This week on Tap Talk, we are pleased to welcome to the show a colleague from the Illinois State Water Survey: Illinois State Climatologist Trent Ford. Trent explains the weather phenomenon of El Niño to Steve & Jennifer, including the science behind the oscillation’s mechanics, the likelihood of this year’s El Niño becoming a “Super” El Niño, the expected impacts on regional climates around the world, and what these impacts can mean for water supplies and systems.
Topics Discussed
- Meet Trent Ford | LinkedIn | BlueSky
- Trent’s Water Heroes: Eunice Foote, American scientist and suffragist who was the first to identify the greenhouse effect on Earth’s climate; and Elena Grossman, public health researcher & scientist at Yale (formerly of the University of Illinois Chicago) who focuses on the intersection of climate, energy, and public health.
- The basics of El Niño: What is it, what causes it, and how often does it occur?
- What is the full cycle of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation?
- What is the criteria for a “Super El Niño” to occur?
- When does El Niño start and when do we see the effects? How does it effect weather in the United States?
- How does El Niño impact surface water supplies?
- Could El Niño have had any impact on some of the major droughts or flooding events we’ve seen in Illinois or elsewhere in the country?
- How does El Niño impact the hurricane and cyclone seasons?
- What does El Niño look like around the globe? How does it impact parts of the world dealing with food and water insecurity?
- How can we prepare water/wastewater utilities and private wells for El Niño?
- Connect with the Illinois State Water Survey
“Once we have an El Niño, we start saying, ‘Well, how strong of an El Niño?’ That’s dictated by how much warmer the water is than normal. A strong El Niño tends to have a one to two degree above average anomaly. Super El Niño is when we get even up to two and a half degrees above average.”Trent Ford
Go Further
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About the Guest
Trent Ford is the Illinois State Climatologist, a position he has held since 2019. Prior to joining the Illinois State Water Survey at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Trent was a professor in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Department of Geography & Environmental Resources. He is an expert in climate and climate change and its interactions and impacts, especially as they relate to water. Trent leads climate and drought monitoring, research, and data collection for Illinois. He and his team work with communities, industries, and state agencies on issues related to weather, climate, and climate change in Illinois, and they engage the general public through online, media, and educational outreach.
Trent holds a BS in Geography from Illinois State University, as well as a MS and a PhD in Geography from Texas A&M University, with focuses on hydroclimatology.