Sea surface temperature maps during strong El Niño and La Niña episodes. For both El Niño and La Niña, tropical rainfall, wind, and air pressure patterns over the equatorial Pacific Ocean are most strongly linked to sea surface temperatures, and vice versa, between December and April. During this period, El Niño and La Niña conditions are typically strongest and have the strongest impacts on U.S. weather patterns.
El Niño and La Niña are complex weather patterns resulting from variations in ocean temperatures in the Equatorial Pacific
This map shows ocean surface temperatures during a normal year in December, 1993. Click on the image to view surface temperatures during a particularly large El Niño event in December, 1997.
El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of what is known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. The ENSO cycle is a scientific term that describes the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date Line and 120 degrees West).
La Niña is sometimes referred to as the cold phase of ENSO and El Niño as the warm phase of ENSO. These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large-scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate.
El Niño and La Niña episodes typically last nine to 12 months, but some prolonged events may last for years. They often begin to form between June and August, reach peak strength between December and April, and then decay between May and July of the following year. While their periodicity can be quite irregular, El Niño and La Niña events occur about every three to five years. Typically, El Niño occurs more frequently than La Niña.
El Niño
El Niño means The Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish. El Niño was originally recognized by fishermen off the coast of South America in the 1600s, with the appearance of unusually warm water in the Pacific Ocean. The name was chosen based on the time of year (around December) during which these warm waters events tended to occur.
The term El Niño refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific.
Typical El Niño effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming winter season. Those include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average conditions are likely over portions of the U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest.
La Niña
La Niña means The Little Girl in Spanish. La Niña is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Niño, or simply "a cold event."
La Niña episodes represent periods of below-average sea surface temperatures across the east-central Equatorial Pacific. Global climate La Niña impacts tend to be opposite those of El Niño impacts. In the tropics, ocean temperature variations in La Niña also tend to be opposite those of El Niño.
During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and cooler than normal in the Northwest.
For more information:
NOAA National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center, El Niño/La Niña
NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory: El Niño theme page
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Revised January 11, 2013
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