El Nino, which is Spanish for "the little boy," is an abnormal warming of water in the Pacific Ocean every three or so years that can wreak havoc with global weather patterns.

The current El Nino emerged in October and remained relatively weak compared to previous ones. NOAA said El Nino's impact was minimized by limited convection, or the pulling of air and moisture upward into the atmosphere, in the warm water of the central equatorial Pacific.

The weather abnormality last appeared from May 2002 through March 2003, causing record rains in Europe and Australia's worst drought in a century. In the United States, it aggravated drought in the Plains states and unleashed heavy storms in the South.