La Niña. In a sense, La Niña is the opposite of El Niño: In a La Niña year, ocean temperatures in the tropical Pacific are colder than usual. This tends to inhibit storms and precipitation in the central Pacific but causes increased rainfall in the far western Pacific (such as Australia, Malaysia, and the Philippines). In the United States, La Niña is associated with colder-than-normal winters in the north and warmer-than-normal winters in the south. La Niña events often immediately follow El Niño years.