El Niño feedbacks between the ocean and atmosphere. During El Niño, the eastward expansion of the convection and rainfall will depend on how warm the absolute sea surface temperatures becomes in the eastern Pacific. This means that during weaker El Niño events, we may only see convection and rainfall increase around the Date Line. But during stronger El Niño events, the increase in convection and rainfall can potentially extend from the Date Line all the way to coastal Ecuador/Peru in South America. Climate.gov schematic by Emily Eng and inspired by NOAA PMEL.