Hi there, enjoyed this piece tremendously!  Interest in climate has grown for people the world over the last few years, and ENSO blog has become an excellent resource for scientists, researchers and the global public.  Kudos, keep up the good work!

Anyway, seeing the last few decades of ENSO trends, it seems one may assume El Niños are usually quick, and followed by La Niña events that are usually drawn out over a few years, with neutral-ish conditions associated. 

Yet, the current triple-dip La Niña-into-El Niño set-up comes with atypical SST warmth in the North Atlantic, usually associated with La Niña years...  Indeed, this odd SST anomaly, looks like conditions associated with active hurricane seasons(?), which is contrary to the idea El Niño years are 'hurricane-lite'?

ENSO phases are widely held to be distinct, reliable weather-maker indicators for rain, drought, cyclone & hurricane probability across various geographies.  Is it possible this current La Niña is throwing the old wisdom 'out the window', so to speak?  The data is surprising!