Two La Niñas occurred two years after an El Niño, with a neutral year in between.
Notes on verification
Directly corroborated by verbatim NOAA ENSO blog statement, cited and matched by Smithsonian article. [tier=unverified indep_score=0.5 clusters=1 claim_tier=notable] [kind-backfill 2026-09-16: kind=empirical eligibility=high] [harvest 2026-09-28: +1 source(s) on new hosts; tier unverified->silver indep=0.77 clusters=2]
Sources
- Say Goodbye to a Historic El Niño and Hello to La Niña (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/may-2016-el-ni%C3%B1ola-ni%C3%B1a-update-switcheroo (corroboration)
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5442129/ (corroboration)