ABSTRACT
La Nin˜a is a change in global weather patterns associated with colder than normal sea surface water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean (see Fig. 1). La Nin˜a is the cool phase of the best known example of interannual variation in the earth’s weather and climate patterns, El Nin˜o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Since El Nin˜o, which means boy in Spanish, is the warm phase of ENSO, the cool phase of ENSO is called La Nin˜a, which means girl in Spanish. Another term for La Nin˜a is El Viejo, which means old man in Spanish.
