As temperatures climb, so can your bills. From electricity to groceries, the summer heat makes daily life more expensive.
NTX Now's Ron Corning and Miranda Suarez spoke with Dr. Andrew Dressler, a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M, about what El Niño is and how it's affecting our everyday life.
These interview highlights have been edited for length and clarity. To hear the full conversation, click the 'listen' button above.
What is El Niño?
Dressler describes the climate system as a big plate of Jell-o that wobbles back and forth. The climate is always moving back and forth between two different climate patterns.
"During El Niño, the planet is warmer than it is during the other side of the wobble, which we call La Niña," he said. "So the planet's always oscillating between these two conditions and it looks like we're heading into an extremely big El Niño, potentially the biggest one in recorded history."
Ripple effect on our wallets
There are many ways the summer heat affects the money coming out of our wallets. The most direct way is through increased costs to keep our homes cool. As temperatures rise, the air conditioner is being run more, leading to a hefty bill.
Dresser says there are indirect impacts, too, like grocery prices.
"As the climate warms, the processes that farms are using, the amount of rainfall they get, the amounts they need to irrigate, the crops they use, all those things change, and they become more expensive," Dresser said. "It may not be that big, but combined, they cost Americans a lot of money."
The global effect
Dresser noted that now more than ever, when a climate disaster affects another part of the world, it's also affecting North Texas locally, regardless of where the disaster happened.
"We live in a globally integrated economy," he said. "A climate disaster in Iowa affects our food price. A climate disaster in China affects the prices we pay, and so everything that happens is going to affect how much you're paying for goods and services."
Miranda Suarez and Ron Corning are the hosts of KERA's NTX Now. Got a tip? Email Miranda at msuarez@kera.org or Ron at rcorning@kera.org.
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