Key Facts Of The Day 3/24

Storms and Flooding

• Some Pickens County, South Carolina residents are pulling themselves out of debris after at least a dozen homes were damaged by severe weather that brought high winds and heavy rainfall to the area Wednesday evening.

  • Multiple people were trapped in homes in Pickens County, South Carolina after tornado warnings were issued on Wednesday night.

  • One resident’s garage was leveled.

  • Due to impacts from the storm in Pickens County, Project GO students will have an eLearning day Thursday,  according to the School District of Pickens County.

  • One resident’s home was picked off cement blocks, moved out six feet forward and dropped back down.

  • Officials rescue people trapped under a mobile home in Pickens County.

  • Multiple power lines were also down across the area and crews were working to clear those.

• On Wednesday night, a storm damaged and destroyed homes in eastern Carroll County, Virginia.

  • A survey is being conducted to determine if it was a tornado.

• The National Weather Service has confirmed an EF-0 touched down in Huron County, Ohio on Wednesday night.

• On Monday, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) announced $60 million of funding for victims of flooding in four states that got pummeled by Hurricane Ida.

  • $40 million of that money earmarked for Louisiana — a state that’s home to six of the 20 most at-risk counties in the country for flooding.

  • New Jersey will receive $10 million, and Mississippi and Pennsylvania will get $5 million apiece.

  • The grant funding, which will be distributed by local governments, can go to elevating buildings off the ground, retrofitting them, making them more resilient to water, or property acquisition and structure demolition/relocation.

  • As storms become more intense and seas rise, parts of the coastline in the U.S. will become so inundated by water that living there will become impossible.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 21 large active wildfires that have burned 129,168 acres across CA, FL, KS, MO, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX. As of Friday, 12,514 wildfires have burned 320,144 acres across the country.

• As of Tuesday,  the Eastland Complex Fire burned 54,463 acres and is 60% contained in Texas.

• Wildfires will pose a greater socioeconomic risk in years to come, as they increasingly burn agricultural areas and harm populations.

Extreme Heat

• Heat wave shattered records across California on Tuesday and Wednesday.

  • In Santa Rosa, a sweltering 89-degree high Tuesday broke the previous record temperature for the date, 86 degrees, set in 1926.

  • In Camarillo, the temperature hit 90 degrees and broke an 88-degree record last seen in 2008 and 1926.

  • Other temperature records set Tuesday include 89 degrees in Oxnard; 88 degrees in Red Bluff; 86 degrees in Santa Maria and King City; 85 degrees in Redwood City, downtown Oakland, Gilroy and Salinas; 84 degrees in Santa Barbara, Paso Robles and San Jose; 83 degrees in Stockton; and 82 degrees at San Francisco Airport.

  • Burbank tied an 86-degree record set in 2008, while downtown Sacramento tied the 1915 record of 82 degrees.

  • The heat stretched all the way into the northern reaches of the state, with Ukiah recording its hottest day of the year thus far — 90 degrees.

  • The heat wave spells trouble for the drought-dried state, which is already experiencing dwindling snowpack and shrinking reservoirs after an arid start to the year.

• California statewide snowpack on Wednesday was 52% of normal for the date, while the water level in Lake Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir, was 49% of average.

  • The latest U.S. Drought Monitor update, released Thursday, showed 31% of the state had slipped into the “extreme drought” category, up from about 27% one week prior.

• On Wednesday, Jackson County joined four other counties in Oregon declaring a drought emergency.

  • The Pacific Northwest continues to face a prolonged drought, and this year is predicted to be worse than the past two years.

  • An emergency declaration gives state agencies the power to override traditional water rights, helping to mitigate drought conditions. Counties under a drought emergency are also eligible for state and federal disaster relief funds.

New Reports And Data

• A March 2022 study found that American Indian populated counties had lower PM2.5 concentrations than non American Indian populated counties in 2000, but by 2018, their levels were higher.

• A March 2022 study found that aerosols carried in wildfire smoke plumes that are hundreds of hours old can still affect climate.

• A March 2022 study found that neighborhoods feel the heat as medium density housing robs suburbs of street and garden trees.