Talk of El Nino has barely faded from the internet, and already attention has turned to what El Nino’s other half will bring to North America, especially drought-stricken regions in the West.

La Nina is El Nino’s counterpart in the cycle known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and with El Nino, it makes up one of the three phases of the oscillation. The third phase is a neutral one in between the two other. La Nina is essentially EL Nino’s opposite. As El Nino represents a warming of ocean temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean, La Nina is a time of cooling, usually of about 3-5 degrees Celsius, in the same region.