The name El Niño comes from Peruvian fishermen. They noticed that near the end of each year, the seawater off the South American coast became warmer, which made fishing much poorer. Because the change appeared each year close to Christmas, the fishermen dubbed it El Niño, Spanish for "the boy child" referring to the Christ child. Every few years, the changes brought with El Niño were particularly strong or long lasting. During these strong El Niños, the warmer sea waters nearly wiped out fishing and brought significant
changes in weather. For example, normally dry areas on shore could receive abundant rain, turning deserts into lush grasslands for as long as these strong El Niños lasted. In the 1950s and 60s it was found that strong El Niños were associated with increased sea surface temperatures throughout the eastern tropical Pacific. In recent years, these strong El Niños have been recognized as not just a local change in the sea, but as one half of a vast atmospheric-oceanic cycle.
The other half of the repeating cycle has been named La Niña, or the girl child. This phase of the Southern Oscillation is also sometimes called El Viejo, or the old man.
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