Weather conditions over the Pacific, including an unusually strong La Niña, interrupted seasonal rains in East Africa for two consecutive seasons, precipitating in 2011 the worst drought in the region seen in 60 years [REF].
In 2012, American researchers uncovered a link between the region's low rainfall and changes in the sea surface temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean, which they suggested was largely responsible for the disruption of the long rains.