Of the 14 La Niñas on record as of 2016, nine immediately followed El Niño years.
Notes on verification
Directly confirmed by NOAA Climate.gov's ENSO Blog primary source, which states the exact figures verbatim. Independent academic sources corroborate the general count of La Niña events since 1950, with minor variation due to classification methodology.
Sources
- Say Goodbye to a Historic El Niño and Hello to La Niña (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/enso/may-2016-el-ni%C3%B1ola-ni%C3%B1a-update-switcheroo (climate.gov)
- https://www.researchgate.net/figure/El-Nino-and-La-Nina-events-since-the-1950s-as-identified-by-the-NCC-CMA-standard_tbl1_329985536 (researchgate.net)