This is a great explainer of a world wide shift in climate and regional weather patterns occurring right now that is expected to be especially intense... on already very high sea surface baseline conditions.

WHY YSK: I share this here because the pictures, graphics and explanations I think provide a great way to actually get a sense of what all these sciencey climate words mean. The scientific illustration work here is great and I think this is the best explanation I have found for El Nino, what it impacts, and why. I studied climatology at university so I am lucky but all of these terms and concepts can really be confusing and feel opaque if you haven't seen an explanation that visually and spatially integrates everything for you to actually see and then remember as a concept not just a set of jargon terms.

Well here you go, if you have ever wanted the best, approachable explanation of El Nino and La Nina here it is!

purposefully awkwardly cropped example of the graphics in the article, I didn't want to just copy paste these, but I wanted to entice people.

For example, did you know that what determines whether we are in an El Nino or not is literally defined spatially by a bunch of huge boxes? (then you integrate over time, the boxes have to spend a certain amount of time at certain values to qualify as the Pacific technically being in an El Nino... kind of like how recessions are defined I guess?)

The spatial extent is in one sense arbitrary, but what matters is a consistent measurement of relevant places across the ocean, and that is why El Nino is defined this way... to make it easier for everyone to measure the same thing!