Aug 5, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 11 segments
Mark Sponsler grew up on an avocado farm outside Miami. One day an avocado ricocheted off his window shutters during a storm, and something clicked. He’s been obsessed with weather ever since. He…
Mark SponslerGuest
Kyle ThiermannHost
Uh, um, as a result of looking at swells for so long, have you noticed any, um, changes, any climactic trends that you have seen kind of long-term, given that you've looked at this for so long?
So this gets into the whole discuss- So let, let's, I won't address that directly yet.
But then I'll talk about, uh, from an educational standpoint, there's, uh, long arching patterns that affect swell potential during any given season.
Um, because what El Niño does, actually, it pushes, in the Northern Hemisphere, it pushes the jet stream further south.
It takes what normally is cold water off of Ecuador or the Galapagos Islands, and makes it much, much warmer than normal.
And what that in turn does is pump, uh, I'll call it energy, into the jet stream, making the energy stronger, making the troughs deeper, more longer lasting, and then that supercharges the winter storms, which in turn then creates more surf and blah, blah, blah.
The jet stream drifts north, there aren't many troughs, the storms dry up, and you have this propensity for a lot of high pressure, which is exactly what we're suffering through even in the summer now.
Strong high pressure off California, a lot of north winds, and a lot of wind swell.
There's, so there's multiple waves that are interacting, and I, and then this is sort of where I wanted to go.
Or let me put it this way, fi- b- five years between El Niños, right? And in between there, there's, there's a La Niña for a couple years.
Uh, um, as a result of looking at swells for so long, have you noticed any, um, changes, any climactic trends that you have seen kind of long-term, given that you've looked at this for so long?
So this gets into the whole discuss- So let, let's, I won't address that directly yet.
But then I'll talk about, uh, from an educational standpoint, there's, uh, long arching patterns that affect swell potential during any given season.
Um, because what El Niño does, actually, it pushes, in the Northern Hemisphere, it pushes the jet stream further south.
It takes what normally is cold water off of Ecuador or the Galapagos Islands, and makes it much, much warmer than normal.
And what that in turn does is pump, uh, I'll call it energy, into the jet stream, making the energy stronger, making the troughs deeper, more longer lasting, and then that supercharges the winter storms, which in turn then creates more surf and blah, blah, blah.
The jet stream drifts north, there aren't many troughs, the storms dry up, and you have this propensity for a lot of high pressure, which is exactly what we're suffering through even in the summer now.
Strong high pressure off California, a lot of north winds, and a lot of wind swell.
There's, so there's multiple waves that are interacting, and I, and then this is sort of where I wanted to go.
Or let me put it this way, fi- b- five years between El Niños, right? And in between there, there's, there's a La Niña for a couple years.
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