Experts warn about “Godzilla” El Niño year to come

Author

Carly Heltzel
April 20, 2026

Good morning. It’s Monday, and I’m taking this quiz about what Mustang Media Group team I would be on. Onto the five Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and California stories you need to know for today.

1.

A “Godzilla” El Niño could bring intense storms to SLO this winter, as meteorologists measure warmer average ocean temperatures that trigger the weather event. In years recording similar temperature increases of 1.5 degrees celsius or more in a certain spot in the Pacific, storms brought over 40 inches of rain to Cal Poly, double the normal amount. The last time that happened was in 1998.

2.

SLO Councilmember Jan Marx complained to the city about a truck parked in the front of a house in her neighborhood “for weeks,” and that it was one foot short of the legal limit next to a fire hydrant. Days later, city staff painted the curb red where the truck was parked. Now, they’re taking it back. Turns out, Marx’s measurements were inaccurate and the couple who live at the house and lost their parking space say the city acted at the “immediate request” of the councilmember.

3.

A team of scientists watch the horizon for gray whales and their calves for 12 hours a day in San Simeon. The goal is to track their migration and numbers, and the station has recorded this data since 1994. They watch for blow spouts, which for gray whales are shaped like a heart, through their 25 power magnitude binoculars nicknamed “big eyes.” The calf population last year hit an all-time low of just 85 young compared to 1,528 in 2004.

4.

A school with just nine students is fighting to stay open, and it spends $118,000 per student per year in state and federal grants to do so. In the isolated Northern California town of Orick — with a declining population and host of domestic issues like narcotic addiction, domestic abuse and extreme poverty — the school is a safe haven, food pantry and community center. The next option would be sending the students 15 miles south, but the costs of bussing them there would cost nearly as much.

5.

Channel Islands was the least visited National Park in California last year, with just 227,186 visitors in 2025. Soon after that on the list is Pinnacles, the tiny park just and hour and a half away from SLO near Salinas with 343,208 visitors in the same time. Lassen National Park is another with chronically low numbers, but it saw an increase from the prior year, with 504,777 people visiting the park east of Redding in 2025 compared to 357,651 in 2024.