EI Nino is

The correct answer is a warm ocean current.

Key Points

• El Nino refers to the unusual warming of the central and east-central equatorial Pacific Ocean which affects global weather.
• The warmer waters of the Pacific Ocean cause the winds in various regions to reverse, like the trade winds that come towards India.
• This change of wind direction leads to warmer winters and summers and a decrease in rainfall during the monsoon.
• Most of the time, it also leads to drought.
• Effects of El Nino:
  • ​El Nino affects global weather.
  • It favors eastern Pacific hurricanes and tropical storms.
  • Recorded unusual rainfall in Peru, Chile, and Ecuador are linked to the climate pattern.
  • Over India, the El Nino has usually been the harbinger of drought and the La Nina of rain.

Important Points

• There is also an opposite of an El Nino, called La Nina means The Little Girl in Spanish.
• This refers to times when waters of the tropical eastern Pacific are colder than normal and trade winds blow more strongly than usual.
• Collectively, El Nino and La Nina are parts of an oscillation in the ocean-atmosphere system called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO cycle.