Key Facts Of The Day 3/25

Storms and Flooding

• A series of dangerous storms swept through parts of the South earlier this week, spurring tornadoes across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

• The National Weather Service finished their assessment from the storm that left behind a trail of damage Wednesday night in Carroll County, Virginia and found evidence that an EF-2 tornado with 122 MPH winds was reported outside of Hillsville.

  • The tornado tore through the area leaving two families displaced.

  • The survey team reported several trees snapped and two structures were damaged along Gladesboro Road.

    • One structure was a two-story family home, where the building shifted off its foundation and its roof was torn off.

    • The second structure, a modular home, was damaged with its roof partially torn off.

• Three bodies were found Thursday in a submerged vehicle, after a powerful storm dumped record rain amounts in Alabama.

  • Tuscaloosa on Tuesday saw 3.56 inches of rain, blowing past its 2012 rainfall record of 1.1 inches.

  • Birmingham also broke its 1908 rainfall record of 1.95 inches when it collected 2.32 inches Tuesday, and Monticello surpassed its 1968 high of 2.72 inches, receiving 2.87 inches of rain.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 14 large active wildfires that have burned 106,029 acres across AZ, CA, FL, KY, MA, OK, SD, TX. As of Friday, 13,996 wildfires have burned 466,807 acres across the country.

• As of Friday, the Chipola Complex Fire in Florida has burned 34,203 acres and is 96% contained.

• As of Friday,  the Eastland Complex Fire in Texas has burned 54,513 acres and is 80% contained.

• As of Friday, the Big L Fire in Texas has burned 10,177 acres and is 90% contained.

• Already this month, almost 123,000 acres have burned across Texas, more than the previous three Marches combined.

• Just as families clean up from a week of fires and tornadoes, the threat of more wild weather continues. Wildfire risk remains high for much of Texas in the days ahead.

  • Climate change has made the Texas heat hotter and longer-lasting, enhancing drought conditions that set the stage for intense fires. More than 40% of the state is in an extreme drought.

  • Vegetation that grew during last summer’s rains is now dormant and brittle.

• The state auditor reported that state officials are failing to hold California’s electric utilities accountable for preventing fires caused by their equipment.

  • The report to the California Legislature found that the new Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety approved utility companies’ wildfire prevention plans even when they were “seriously deficient.”

    • Included were plans by Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s largest utility, which was held responsible for sparking the state’s deadliest wildfire, the Camp Fire that killed 85 people in 2018.

  • Since 2015, power lines have caused six of California’s 20 most-destructive wildfires.

  • Acting State Auditor raised concerns about the increasing numbers of so-called public safety power shutoffs, when companies cut power during times of high fire risk.

    • Between 2013 through 2021, the state’s largest utilities shut off power to more than 3.6 million customers during 67 power curtailments.

    • There were some 600 unplanned power outages in 2020 alone.

Extreme Heat

• With climate change spurring earlier springs across much of North America, many birds are laying their eggs earlier in the year.

• Extreme heat has been linked to deaths from heart disease.

  • Extreme heat accounted for about 600 to 700 additional deaths from cardiovascular disease annually over a decade-long period in the United States.

  • The spike in deaths during heat waves was most prominent among men and non-Hispanic Black adults, which could suggest that climate change may exacerbate existing heart disease disparities for these groups.

• Nearly 100 locations could break record high temperatures by the end of the weekend.

  • The western United States will experience a highly unusual event — record-breaking and extremely early-season heat through the weekend.

  • Places with higher terrain and the Mountain West usually experience some of their heaviest snowfall during March, but this weekend will be a seasonal shock.

  • This weekend’s weather pattern will only exacerbate drought conditions by heating the ground and siphoning away more of its water moisture content.

• Climate change is spurring a movement to build stormproof homes.

  • Intense storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, wildfires, high winds and extreme heat and cold are becoming more common as climate change impacts the Earth, so homes with resilient design are becoming more popular.

  • A resilient home is one that’s built for the future after an assessment of current and predicted risks of extreme weather.

  • Resilient design can have multiple benefits, including sustainability. The elements of resilient design, such as higher insulation levels, stronger windows, passive solar power and natural daylight that will help homeowners survive power outages, extreme heat and extreme cold, also save energy and mitigate climate change.

    • Homes that survive a major storm or fire also reduce the amount of disaster-related debris that ends up in landfills.

  • For extreme heat and cold, the best strategy is a super energy-efficient home.

New Reports And Data

• A March 2022 study found that the oil industry’s practice of burning off excess gas may have contributed to as many as 53 premature deaths in the United States in 2019.

• A March 2022 study found that leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas drilling in the Permian Basin were many times higher than government estimates.

• A March 2022 study found that birds are laying eggs earlier as climate change shifts springs.

• A March 2022 study found that Indian forest loss is ‘worse than feared’ due to climate change.