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Climate change may make El Niño and La Niña less predictable

It could be harder to prep for some droughts, floods and other extreme weather in the future

a map showing El Niño over the Pacific Ocean

Brother-and-sister weather disturbances in the Pacific, known as El Niño (pictured) and La Niña, may soon lose touch with their cousins in the Atlantic.

Climate.gov/NNVL

By Maria Temming

Climate change may make it harder to predict the most severe of the El Niño and La Niña weather disturbances in the Pacific Ocean. That’s because these events will become less connected with what happens halfway around the world in the Atlantic, researchers report online August 21 in Science Advances.