Rare La Niña may form at same time as ‘super’ El Niño
While conditions are heating up for a “super” El Niño in the Pacific, the inverse may be happening in the Atlantic, where cooler-than-average temperatures may be setting the stage for an unusual La Niña
It’s still too soon to call it official, explained Franz Philip Tuchen, an assistant professor at the University of Miami’s Department of Ocean Sciences, but some parts of the Atlantic are starting to read colder-than-normal.
“If this event persists, there is a high chance of an Atlantic Niña forming,” Tuchen said.
While La Niñas form every few years in the Pacific, they’re unusual on the other side of the country in the Atlantic.
“Atlantic Niña events have been rather rare during the last 25 years until the recent Atlantic Niña event in 2025,” Tuchen said. That being said, we seem to have entered a time period where “extreme events” are growing more common.
“We don’t really know why there are some decades or multiple decades with reduced events and some decades or multiple decades with increased events,” Tuchen said. “But we are certainly again in an era of more extreme events.”
It won’t be until later in the summer, after more data is collected, where scientists will be officially able to determine if La Niña conditions have taken hold in the Atlantic.
How does an Atlantic La Niña impact weather?
While a Pacific La Niña has global weather implications, including all around the U.S., “everything is a bit smaller” with an Atlantic La Niña, Tuchen told Nexstar in 2024, when unusual temperature recordings were also taken in the Atlantic.
Atlantic La Niñas don’t last as long and really only have regional weather impacts. They usually bring more rain to West Africa and the Sahel region of Africa, but less rain over northeast Brazil.
Cyclone activity near Cape Verde is also typically reduced. That could have an indirect impact on the U.S., since cyclone activity near Cape Verde can sometimes turn into hurricanes that make their way toward the U.S.
Diminished cyclone activity in the eastern Atlantic may end up meaning fewer hurricanes for the Caribbean and Gulf states.
How would an Atlantic La Niña mix with a ‘super’ El Niño?
While it’s too soon to say if we’ll see an Atlantic La Niña, we already know we’re seeing El Niño conditions in the Pacific – and they’re heating up. A recent national forecast said there’s an 81% chance this year’s El Niño will grow to be “very strong” by its peak in the early winter.
Very strong El Niños, also called “super” El Niños, are rare. If things pan out as they’re predicted to, this year’s “would rank among the largest El Niño events in the historical record going back to 1950,” according to the Climate Prediction Center.
El Niño tends to make the biggest impact on winter weather in the U.S. It usually brings warmer, dry weather up north and to the Ohio Valley. Meanwhile, the southern half of the country can expect a wetter winter, with more rain and snow.
The two oceans and their respective climate phenomena are not completely independent, Tuchen explained.
“There is definitely a connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic through the atmosphere. Events in both oceans can be generated independently, but even if that is the case, at some point there will be interaction through the atmosphere.”
The two massive oceans may be far apart, but they’re interconnected nonetheless. This El Niño in the Pacific, for example, is created by warmer-than-normal temperatures in the water along the equator.
That leads to an increase in easterly winds in the Atlantic, Tuchen said, which triggers more wave activity.
More waves can lead to cooler waters, helping fuel a La Niña in the Atlantic.
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Header image: NOAA / PMEL