The Global Story: The Super El Nino - what happens when it hits us?

Tristan Redmond (0:00)

Hey there, it's Tristan Redmond of The Global Story Podcast from the BBC, where we tell one in-depth story each weekday from where the world and America meet.

This weekend, we're sharing with you a bonus episode about a phenomenon you might have heard of, but don't necessarily understand. I didn't, El Nino, or this year, a Super El Nino.

Climate scientists are warning that this time, the climate event could be one of the worst in recorded history. But how do scientists know that? And what does that mean for you, for me, for all of us? To understand all the ins and outs, take a listen to our episode. And if you want more from The Global Story, don't forget to subscribe in your podcast app or on bbc.com. All right, here we go.

Tom Di Liberto (0:44)

There's a family story that we have that even back to two, when I was two years old, my mom had to stop me from walking out in the thunderstorms.

Asma Khalid (0:51)

No.

Tom Di Liberto (0:52)

Like whenever there was a thunderstorm, I would just want to walk outside into it.

Asma Khalid (0:55)

I will say, as a mother of young children, that's not normal. Those children, I will say, are very scared of the thunders.

Tom Di Liberto (1:00)

Very scared. Yeah, it's just weird. It's hard to explain. And where I grew up, I love snow, and we got really big snowstorms. I distinctly remember when I was like 10 or 11, and we had this huge blizzard, and I was able to tell my friends, like, I don't think we're going to have school for two days. And they're like, I don't believe you. And I was like the hero for telling them we wouldn't have. We were right. And I just remember like, oh, I could do this. I like this.

This is great.

Tristan Redmond (1:24)

Our guest on the show today is the climate scientist, Tom Di Liberto.

Tom likes wild weather. He likes telling people about wild weather. But even Tom is apprehensive about the so-called Super El Nino that everyone's talking about.

Tom Di Liberto (1:41)

Of course, I'm worried because I know these impacts. I know these extremes impact people.

And you can't not be worried about that.

Tristan Redmond (1:47)

This extreme weather event is brewing in the Pacific Ocean right now.

And Tom says, it's already starting to hit the world. From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in London with Asmahalled in Washington, DC. Today on The Global Story, what's El Nino about to do to us?

Tom Di Liberto (2:12)

I'm with somebody who from a very young age was fascinated with the atmosphere. I said I wanted to be a meteorologist when I was in, I think I was seven or eight years old.

And I had a realization when I was in grad school that part of the reason for it was I hate suspense, so I always like having some sense of what was going to come. But also I just really like being able to tell other people about stuff that was coming so that they could be prepared for it.

Tristan Redmond (2:35)

And Tom got a job doing just that. For years, he worked for the United States government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA, monitoring coming storms. And now he works for a non-profit called Climate Central, helping to let people know what to expect from extreme weather events.

Tom Di Liberto (2:53)

When I was at NOAA, the first job I had was working with the Famine Early Warning System Network, which basically we provided weather and climate forecasts for the world, so we would know where there might be food security or insecurity problems. And that was kind of the jumping off point for a variety of other things. I got involved with El Nino. I was one of the El Nino and La Nina forecasters for the government for a long time and a government spokesperson.

Asma Khalid (3:19)

And what did that mean in terms of how you did your job day to day? I'm just imagining you, Tom, at your desk with like three different computer screens that monitor the climate around the world. Maybe this is absolutely not what your job looked like. But what did it entail? Can you paint a picture for us?

Tom Di Liberto (3:35)

Yes, I would have I had two monitors and usually it was not three. That's that's too crazy for us.

But it's funny because like El Nino is not like a weather pattern. So it wasn't like I had like a satellite up looking at it. Oftentimes I would have the monitors up and I'd be looking at whether we have these climate forecasts. I would be doing usually one side up would be, I would be coding and trying to do some investigation about the way certain things were either appearing or I'd look back at past events.