Key Facts Of The Day 2/24

Storms and Flooding

• Winter weather alerts stretch over 1,500 miles from Texas to Maine as the ice storm is set to create hazardous travel and possible power outages, as well as a potential flood threat in the Tennessee and Ohio Valleys on Thursday.

  • Ice accumulations greater than 0.25 inches are likely from the Red River Valley of Texas through the Ozarks and southeast Missouri.

  • Nearly 1,500 flights have been canceled for Thursday, mostly from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

  • The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, warned Wednesday that it could experience tight grid conditions.

  • Some school districts in Texas, including in Dallas and Fort Worth, have canceled classes due to the expected hazardous driving conditions.

  • Up to 0.75 of an inch of ice is expected to form on roads stretching from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Jonesboro, a swath that includes Interstates 40 and 30.

  • The storm is expected to shift east on Friday, setting up a wintry mess in the Northeast with the potential for more ice concerns, especially in the Appalachians and Western Pennsylvania.

  • Forecasters predict the storm will dump substantial amounts of snow as well as cause ice accumulations as it churns into the southern New England region on Friday.

• In 2021 alone nearly 15 million homes across America were ravaged by natural disasters, from wildfires and hurricanes to blizzards and tornadoes. And that cost an estimated $56.92 billion in property damage.

  • Winter storms impacted 12.7 million homes across the U.S., causing 15 billion in property damage. Second was hurricanes, which impacted 1.2 million homes and caused 33 billion in property damage.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 15 large active wildfires that have burned 21,177 acres across CA, FL, KY, TX, MS, and OK. As of Friday, 5,544 wildfires have burned 116,401 acres across the country.

• In California, 1 fire has burned 4,136 acres as of Friday.

  • The Airport Fire burned 4,136 acres and was 82% contained as of Wednesday.

Extreme Heat

• Waves of extreme heat, which are on the rise due to climate change, are linked to an uptick in emergency room visits for mental health conditions.

  • On such hotter-than-normal days over the past decade, emergency department check-ins for any mental health condition surged by 8% in comparison to days of optimal temperature.

  • Heat stress is known to trigger adverse physiological reactions in the body, and exposure is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.

• Sea ice around Antarctica has reached a record low in four decades of observations.

  • As of Tuesday, ice covered 750,000 square miles around the Antarctic coast, below the previous record low of 815,000 square miles in early March 2017.

• Rising global temperatures have shifted at least twice the amount of freshwater from warm regions towards the Earth’s poles than previously thought as the water cycle intensifies.

  • Climate change has intensified the global water cycle by up to 7.4% – compared with previous modeling estimates of 2% to 4%.

  • Climate change will cause long-term changes to the water cycle, resulting in stronger and more frequent droughts and extreme rainfall events.

New Reports And Data

• A February 2022 study found that higher warm-season temperatures were associated with an increased risk of emergency department visits for any mental health condition and for specific mental health conditions.

• A February 2022 report found that one in ten homes in the U.S. were affected by climate change disasters in 2021.

• A February 2022 study found that the likelihood of hot, dry, windy autumn weather that can set the stage for severe fires in California and western Oregon has increased 40% due to human-caused climate change.