El Nino is a warming of the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean. The atmosphere responds to that warming by producing lower surface pressure above the warm water. That atmospheric response is called the Southern Oscillation. Therefore, when you hear the media talk about how the El Nino will affect you, they really mean how the atmospheric response to the El Nino will affect you.
Storms come and go.
The excellent paper by Barsugli et al. Simply put, not every year that has an El Nino has the same weather. AND not every place on the earth is sensitive to El Ninos. Here in Oklahoma, we're split between having a cold winter and a warm winter. The Pacific Northwest, on the other hand, is very sensitive to the effects of El Nino.