Read all stories in the Science of the Seas series here.“Call me, brother! I want you to put out a PDF.” Palayam’s voice message on WhatsApp had an urgent edge to it. “Put out a PDF” is Palayam’s way of saying I should blog his entry. Palayam has been recording on paper his daily observations of the winds, tides, shore and mid-sea currents and fish behaviour from the vantage point of the Urur Kuppam beach since 2018; I have been maintaining an excel spreadsheet with extracts from the exhaustive observations by this one-person hyperlocal meteorological station.Just a week ago, on October 13, he called to inform me of the end of the Kachaan season – the long hot summer period defined by southerly and southwesterly winds, and southerly currents, and enclosing the southwest monsoon. Chennai’s fishers perceive two primary seasons – the longer Kachaan season and the shorter, cooler and wetter Vaadai season enlivened by the temperamental northeast monsoon. Kachaan and Vaadai also indicate the prevailing wind and ocean current directions during the two seasons – southerly and northerly respectively.For more than two decades, fishers I have encountered along the Coromandel coast have complained that the sea has changed. Palayam and I had even published a report summarising the findings of 1,189 daily observations between 2018 and 2023, pointing to a new normal with shorter Kachan and extended Vaadai seasons, with delayed onset and retreat. But the sea’s behaviour this year alarmed even Palayam, a salty sea dog who is intimately aware of the sea’s whimsical nature. “In all my life, I have not witnessed such unseasonal phenomena,” he said.Purattasi, the Tamil month that stretches from mid-September to mid-October, is a month when fish are plenty but the market is dull: Purattasi is an auspicious month, particularly for Perumal devotees, and meat and fish consumption dips significantly. This is also when the seasons decidedly shift from Kachaan to Vaadai. Vaadai’s prevailing northerlies turn the sea into a calm, deep blue sheet – great for day-time long-lining and hook-and-line fishing for Barracuda, and for shore-seine fishing using the Periya Valai (large net) to catch squid, sardinella, mackerel, flying fish and ponyfish in the nearshore waters.Even by the emerging patterns of the weird new normal, this Purattasi was extraordinary – “Everything is upside down, brother,” Palayam told me. The currents and winds did not shift; they did not even slow down. “We had 26 days of brisk southerly currents or a lifeless Vanni (northerly). The Kachaan winds did not relent, churning up the sea and keeping the fish from coming closer to shore,” Palayam said referring to his notes. “There was just one day of fishing last month.”Instead of a deep blue – what Palayam refers to as “island water” – the Purattasi sea was muddy green and laden with vandal, or silt. Unlike the post-monsoon vanda–thanni in August which Palayam says is like ice water, the Purattasi waters this year were warm to the touch.Purattasi is literally the month of calm before the storm. Aippasi (October-November) and Karthigai that follow Purattasi are the months of storms. But this year, a storm began taking shape on September 21, developing into a Deep Depression as it made landfall in nearby Andhra Pradesh. “This is alarming. If a storm develops this early, I wonder what is in store for us later this year,” Palayam wondered aloud. It was the first day of Aippasi (October 18), and a second storm was already brewing. Just a day earlier, a cyclonic circulation had dumped more than 300 mm of water across North Chennai, drowning several localities.It is not just the Vaadai season that is upside down, Palayam says. “Remember this June-July?,” he asked. “Only one calm sea day. 60 days of rough seas. How can that be? It’s all topsy turvy.” Before the sea changed, the Kachaan season used to have more calm sea days than rough. That changed, and our Science of the Seas report documents that (see table).June-July (Year)Number of calm sea days out of 61 days (total)2019102020-21Data not available (COVID)2022142023520241020251320261Source: Science of The Seas database.Even within this new normal, 2026 is extraordinary. Palayam urges me to “Go check the data for June-July.” I did, and Palayam’s case is made out. 2026 wins the weirdest year of the new normal thus far.S. Palayam is a veteran hook-and-line fisher and fisher scientist. Nityanand Jayaraman is a writer, social activist and citizen science enthusiast.