El Niño, La Niña and the Southern Oscillation
variability on inter-annual timescales. The ENSO cycle is illustrated in the figure by a time-series of the monthly sea surface temperature anomalies in a region of the central equatorial Pacific. This 'Niño3.4' region (5°S-5°N,120°W-170°W) is one of several used to monitor changes in the tropical Pacific