What Is the Difference Between El Niño and La Niña?: Quick Facts

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Photos

Images of sea-surface height taken during the El Nino episodes of 1997 and 2015.

Map of the tropical Pacific Ocean highlighting the four ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) regions: Niño 4, Niño 3.4, Niño 3, and Niño 1+2. The regions are marked as colored rectangles along the equator from near Australia to the coast of South America, illustrating key zones used to monitor El Niño and La Niña climate events.

World map illustrating the generalized weather effects of El Nino from December through February. Regions are labeled and shaded to show conditions such as warm in parts of North America, Asia, and South America; wet in the southern United States and eastern South America; dry and warm in southern Africa and Southeast Asia; wet and cool in the northern United States; and wet and warm across central and eastern equatorial Pacific.

World map illustrating the generalized weather effects of La Nina from December through February. The map highlights regions experiencing wet, dry, cool, or warm conditions, such as wet and cool in southeastern Africa and Australia, dry in equatorial Africa, cool in northern North America and parts of South America, and dry and cool across the central Pacific.

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El Niño La Niña