All ENSO events are of course different but it's still the largest "natural" climate variation on Earth. That said, the rest should probably go into the "anecdotal stories" thread, but since those who have followed these ENSO threads for years might be aware of, there is one event preceding the 2015-2016 El Nino that is at least somewhat similar, the 1982-1983 event. That event has brought me small flashbacks and oddities for five years now and that also why I never believed we would have no more than a weak La nina to follow the latest El Nino.
Adding another oddity, the Arctic SIE via NSIDC in March 1985, two years after the El Nino. Right were we are now, timewise, after the 2015-2016 event.
The Arctic is of course a totally different place today than in 1985, 16% of the ice pack was very old ice then, but by March 2017, this ice category only constituted 0.9% of the ice pack. The extent of the oldest ice declined from 2.54 million km2 in March 1985 to 0.13 million km2 in March 2017. Adding a sea ice age comparison for week 11 (as now) from last year.
If the future follows suit to the 1982-1983 event, we might see a return of El Nino in 2019 and not in 2018. We have not yet seen a Wadhams like ~1M extent during 2016 or 2017, much thanks to low pressure dominated summers. Ocean heat content is way higher today. Looking at JISAO PDO numbers, still not updated for February but will probably be positive for the 50:th consecutive month since January 2014...
The final graph is also from last year. Continuing with the above analog to 1982-1983, when we get the next strong La Nina, it's good bye to any September extent still up there in September.