El Niño is almost over. A similar phenomenon may be next. What is La Niña?

Meteorologist are watching for a weather pattern called La Niña, the opposite of the El Niño pattern behind this year's warm winter. La Niña could bring storms or even hurricanes.

Winter in Canada has been warmer than usual thanks to El Niño, but there’s a chance the weather event could be followed by a chilly La Niña this year, experts say.

While El Niño is characterized by warm, above-average sea-surface temperatures, La Niña is a climate pattern that tends to occur soon after El Niño and brings on opposite, cold effects.

Weather events that cause changes in sea temperatures can have widespread impacts, which is why meteorologists closely monitor them. In the case of La Niña, greater precipitation and winds may lead to rain storms, or even hurricanes.

If La Niña does occur in 2024, meteorologists say it would begin in late summer or early fall.

La Niña is a climate phenomenon that results in cooler-than-normal waters appearing off the coast of South America, near Ecuador and Peru.

The weather anomaly occurs when stronger trade winds push warm water away from South America and toward Australia and Indonesia across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, which leaves a buildup (or upwelling) of cold water. That results in cooler air over the west coast of North America, and drier air in the southern United States.

Canada has had strong El Niño weather patterns in the past, which is believed to have factored into warm winters, Global News meteorologist Ross Hull says. While La Niña tends to bring colder winters, Hull says a stronger signal can also lead to bigger storms or hurricanes in Canada.

Sea temperatures are still warmer than usual and will likely remain that way through the spring, so a La Niña event wouldn’t happen right away, Hull says.