Winter weather, protracted droughts and even the rest of the season are likely to see effects of the recent cooling of sea temperatures across the Pacific.
La Niña, which translates from Spanish to the word “little girl” is a natural oceangoing phenomenon characterized by unusually chilly surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator that affect weather globally.
La Niña conditions have arisen in the tropical Pacific in recent months representing the opposite phase of El Niño, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center announced Thursday.
“La Niña is anticipated to affect temperature and precipitation across the United States during the upcoming months,” the forecaster’s office said in a notice Thursday.
La Niña will stay on over winter in United States
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Both La Niña and the El Niño seem to on average happen every three to five years, according to NOAA.
La Niña tends to push down global temperatures, but in recent years the planet has warmed so quickly they’re now hitting a tiny speed bump at about 80 mph which it has hardly noticed.
Estimates for where 2021 will end up in global temperatures are at the low end of what I predicted at the end of 2020 (based just on ENSO and trend). Looking like it’ll be the 6th or 7th warmest. pic.twitter.com/bbVyrBoYvl
— Gavin Schmidt (@ClimateOfGavin) October 13, 2021
