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What Is the Difference Between El Niño and La Niña?
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Images of sea-surface height taken during the El Nino episodes of 1997 and 2015. Diagram of the equatorial Pacific Ocean showing El Nino conditions, with weak trade winds, increased rainfall over South America, increased convection, a deepened thermocline, and suppressed upwelling. 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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Images of sea-surface height taken during the El Nino episodes of 1997 and 2015.
Images of sea-surface height taken during the El Niño episodes of 1997 and 2015, which help to compare the intensity and extent of warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean El Niño episodes are characterized by unusually warm ocean conditions along the tropical west coast of South America. These episodes, such as the 1997 and 2015 El Niño events depicted in the image, are associated with adverse effects on fishing, agriculture, and local weather from Ecuador to Chile and with far-field climatic anomalies in the equatorial Pacific and occasionally in Asia and North America.

What Is the Difference Between El Niño and La Niña?

Written by
John P. Rafferty
John P. Rafferty writes about Earth processes and the environment. He serves currently as the editor of Earth and life sciences, covering climatology, geology, zoology, and other topics that relate to...
John P. Rafferty
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

Every few years the phenomenon known as El Niño dominates the headlines. In other years its climatic alter ego La Niña appears, but what are they and what makes them different? Changes in the temperature of the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the climate effects that stem from those changes determine the difference between the two. El Niño and La Niña are different phases of the same system—the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), a large-scale climate pattern...

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