El Niño And La Niña: Not Just Those Annoying Brats Next Door

It’s been a while since the last time we had to think about climate phenomenon El Niño, the abnormal warming of Pacific Ocean surface waters that causes all sorts of nasty weather. But according to a report released today by the World Meteorological Organization, El Niño’s little sister La Niña will make an appearance at the end of the year. The news got us to asking an old question–who decided to Hispanify these havoc-wreaking siblings? Wikipedia, as always, enlightened us:

The name El Niño, from the Spanish for “the little boy”, refers to the Christ child because the phenomenon is usually noticed around Christmas time in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of South America.

(We couldn’t think of a better bouncing baby Jesus than Chris Farley, who does his best El Niño impression in the above clip.) Guess it goes without saying that the unusual cooling of those same waters is deemed female; hence, La Niña. Girl power?

Weak La Niña Event Likely to Develop In 2007: WMO [Reuters]