The Super El Niño of 2026–2027: Why Just 2 Degrees in the Pacific Can Change the World
By Dr. Juris Bunkis Medical Director, Orange County Plastic Surgery Honorary Consul of the Republic of Latvia
As I write this, climate scientists around the world are watching the Pacific Ocean very closely. There is growing concern that we may be heading toward a strong, perhaps even “super,” El Niño event later this year, with the greatest impacts likely extending well into 2027.
It is remarkable that what begins as just a 2-degree Celsius warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific can alter weather patterns around the globe. Yet this is exactly what happens during a major El Niño.
Under normal conditions, trade winds push warm surface waters westward toward Asia and Australia, allowing cooler water to rise near South America. During El Niño, those trade winds weaken. Warm water then shifts back eastward, spreading across the Pacific and releasing enormous amounts of stored heat into the atmosphere.
This extra atmospheric heat can influence the jet stream, storm tracks, and rainfall patterns on nearly every continent. If current projections hold, 2027 could become one of the warmest years ever recorded, due to the usual lag between ocean warming and global air temperature response.
The worldwide consequences can be dramatic. India may experience monsoon disruptions and drought. Australia and Indonesia often become hotter and drier, increasing wildfire risk. Parts of South America may see severe flooding. In the tropical Pacific, cyclone activity often increases, while the Atlantic hurricane season is sometimes quieter than usual.
What does this mean for us here in Southern California?
Historically, strong El Niño years often favor wetter winters across the southern half of California, with stronger storms, localized flooding, and mudslide risks in burn scar areas. Coastal waters can also become unusually warm, which many of us enjoy, though it may stress marine ecosystems.
For those of us in Newport Beach and Corona del Mar, this could mean warmer beaches, a greener spring, and perhaps a more dramatic storm season next winter. It is another reminder that our planet functions as one beautifully interconnected system: a subtle shift in the Pacific can reshape life from California to India.
Nature is endlessly fascinating.
San Bernardino mountains, from my airplane hangar in Chino, during our last El Niño – more moisture but at least the white stuff stays in the mountains.
The northeast will also get more moisture. This is a photo of Dr. Ekstrom’s car, a few winters ago, when we were preparing to drive to work. It is definitely not a lot of fun to have to shovel show off the car and clean the windshield before you can drive. I am sure Dr. Ekstrom does not miss that here in sunny California!
When Aesthetic Surgery Needs a Second Chance: How Revision Procedures Restore Form and Confidence
By Dr. Deborah Ekstrom
Orange County Plastic Surgery, Corona del Mar/Newport Beach
Quick Quiz
Before we begin, here is this week’s quiz:
Which statement is MOST accurate?
A. Once a cosmetic surgery problem occurs, it usually cannot be improved
B. Revision surgery is rarely successful
C. Complications only happen after poor surgery
D. Many surgical issues can be significantly improved with expert revision surgery ✅
E. Makeup is usually the only solution
The correct answer is D.
One of the most important messages we share with our patients is this: most aesthetic surgery problems can be improved, and many can be dramatically corrected.
Every surgeon who performs operations long enough will eventually encounter a complication, an unexpected healing issue, or a result that simply does not mature as hoped. This is true even when the preoperative workup is thorough, the surgical plan is appropriate, patient safety is prioritized, and the technical execution is excellent.
Biology is never entirely predictable.
Scar tissue can heal aggressively. Swelling may settle unevenly. Skin can contract in ways we do not fully anticipate. Implant pockets can shift. Excess scar tissue can form around implants. Tissue necrosis may occur. Eyelids may heal with tension. These realities are part of the normal surgical risks every patient accepts when choosing aesthetic surgery.
What matters most is how these issues are managed.
Over the years, we have helped many patients who came to us with difficult problems from prior surgery. Some of the most gratifying cases involve severe lower eyelid ectropion, where the lower lid pulls downward, exposing too much of the eye and creating both aesthetic and functional concerns.
These cases can often be beautifully rescued using a combination of midface lifting, canthopexy, and microfat grafting. By restoring support to the cheek, tightening the lateral eyelid, and improving soft tissue volume, we are often able to restore both natural eyelid position and facial harmony.
We will be sharing some of these remarkable before-and-after photographs in this newsletter.
We also frequently help patients with breast deformities after previous surgery, including implant malposition, asymmetry, capsular contracture, visible rippling, tissue necrosis or distorted shape after prior lifts or augmentations.
These problems can be emotionally distressing, but the reassuring truth is that revision breast surgery can often restore beautiful shape, softness, and symmetry. Sometimes this requires implant repositioning, pocket repair, capsule work, skin grafting or fat grafting to camouflage irregularities and rebuild natural contours.
The larger point is an important one: a complication is not the end of the story.
With careful analysis, good judgment, and advanced revision techniques, many disappointing outcomes can be transformed into excellent ones.
That possibility—restoration, correction, and renewed confidence—is one of the most rewarding parts of what we do. Having a combined 80 years of surgical experience certainly adds to what we can offer a patient with a complication.
If have any issues with the results of a prior procedure, we invite you to schedule a private consultation with Dr. Ekstrom to discuss whether a surgical correction is right for you.
Orange County Plastic Surgery Corona del Mar / Newport Beach
Natural results. Thoughtful care. Private consultations.
This male in his early 60’s sought consultation at Orange County Plastic Surgery for his severe ectropions (downward pull of the lower lash line, exposing more white eyeball beneath the colored part than normal) following a lower lid blepharoplasty performed elsewhere, six months earlier. The hardest thing was to ask the patient to wait another six months for full healing to occur, but at the end of a year, he still had the downward pull of his lash lines. Drs. Ekstrom and Bunkis performed team surgery on this gentleman, performing a midface lift to elevate his cheek mass and take some tension off the lower lids, microfat grafting to the cheeks, a secondary lower lid blepharoplasty to remove some of the fat that remained from his first procedure, and a canthopexy (a tightening and lifting of the lower lid lash line). This was his result a year later – not perfect but a drastic improvement from where he started. (Actual patient of Drs. Deborah Ekstrom and Juris Bunkis of Orange County Plastic Surgery in Corona De Mar/Newport Beach.)
Orange County Plastic Surgery at CosmetiCare
1101 Bayside Drive, Suite 200
Corona del Mar, CA 92625
Take the elevator to the second floor (Suite 200) and check in with the front desk for your consultation or follow-up.
Free Parking Available.
