It is believed that El Niño may have contributed to the 1993 Mississippi floods and the 1995 California floods. It is also believed that El Niño contributes to a smaller chance of hurricanes in the North Atlantic, sparing Atlantic and Gulf Coast states from the associated storm damage.

During an El Niño event, the surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean become significantly warmer than usual. It also reduces the upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich waters from the deep—shutting down or reversing ocean currents along the equator and along the west coast of South and Central America.

An El Niño condition occurs when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average and east winds blow weaker than normal. The opposite condition is called La Niña. During this phase of ENSO, the water is cooler than normal and the east winds are stronger.

Scientists have discovered that increased lightning and even increased tornado activity can go along with El Niño. El Niño conditions affect more than just clouds and rainfall in certain locations. Scientists have discovered that increased lightning and even increased tornado activity go along with El Niño.

Because even as La Niña formed this year, on a whole, 2020 has been sizzling hot. Usually, years with La Niñas are cooler than years without due to the huge amount of cooler than average ocean water exposed across the equatorial Pacific. On the flip side, years with El Niños tend to fall on the warm side.

While it is true that tornadoes can happen across the calendar, the spring and early summer is highly favored over other time. Out of the 71 years in the modern record (since 1950), the peak month for tornadoes has been April a surprisingly-small seven times, May 35 times, and June 25 times.