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When La Niña lingers: Researchers uncover two mechanisms behind multi-year events

Phys · · 707 words · By Chinese Academy

Researchers from Nanjing University and the University of Hawaii have identified two distinct mechanisms that cause La Niña events to persist for multiple years. The study emphasizes the role of the South Pacific Meridional Mode (SPMM) in sustaining these events, which may improve future climate forecasting and preparedness.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-la-nia-lingers-uncover-mechanisms.html

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10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 100%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkFact-Check Results

10 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

info Single Source 4
check_circle Corroborated 2
verified Verified By Reference 2
help Insufficient Evidence 2
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“Multi-year La Niña events—so-called "double-dip" or even "triple-dip" La Niñas—are becoming more common.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that multi-year La Niña events are expected to occur more frequently due to global warming and that they are attracting increasing scientific attention.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Severe flooding occurred during the 2011 monsoon season in Thailand. The flooding began at the end of July triggered by the landfall of Tropical Storm Nock-ten. These floods soon spread through the pr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Thailand_floods
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a global climate phenomenon that emerges from variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Those variations have an irregular…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This article documents notable events, research findings, scientific and technological advances, and human actions to measure, predict, mitigate, and adapt to the effects of global warming and climate…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in_climate_change
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
“Researchers from the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology and the University of Hawaii discovered two distinct pathways that can lead to long-lasting La Niña conditions”
SINGLE SOURCE
While the Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology exists (verified by Wikipedia), there is no specific evidence in the provided search results confirming a joint study with the University of Hawaii identifying two distinct pathways for La Niña.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nanjing Normal University (NJNU; Chinese: 南京师范大学; pinyin: Nánjīng Shīfàn Dàxué) is a provincial public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated with the Province of Jiangsu, and co-spon…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Normal_University
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nanjing University (NJU) is a public university in Nanjing and Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated and sponsored by the Ministry of Education. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_University
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST; 南京信息工程大学) is a provincial public university in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. It is affiliated with the province of Jiangsu. The universi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_University_of_Informat…
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
“The study is published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences .”
SINGLE SOURCE
One web search result mentions a paper titled 'Wintertime Arctic Sea-Ice Decline Related to Multi-Year La Niña Events' published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, but it does not confirm the specific study on 'multi-year La Niña mechanisms' described in the claim.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This article documents notable events, research findings, scientific and technological advances, and human actions to measure, predict, mitigate, and adapt to the effects of global warming and climate…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_in_climate_change
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Atmospheric circulation is the large-scale movement of air and together with ocean circulation is the means by which thermal energy is redistributed on the surface of Earth. Earth's atmospheric circul…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_circulation
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — A heat dome is a weather phenomenon consisting of extreme heat that is caused when the atmosphere traps hot air as if bounded by a lid or cap. Heat domes happen when strong high pressure atmospheric c…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_dome
+ 3 more evidence sources
verified
“El Niño is characterized by unusually warm sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific, while La Niña brings cooler-than-normal conditions to the same region.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and multiple authoritative web sources explicitly define El Niño as the warming phase and La Niña as the cooling phase of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2014–2016 El Niño was the strongest El Niño event on record, with unusually warm waters developing between the coast of South America and the International Date Line. These unusually warm waters i…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014–2016_El_Niño_event
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The El Niño–Southern Oscillation affects the location of the jet stream, which alters rainfall patterns across the West, Midwest, the Southeast, and throughout the tropics. The shift in the jet strea…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_the_El_Niño–Souther…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a global climate phenomenon that emerges from variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Those variations have an irregular…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation
+ 3 more evidence sources
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“it is no longer rare to see La Niña events persist for two years, a phenomenon often referred to as a "double-dip" La Niña.”
CORROBORATED
The term 'double-dip' is used in news reports (NOAA) and scientific contexts to describe La Niña events persisting for two consecutive years.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a global climate phenomenon that emerges from variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Those variations have an irregular…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Carola Moccia (born 10 July 1991), known professionally as La Niña, is an Italian singer-songwriter and actress.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Niña_(singer)
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Nina Ricci Alcantara Ynares-Chiongbian (born October 20, 1970) is a Filipino politician who has served as the 20th governor of Rizal since 2022. A member of the Nationalist People's Coalition, she con…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Ynares
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
“a widely accepted hypothesis is that multi-year La Niña events are triggered by preceding extreme El Niño events, but this mechanism explains only about 30% of the total multi-year La Niñas observed over the past century”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence mentions that extreme El Niño events transition to La Niña, but the specific statistic (30% of total multi-year La Niñas) is not found in the provided evidence sources.
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web search NEUTRAL — El Niño–Southern Oscillation is a global climate phenomenon that emerges from variation in winds and sea surface temperatures over the tropical Pacific Ocean. Those variations have an irregular patter…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Niño–Southern_Oscillation
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web search NEUTRAL — More multiyear La Niña events will exacerbate adverse socioeconomic impacts if the western Pacific continues to warm relative to the central Pacific. Recent decades have seen the increasing frequency …
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01801-6?error=coo…
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web search NEUTRAL — extremely strong El Niño events tend to terminate and transition to La Niña within one year. When extreme. El Niño decays from winter to spring, equatorial westerly wind anomalies are known to shift s…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348025717_Mechanism…
verified
“the team found, may lie in a pattern of anomalous sea surface temperatures south of the equator, known as the South Pacific Meridional Mode (SPMM).”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and scientific papers confirm the existence of the South Pacific Meridional Mode (SPMM) as a climate mode involving sea surface temperature anomalies south of the equator.
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web search NEUTRAL — The "South Pacific Meridional Mode" (SPMM) is an analogous climate mode in the south Pacific;[22] Zhang, Clement and Di Nezio proposed its existence in 2014[157] and it operates in a nearly identical …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Meridional_Mode
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web search NEUTRAL — However little is known on how ENSO can inuence the development of the PMM. Here we investigate the relationship between ENSO and the South Pacic Meridional Mode (SPMM) focusing on strong SPMM events …
https://cerfacs.fr/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Dewitte_AR_CMG…
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web search NEUTRAL — The South Pacific Meridional Mode: A Mechanism for ENSO-like Variability. Honghai zhang and amy clement.robust mode of variability, defined as the South Pacific meridional mode (SPMM), is identified in a …
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265466535_The_South…
info
“The first route is driven by strong upper-ocean heat discharge associated with a preceding super El Niño, which induces thermocline anomalies that slow La Niña decay via Bjerknes feedback”
SINGLE SOURCE
One web search result mentions a preceding El Niño inducing equatorial upper-ocean heat discharge, but the full mechanism involving Bjerknes feedback as a specific 'first route' is not independently corroborated in the provided evidence.
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web search NEUTRAL — A preceding El Niño induces an equatorial upper-ocean heat discharge24 and a negative NPMM-like response in the subtropical North Pacific27,29,47.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10371868/
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web search NEUTRAL — One La Niña winter is often followed by another. El Niño winters seldom double-dip.First, the sea surface temperature anomalies (difference from the long-term average) during El Niño tend to be center…
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/double-dipp…
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web search NEUTRAL — During the winter preceding the single-year La Niña, weakly positive SST anomalies emerge over the central and eastern Pacic (Fig. 2a). In the subsequent months, as a result of.
https://hal.science/hal-04430142v1/document
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“The second route involves the influence of meridionally extended sea surface temperature anomalies, which strengthen equatorial easterlies, enhance upwelling, and delay the decay of La Niña”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the search results to support or refute the description of the 'second route' involving meridionally extended SST anomalies.
help
“Distinctive routes for multi-year La Niña formation, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2026). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-026-5771-8”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found for a paper with this specific title, date (2026), or DOI in the provided search results.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.