What is La Nina means?
La Nina means ‘little girl’ in Spanish and is also known as El Viejo or ‘cold event‘. Here, the water temperature in the Eastern Pacific gets colder than normal.
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As a result of this, there is a strong high pressure over the eastern equatorial Pacific. Now, there is low pressure in the Western Pacific and off Asia. La Nina causes drought in Peru and Ecuador, heavy floods in Australia, high temperatures in Western Pacific, and the Indian Ocean, off the Somalian coast, and good monsoon rains in India. A La Nina is actually beneficial for the Indian monsoon.
Generally, El Nino and La Nina occur every 4-5 years. El Nino is more frequent than La Nina. Typically, the episodes last for nine to twelve months.
El Nino and La Nina’s Effects on India
- Since 1950, out of the 13 droughts that India faced, 10 have been during El Nino years and one in a La Nina year.
- This is because in general, an El Nino means lesser than average rains for India.
- Indian agriculture is heavily dependent on the monsoons and because of this, lesser rainfall during the monsoons generally translates to below-average crop yields