Everybody’s Talking About Super El Niño, But I Keep Thinking About Oklahoma in 1997

Everybody's talking about a possible Super El Niño showing up in 2026.

The second I heard that phrase again, I didn't envision ocean temperatures or weather models. I was instantly taken back to my Oklahoma summer in 1997.

If You Know, You Know

I was a freshly hatched teenager in 97, and because that was the summer I got a taste of freedom, the one memory that sticks out is the weather. I swear it was one of the hottest summers I can remember growing up in Oklahoma.

Between the boys and me on our street, we were a roving band of 12 and 13-year-olds, seeking out independence and what feminists refer to as "toxic masculinity" as we rolled through town like a gang on bicycles.

I wish I still had that GT Performer.

If didn't matter who had an idea, we lived on the spur of the moment. None of us ever made any plans, but we'd leave the house after The Price Is Right and spend the entire day riding from our little cul-de-sac the couple of miles up to Kmart, Hastings, and Walmart. Sometimes we'd have a little coin for snacks, but I'm pretty sure we were a "Stop into a restaurant and ask for water" gang.

You tell Millennial parents about that now, and they just lose their minds. How could a child survive by themselves in Mayberry? Thinking back on that summer, I honestly don't know how we survived the hours on blacktop with those temperatures.

If you lived through 1997, you survived that Super El Niño just fine.

Oddly enough, even though everybody agreed it was a smoking hot summer, nobody said anything about El Niño. Pretty sure nobody even knew what it was.

From our perspective, it was the fastest exotic car from that summer's hottest game - Need for Speed. We spent so much time hovering over Dad's 486 Gateway computer playing it that summer when it was either too hot for Mom to let us out of the house, or on rainy days.

You Remember That Too?

Now, you can flip between channels without hearing the warnings and political emphasis every night.

Super El Niño this.

Super El Niño that.

You know it gets hot every summer in Oklahoma, right? But I get a little chuckle every time I hear it. It's like that phrase, and summer is still linked to my teenage brain.

That's not the only memory from that scorching hot summer of El Niño.

On a random day, my mom loaded us all up and drove us up to Walmart. She didn't need help with groceries though. We made a special Walmart run because there was a Coca-Cola trailer parked outside selling hot dogs and a Coke for a dollar.

That's the most 90s thing ever! It really was the last golden age in America.

We sat outside on that hot parking lot, eating hot dogs until mom came out of the store with whatever she bought. By the time we got home, we all had just enough protein in us to hop on our bikes and make it through at least two alleys before the heat had us all giving that meal back to Mother Earth.

Hindsight, probably wasn't the smartest lunch on a hot day, but when you're a kid, you can't see the consequences. You can only see the then and now.

That's probably why this summer has stuck with me all these years. It wasn't the heat of the great Super El Niño, or the name itself in regard to weather. It was the good times we had leaving the nest for the very first time.

The natural distrust of bargain bin hot dogs was a good life lesson too.

Cue The Song From The Wonder Years...

That summer felt like the first chapter of growing up. Our bikes were our cars. Every day was an adventure. A dollar could buy you a very questionable lunch, and yet, no matter how hot it got, we couldn't wait to be back outside.

If it really does become another Super El Niño year, maybe today's kids will look back on 2026 as fondly as I can remember 1997. I have a 15-year-old nephew who conned his way into an early driver's license. With a little gas money in his pocket, this summer will certainly be his first taste of freedom. I hope I'm around to hear him reminisce about it when he's 40.