What are El Niño and La Niña?

El Niño and La Niña are complex climate cycles that occur in the Pacific Ocean around the equator. They have the power to affect the entire weather around the globe due to drastic variations in the oceanic temperatures.

They change the odds of floods, drought, heat waves, and cold seasons for different regions, even raising global temperatures. On average, El Niño and La Niña occur every two to eight years.

The Pacific Ocean has consistent winds blowing from east to west. These trade winds push warm water near the surface towards Asia and Australasia. On the opposite side of the Pacific, around Central and South America, cold water is pulled up from deep down in the ocean, in a process named upwelling.