What are El Niño and La Niña?

What is El Niño(opens in new tab)? (Translation "The Little Boy")

• Ocean Temperature: Surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific become much warmer than average.
• Winds: Trade winds (winds blowing east to west) weaken or even reverse.
• Weather Effects: Warm water moves east, bringing heavy rain to South America and causing drought in Australia and Southeast Asia. In the U.S., winters are often warmer and drier in the North and wetter in the South.

What is La Niña(opens in new tab)? (Translation "The Little Girl")

• Ocean Temperature: Surface waters in the same region become cooler than average.
• Winds: Trade winds become much stronger than normal.
• Weather Effects: Warm water piles up near Asia. This brings more rain to Indonesia and drier conditions to the southern U.S. Winters tend to be cooler in the U.S. Northwest and warmer in the Southeast
  

  El Niño- How The Super El Niño Will Change Earth in 2026

This winter could be one for the record books

NOAA gives a 75% chance this El Niño becomes the strongest since 1950. But El Niño only tilts the odds. The only way to know what it does at your house is to measure it.