El Niño and La Niña Resources on the Internet
El Niño refers to a massive warming off the coastal waters of Peru and Ecuador and the Southern Oscillation to the related atmospheric component of this phenomenon, often abbreviated as ENSO. The ocean warming covers a band from 10 degrees N to 10 degrees S and extends more than 90 degrees of longitude. Typically, the warming starts late in the boreal spring or summer and builds to a peak at the end of the year, with the event usually over by the following summer. It is a quasi-periodic phenomenon with global consequences in the form of flooding, droughts, and other phenomena. (TAMU, Glossary of Oceanography and the Related Geosciences with References)