Abstract To elucidate physical processes responsible for the response of U.S. surface temperatures to El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the surface energy balance is diagnosed from observations, with emphasis on the role of clouds, water vapor, and land surface properties associated with snow cover and soil moisture. Results for the winter season (December–February) indicate that U.S. surface temperature conditions associated with ENSO are determined principally by anomalies in the surface radiative heating—the sum of absorbed solar radiation and downward longwave radiation. Each component of the surface radiative heating is linked with specific characteristics of the atmospheric hydrologic response to ENSO and also to feedbacks by the land surface response. During El Niño, surface warming over the northern United States is physically consistent with three primary processes: 1) increased downward solar radiation due to reduced cloud optical thickness, 2) reduced reflected solar radiation due to an albedo decline resulting from snow cover loss, and 3) increased downward longwave radiation linked to an increase in precipitable water. In contrast, surface cooling over the southern United States during El Niño is mainly the result of a reduction in incoming solar radiation resulting from increased cloud optical thickness. During La Niña, surface warming over the central United States results mainly from snow cover losses, whereas warming over the southern United States results mainly from a reduction in cloud optical thickness that yields increased incoming solar radiation and also from an increase in precipitable water that enhances the downward longwave radiation. For both phases of ENSO the surface radiation budget is closely linked to large-scale horizontal and vertical motions in the free atmosphere through two main processes: 1) the convergence of the atmospheric water vapor transport that largely determines cloud optical thickness and thereby affects incoming shortwave radiation and 2) the changes in tropospheric column temperature resulting from the characteristic atmospheric teleconnections that largely determine column precipitable water and thereby affect downward longwave radiation.