A condition caused by the decrease in atmospheric pressure over the Eastern Pacific Ocean, weakening the prevailing westerly winds and resulting in warm waters and less nutrient replacement from cold, deeper waters into the Eastern Pacific along the coast of South America. This event creates strange weather patterns worldwide sometimes causing flooding in California and droughts in South America simultaneously. The effect gets it name from the Spanish for the Christ Child--the little one--because it is experienced in December by the local fisherman off the western coast of South America as a poor fishing season.