Odds Increase Again for Historic Super El Niño by Fall El Niño behaves like a temperamental child, and the tantrums cross oceans, hitting every continent downstream. The name comes from Spanish-speaking fishermen who noticed warm currents arriving each year near Christmas and called the pattern for the Christ child, a reference for a system with the power to upend weather across the world. When El Niño escalates, the disruption escalates alongside, and this year's version sta