What is El Niño?
El Niño is climate pattern that happens when the warmest water in the Pacific Ocean moves from the Western Pacific to the Eastern Pacific, off the coast of South America (and sometimes even Central and North America).
The image shows a year with a very strong El Niño (the orange and red color off the western coasts of the Americas indicates warmer-than-normal ocean surface temperatures).
The second image shows a year with no El Niño (the blue color off the western coasts of South America indicates cold temperatures at the surface of the ocean).
This change in ocean temperature in the Pacific Ocean causes changes in weather across the world, including the United States. Learn more about El Niño and watch how it affects our weather.
El Niño usually usually occurs around Christmas every two to seven years, but it is not predictable. The name means “the boy” in Spanish.
Top image shows temperatures at the surface of the world’s oceans in 2000. Bottom image shows these temperatures in 1998, during an El Niño event. Courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS.
Learn fun facts about climate!
- Weather is what’s happening in the atmosphere at a certain time in a certain location. Climate is the average weather for that location over a long period of time (usually 30 years or more). Read more.
- Climate is different in different regions of Earth. Polar regions have a cold, dry climate and very dramatic seasons. Regions near the equator have a hot, humid climate that does not change much from season to season. Learn more and view photographs.
- A region’s climate determines it’s biome, or the community of plants and animals that have adapted to live there. Examples of biomes are desert, savanna, rainforest and tundra. Find out more.
- Paleoclimate refers to what climate was like in the past. Scientists use tree rings, ice cores, fossils and sediments to determine what the climate was like around the world hundreds and thousands of years ago. Read about climate in the past.
All images courtesy of University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).