9. How often does the boy phenomenon occur?

El Niño is a natural phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which appears from time to time, but there is no systematic pattern. The event brings warmer than average sea surface temperatures and has a major influence on climate around the world, affecting billions of people.

The warmest waters of the oceans are normally confined to the western Pacific by winds that blow from east to west, pushing the warmer waters towards Indonesia and Australia.

Scientists are still searching for an answer as to why this happens, but the slowdown in winds can last weeks or months.

The El Niño phenomenon occurs every two to seven years in varying intensity, and the waters of the eastern Pacific can be up to 4 degrees Celsius warmer than normal.