La Niña

'La Niña' or "the girl" is the term adopted for the opposite side of the ENSO fluctuation from El Niño, which sees episodes of cooler than average sea surface temperature in the equatorial Pacific. The conditions for declaring 'La Niña' differ between different agencies, but during an event sea temperatures can often fall 3-5 °C below average. Cooler, drier-than-average weather is experienced in the tropical eastern Pacific.