La Nina

La Nina is the cooling phase of the same Pacific Ocean cycle as El Nino, and it tends to push weather patterns for major crops in the opposite direction.

La Nina is the cool counterpart to El Nino in the same recurring Pacific Ocean cycle, arriving when trade winds strengthen and push warm surface water further west than usual. Rainfall patterns generally shift in the opposite direction from an El Nino event, often bringing wetter conditions to Southeast Asia and Australia and drier conditions to parts of South America and the southern United States.

Because it tends to dry out the US Southern Plains and parts of South America, La Nina is closely watched for its effect on wheat and soybean crops in those regions. Its influence is a matter of shifted odds across a season, not a guaranteed outcome in any single field. Forecasters classify a season as La Nina, El Nino, or neutral using the same ocean temperature indexes. See El Nino and La Nina.