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Houston is experiencing El Niño, but what’s the difference between that and La Niña?

The two weather phenomenons are sometimes hard to tell a part

Transmission towers near the CenterPoint Energy facility on December 22, 2022 in Houston, Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott and state officials have begun warning residents to prepare for subfreezing temperatures as a cold front looms over the state of Texas. ERCOT (The Electric Reliability Council of Texas) and the Public Utility Council have assured residents that the power grid will remain stable amidst freezing conditions. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images) (Brandon Bell, 2022 Getty Images)

If the weather in Houston has felt odd to you over the last few months, you’re not alone. Much of the southern part of the United States, especially Houston, have been experiencing the weather phenomenon known as El Niño.

El Niño happens every few years, and it can bring unusual weather to the southernmost states in the U.S, especially the wet and cloudy pattern that Houston has been in for the past few months. If you’ve noticed the very hot summers and cool and wet winters around Houston, El Niño has something to do with it.

According to KPRC Chief Meteorologist Frank Billingsley, he thinks it’s a pretty safe bet that El Niño will be on its way out by late spring. In fact, here is a link to his most recent blog talking about when Houston will transition out of our current El Niño pattern.

There is also an opposite to El Niño, and it’s called La Niña, and the two can get a little confusing if you don’t know the difference.

El Niño, what we are currently experiencing, happens when there is a warming of the eastern Pacific waters which warms the air above it. It explains why the summer of 2023 was so hot, as well as a drier winter across much of the northern tier of the United States. If you have any friends or family who lives in northern states, they can tell you how mild the winter has been.

On the upside, El Niño usually keeps hurricanes away from the Gulf of Mexico, which explains why summer of 2023 was a generally mild hurricane season. Even though there were a number of storms that did form, landfalling storms for the US were on the lower end of the tropical scale for our season.

La Niña, on the other hand, is basically just the opposite of El Niño.

During La Niña, the eastern Pacific waters are colder, which then makes the air cooler in places like the Pacific Northwest. For us in Houston, a La Niña year could mean a drier than usual year. It can also lead to a more intense hurricane season.

The transition from El Niño to La Niña will be happening during the summer, so it will be harder to predict when we will feel the effects of each of these weather phenomenon. The KPRC2 Stormtracker team will always be watching for indicators of change when we do finally flip back into a La Niña pattern and what that may mean for our upcoming hurricane season this summer.


About the Authors
Jack Roskopp headshot

Jack is a Digital Content Editor with a degree in creative writing and French from Western Michigan University. He specializes in writing about movies, food and the latest TV shows.

Justin Stapleton headshot

Meteorologist, craft beer guru, dad to Maya and Ella and a sock and cheese addict.