El Nino and La Nina

El Niño and La Niña are opposite phases of what is known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle.

• El Niño means The Little Boy, or Christ Child in Spanish
• La Niña means The Little Girl in Spanish

The ENSO cycle is a scientific term that describes the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the East-Central Equatorial Pacific. 

These deviations from normal surface temperatures can have large-scale impacts not only on ocean processes, but also on global weather and climate.

• El Nino    = Hot Phase
• La Nina   = Cold Phase

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. 

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. 

During a La Niña year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the Southeast and cooler than normal in the Northwest 

  

El Niño Modoki is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon in the tropical Pacific. It is different from another coupled phenomenon in the tropical Pacific namely, El Niño.  

• Conventional El Niño is characterized by strong anomalous warming in the eastern equatorial Pacific . 
• Whereas, El Niño Modoki is associated with strong anomalous warming in the central tropical Pacific and cooling in the eastern and western tropical Pacific.