Japanese researchers have indicated the possibility of La Nina, the alter ego of monsoon-buster El Nino, to unfold over the equatorial Pacific later this year.
La Nina, which represents shift of warmer sea-surface temperatures to the west equatorial Pacific, has generally coincided with a normal Indian monsoon, though there is no direct cause-effect relationship.
The unusually-heavy rains over Tamil Nadu and other parts of southern peninsula may have been caused by La Nina and the positive phase of southern oscillation (SO), global scale circulation features.
