ENSO / El Niño Monitor
NOAA's official Niño regions, ONI, and SOI — plus what's happening in the world that ENSO is driving right now.
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change in ONI
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central Pacific SST anomaly
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eastern Pacific — leads ENSO
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atmospheric counterpart
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cross-tool live readings
What this dashboard helps you answer
Each question maps to a value above and the threshold that decides it. Open any ℹ for the metric definition, what it signals, and sources.
Are we in El Niño, La Niña, or Neutral — and how strong?
Read the ONI. El Niño when ONI ≥ +0.5 °C, La Niña when ≤ −0.5 °C, sustained for 5+ overlapping 3-month seasons. Strength bins: weak 0.5–1.0, moderate 1.0–1.5, strong 1.5–2.0, "super" ≥ 2.0.
Is the event building or decaying?
Read the 6-month trend (change in ONI). A positive swing > +0.3 °C signals warming toward El Niño; < −0.3 °C signals cooling toward La Niña — the basis for "is a new event developing?"
Is the ocean and atmosphere actually coupled?
Compare Niño 3.4 SST with the SOI. A warm ocean plus a negative SOI confirms a coupled, self-reinforcing El Niño; a warm ocean with neutral SOI is an uncoupled blip unlikely to persist.
Eastern-Pacific or Central-Pacific "flavor"?
Compare Niño 1+2 (east) with Niño 3.4 / 4 (central) in the regions panel. East-leading events resemble 1982/1997 (Peru floods, fishery collapse); central-leaning "Modoki" events shift drought and rainfall footprints.
Could this rival a "super" El Niño?
Track whether the ONI trajectory is heading toward +2 °C and compare against the 1972/1982/1997/2015 playbook below — the events that drove global mass coral bleaching, record heat, and major droughts.
What is ENSO driving in the world right now?
Scan the global impacts panel: live cross-tool readings for coral bleaching, tropical-Pacific marine heatwaves, US drought, and global temperature — the downstream signals ENSO modulates.
ONI history
3-month running mean Niño-3.4 SST anomaly. Bands show official El Niño (≥+0.5 °C) and La Niña (≤−0.5 °C) thresholds, plus the informal "super" event line (±2 °C).
Niño regions — current state
Global impacts in progress
Live signals from sibling monitors that ENSO typically drives. Click through to each for full detail.
The 4 "super" El Niños — historical playbook
Events where peak ONI exceeded +2 °C. Each has a documented global impact catalog.