If you pay attention to long-range weather forecasts, you'll often hear words like "El Niño" or "La Niña." While it's common language to us, it might not be to you.

Days ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put a 71% chance of La Niña conditions from October to December and a 54% chance of it in December to February.

What is La Niña?

This is all part of the El Niño Southern Oscillation - ENSO. (We love acronyms in meteorology.) The ENSO refers to different trends in ocean temperatures (generally) off the coast of Peru.

A La Niña refers to cooler-than-average waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

So you might be asking...

Why do we care about La Niña if it's in the Pacific?

Oceanography and meteorology have some connections. The ENSO is one of t

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