating and cooling cycles.  The Earth emerged from a particularly cold cycle known as the Little Ice Age in the mid-1800s and has been in a natural warming cycle since then.  We have not yet reached the levels of warmth of the last warm cycle, the Medieval Warm Period.  The longest and warmest of those cycles was the Holocene Maximum where it was much warmer than today for three thousand years, which coincided with the Iron Age and the heyday of ancient Greek civilization in human devleopment.