Impacts of the 2015–2016 El Niño on the California Current System: Early assessment and comparison to past events

The 2015–2016 El Niño is by some measures one of the strongest on record, comparable to the 1982–1983 and 1997–1998 events that triggered widespread ecosystem change in the northeast Pacific. Here we describe impacts of the 2015–2016 El Niño on the California Current System (CCS) and place them in historical context using a regional ocean model and underwater glider observations. Impacts on the physical state of the CCS are weaker than expected...