Frightening headlines predicting a Super El Niño or even a Godzilla El Niño amp up anxiety levels for farmers and residents of bushfire-prone regions.

But these phrases are not particularly accurate. The phrase “Super El Niño” makes climate scientists like me roll our eyes.

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is a natural and reoccurring climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean which can influence the chance of different weather affecting Australia.

When sea surface temperatures near the Americas are warmer than usual and the trade winds blowing from east to west across the equator weaken, climatologists call this pattern an El Niño.

El Niño events typically ramp up in winter and spring, and decay towards the end of summer and start of autumn.

During El Niño, we tend to experience warmer than usual temperatures and reduced winter-spring rainfall in Australia’s east.

We pay attention to El Niño and its opposite, La Niña, because this climate pattern has the biggest influence on year-to-year rainfall and temperature differences in eastern Australia. Drought is a key concern for farmers and rural residents, and some of the largest droughts of the past 40 years took place during El Niño years.

But problems can arise if we expect El Niño to be the only factor dictating our weather.

Why call an El........

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