Key Facts Of The Day 4/6

Storms and Flooding

• Intense thunderstorms, some producing significant tornadoes, raked across the Southeast on Tuesday, producing more than 100 reports of severe weather, including 38 tornadoes from Mississippi to South Carolina.

  • More than 25,000 customers were without power in Georgia and South Carolina.

  • Multiple tornadoes were seen on the ground in Alabama, Georgia, Texas and South Carolina beginning in the early-afternoon hours of Tuesday.

  • At least one person died from a tornado that struck Pembroke, Georgia.

  • Tornado debris trapped several people in their homes in Bryan County, Georgia.

  • A man in East Texas was killed early Tuesday when a tree fell on an RV in the community of Whitehouse.

  • Three people were injured by a twister in Allendale, Georgia.

  • The Weather Service received reports of roofs blown off structures in Allendale.

  • In Allendale County, South Carolina four homes were destroyed.

  • Weather Service damage reports and social media video from the tornado outbreak revealed not only toppled trees and wires scattered throughout the Southeast, but also serious damage to homes and buildings.

• 29 million people in the South are at risk as a new round of severe thunderstorm and tornado alerts carve out a path of destruction.

  • The risk of severe storms will continue in the Southeast on Wednesday, while another round from a second system is possible in the southern and eastern Mid-Atlantic on Thursday.

  • Wednesday’s greatest tornado potential is across southern Georgia, while damaging wind gusts are likely further north, across northern Alabama and Georgia into Tennessee.

  • A flood watch also is in effect for parts of Georgia until Thursday morning, because heavy rain could flood already-high rivers and creeks and lead to flash flooding.

• Storms batter the aging power grid as climate disasters spread.

  • Power outages from severe weather have doubled over the past two decades across the U.S., as a warming climate stirs more destructive storms that cripple broad segments of the nation’s aging electrical grid.

  • Forty states are experiencing longer outages.

  • The blackouts can be harmful and even deadly for the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable communities.

    • In California alone, power losses have affected tens of thousands of people who rely on electricity for medical needs.

  • The number of outages tied to severe weather rose from about 50 annually nationwide in the early 2000s to more than 100 annually on average over the past five years.

  • The frequency and length of power failures are at their highest levels since reliability tracking began in 2013.

Wildfires

• As of Wednesday, there are currently 15 large active wildfires that have burned 90,113 acres across  FL, GA, KS, KY, OK, NC, TN, TX, and WA. As of Tuesday, 16,693 wildfires have burned 770,732 acres across the country.

• As of Wednesday, the Crittenberg Complex in Texas has burned 33,175 acres and is 95% contained.

• One couple lost their home in the wildfire in Sevier County, Tennessee.

  • Their home now needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

  • The wildfire impacted at least 200 structures and caused evacuations of 11 thousand homes.

• With little snow left in California, the state could face a dry summer and dangerous wildfire season.

• Through Thursday dry and windy conditions are bringing an increased danger of wildfire in the middle of the nation.

Extreme Heat

• A wave of warmth is set to build over the western U.S. into Saturday, putting multiple records at risk of being broken and increasing the fire threat as temperatures climb well above average.

  • Heat advisories have been issued across Southern California ahead of the building heat.

  • On Wednesday, temperatures in portions of Southern California and southwest Arizona are forecast to surge upwards of 90 degrees.

  • Multiple locations spanning from the Sacramento Valley to San Diego will soar high enough to threaten daytime high records on Thursday and Friday.

  • Portions of Central and Northern California, southern Nevada, western Utah, and central New Mexico are facing extreme drought levels.

• Developers are filling Arizona with homes even as historic Western drought intensifies.

• According to the new IPCC report,  the world already has many of the tools required to shift away from fossil fuels and slow down climate change quickly.

  • It is doable, it is just not getting done.

  • The world knows how to shift away from fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, two big categories of human activity that are among the largest sources of emissions.

    • People can switch from gasoline cars to electric vehicles. Gas-burning furnaces in homes could be swapped out for electric heat pumps. Expand clean and fast public transportation to get people to use less cars.

  • Renewable energy is growing and getting cheaper.

New Reports And Data

• An April 2022 study found that limiting Earth’s warming will determine survivability for many of Earth’s forests.

• An April 2022 study found a way to design the most efficient building mix to reduce pollution and cost for an urban district along with systems that supply wastewater treatment, cooling, heating and electricity.

• An April 2022 study found that trees provide greater economic value when used to regulate climate and air quality than the value they produce as wood products, food crops, and Christmas trees.