El Niño Dates
The following table shows the distribution of El Niño (+) and La Niña (-) events, by month, for the period 1961-1990. Months with no symbol are considered "normal".
Month
Year J F M A M J J A S O N D
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1961
1962 - - - - - - - - - -
1963 + + + + + + + + +
1964 - - - - - - - -
1965 + + + + + + + + + +
1966
1967 - - - - -
1968 - - - - - - + +
1969 + + + + +
1970 - - - - - - - - - -
1971 - - - - - - - - - -
1972 + + + + + + + + + + +
1973 + - - - - - - - - -
1974 - - - -
1975 - - - - - - - - - - - -
1976 - - - + + + + + + + +
1977 - - - - - -
1978 - - - - - - -
1979
1980
1981
1982 + + + + + + + +
1983 + + + + + + + + +
1984 - - -
1985 - - - - - - - - - - - -
1986 - - + + + +
1987 + + + + + + + + + +
1988 + + + + + + + + + + +
1989 + + +
1990
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Totals
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El Nino 5 6 7 8 9 8 8 8 9 8 8 7
La Nina 7 8 10 10 10 10 9 9 8 10 8 8
Normal 18 16 13 12 11 12 13 13 13 12 14 15
The source of this tabulation is the following article: "Pacific Ocean Influences Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide", by Steven D. Meyers and James J. O'Brien. It was published in the December 26, 1995 issue of the Transactions of the American Geophysical Union.
Note: There is no official, agreed-upon definition of El Niño. Therefore, different researchers studying the phenomenon have come up with slightly different dates. The above tabulation represents one possible set of dates. Be aware that you may see maps of "El Niño" temperature and precipitation elsewhere that look different from the maps on the GLOBE server.
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