Key Facts Of The Day 1/27

Storms and Flooding

• A snow storm is bearing down on the East Coast, with snow even expected to reach as far south as coastal North Carolina.

  • Bitter cold is hitting the East Coast Thursday morning with a wind chill and temperature it feels like at about 8 degrees in New York, 2 degrees in Boston, Massachusetts, 15 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina, and 24 degrees in Atlanta, Georgia.

  • The brunt of the storm will hit from eastern Long Island to coastal Massachusetts, with moderate to major impacts for the Interstate 95 corridor from Philadelphia to New York City to Boston.

  • The storm will begin in the overnight hours early Saturday for Philadelphia and New York City. Snow will continue into Saturday afternoon in New England.

  • Boston, Massachusetts could see more than 1 foot of snow. New York City is forecast to get 4 to 8 inches of snow while Philadelphia, Pennsylvania could see about 3 to 5 inches.

  • The New Jersey coast and the mid-Atlantic could get over 6 inches of snow and North Carolina could get up to 4 inches.

    • A winter storm watch is in effect for all counties southeast of the New Jersey Turnpike from 7 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m. Saturday.

  • Behind the snowstorm will be the coldest temperatures in years for Florida. Sunday morning the wind chill could plunge to 23 degrees in Orlando and 29 degrees in Miami.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 5 large active wildfires that have burned 2,382 acres across AK, FL, LA, OK, and TX. As of Friday, 929 wildfires have burned 20,686 acres across the country.

• As of Thursday, the Colorado Fire in California has burned 700 acres and is 65% contained.

• Worried about wildfires, the City Council approved new regulations limiting construction of accessory dwelling units in Berkeley Hills.

  • Allowing even slightly more dense new housing in the Berkeley Hills could make it harder to safely evacuate residents during a wildfire.

• Marin, California homeowners are seeing an increase in insurance policy rates and dropped policies in the pandemic era due to wildfire risk.

• Because of rising temperatures and more intense bouts of drought in recent decades, the window for wildfires has grown and California’s fire season is now longer than it was.

  • Over the past 10 years, some of California’s worst fires have erupted on the cusp of winter.

  • A study by the science and news organization Climate Central estimates that the threat of wildfires in western states lasts 105 days more today than it did in the 1970s.

• In response to customer and community feedback, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is offering customers free removal of large-diameter wood from trees that were cut down for safety during the company’s 2021 wildfire response.

• Air pollution, brought on by heat and wildfires, is increasing in the West.

  • On Aug. 24, 2020, 68% of the western United States experienced extreme levels of air pollution caused by wildfire smoke and rising heat.

Extreme Heat

• Coffee plants will be drastically less suitable for cultivation in current coffee-producing regions by 2050 because of the increasing temperatures.

  • Climate change adaptation will be necessary in most major producing regions such as breeding varieties that are better suited to the new conditions.

  • For coffee plants it might mean switching to Robusta trees, which are hardier but produce beans generally considered to be of lower quality than Arabica beans.

  • In the worst case, it could also mean that farmers would have to shift to a different crop.

  • Coffee prices have already been spiking due to bad weather. Droughts, storms and frost, previously rare or unheard of in some areas, are becoming the norm in farming regions around the world, making it difficult for farmers to plan ahead, wreaking havoc on food supplies and driving up prices.

• A chunk of Antarctic ice that was one of the biggest icebergs ever seen has met its end near the island of South Georgia.

  • As it traveled through the relatively warm waters of the Southern Ocean into the South Atlantic, it melted from below, eventually releasing a huge quantity of fresh water into the sea near the island. The influx of so much fresh water could affect plankton and other organisms in the marine food chain.

• Attorney Generals of New York, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania urged the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to take swift action to implement national standards to protect outdoor and indoor workers from occupational exposure to extreme heat.

• Phoenix, Arizona is the country’s hottest and fifth most populous city, and is nearly unlivable in summer.

  • The city is accustomed to a hot desert climate, but day and night temperatures have been rising due to global heating and the city’s unchecked development, which has created a sprawling urban heat island.

  • Almost 200 people died from extreme heat in Phoenix in 2020 – the hottest, driest and deadliest summer on record with 53 days topping 110 degrees.

  • David Hondula, the director of Phoenix’s heat response and mitigation office, will lead a four-person team with two broad goals: protecting residents when it’s very hot (the heat response part), and coming up with long-term strategies to cool the city and make it more comfortable (the mitigation part).

  • Mitigation efforts will be focused on trees and infrastructure, which will be led by an urban forester and a built environment expert who are yet to be hired.

New Reports And Data

• A January 2022 study found that urban greening is unlikely to provide a single fix for tackling extreme weather events brought on by climate change.

• A January 2022 study  found that as climate change progresses, the most suitable regions for growing coffee arabica, cashews, and avocados will decline in some of the main countries that produce these crops.

• A January 2022 study found that gas stoves in kitchens pose a greater risk to public health and the planet than previously thought.