Key Facts Of The Day 4/7

Storms and Flooding

• After dozens of tornadoes rolled through the South, another storm is threatening to deliver powerful winds and possibly more tornadoes Thursday to the coasts of North Carolina and Virginia along with parts of Florida.

  • More than 12 million people are under a slight risk (Level 2 of 5) for severe thunderstorms with strong winds, hail and potential tornadoes in parts of North Carolina, Virginia and Florida.

  • The region already saw at least 62 tornado reports this week alone.

  • Multiple rounds of severe and deadly weather have gripped the South in recent days, killing at least three people.

    • On Tuesday, a man was killed in East Texas where a tree fell on an RV in the Whitehouse community, according to the Smith County emergency management coordinator.

    • Later that same day, a man in Georgia also died when a tornado rolled through Bryan County.

    • And in Webster Parish, Louisiana, a man died early Tuesday when his car crashed into a downed tree.

  • Monetta, South Carolina saw an EF-2 tornado that delivered estimated maximum winds of 130 MPH.

  • Four homes were destroyed and five others saw major damage in Allendale County, South Carolina.

  • The relentless severe weather was also responsible for storm-related injuries and rescues due to the fast-moving floodwaters in multiple states.

Wildfires

• As of Thursday, there are currently 11 large active wildfires that have burned 79,555 acres across  FL, GA, KS, KY, OK, TN, and TX. As of Thursday, 17,184 wildfires have burned 828,478 acres across the country.

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

• Gusty winds up to 45 MPH are expected Thursday in parts of North Texas, exacerbating the wildfire danger in some western counties.

• In Floria nearly 1,200 fires have burned, more than 80,000 acres by early April.

Extreme Heat

• It’s only early April but abnormally hot weather is set to scorch large parts of California on Thursday and Friday.

  • The National Weather Service is predicting temperatures 10 to 25 degrees above normal over most of California on Thursday and Friday.

  • Heat advisories are in effect for much of southwest California.

  • The abnormally high temperatures are the result of a dome of high pressure sprawled over the western United States. Long-term warming from human-caused climate change also increases the frequency and intensity of such events.

  • The heat comes as April snowpack in the Sierra Nevada has dropped to one of its lowest levels in 70 years due to a record lack of precipitation in January, February and March. The high temperatures will further melt what little snow remains.

• The latest federal drought monitor shows the entirety of California facing drought conditions.

• Lake Powell has dropped nearly 100 feet in the past two years amid the megadrought.

  • There are more people using water from the Colorado River than what it can naturally sustain.

• A new Gallup poll found 1 in 3 Americans said they have been affected by some kind of extreme weather in the past two years, and those who had been were far more likely to say the climate crisis is a threat.

  • Gallup estimates that around 6 million people were affected by drought in that time.

  • It found 78% of respondents who have faced recent extreme weather — like the West’s megadrought, the Texas deep freeze, deadly hurricanes like Ida — believe the effects of climate change are already unfolding, compared to 51% who had not.

  • Around 65% of Gallup’s respondents believe humans are to blame for Earth’s warming over the past century, rather than natural changes.

• The U.S. and Europe are responsible for the majority of global ecological damage caused by the overuse of natural resources.

  • It finds that the U.S. is the biggest culprit, accounting for 27% of the world’s excess material use, followed by the EU (25%), which included the UK.

  •  Other rich countries such as Australia, Canada, Japan and Saudi Arabia were collectively responsible for 22%.

  • About 44% of the planet’s nearly 2.5tn tonnes of extracted materials were used by countries that had exceeded their fair share of resource use.

    • Over the same period, 58 countries including India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh stayed within their sustainability limits.

New Reports And Data

• An April 2022 study found microplastic pollution lodged deep in the lungs of living people for the first time.

• An April 2022 study found that the U.S. and Europe are responsible for the majority of global ecological damage caused by the overuse of natural resources.

• An April 2022 poll found that Americans are far more likely to say that the climate crisis is a threat after facing recent extreme weather.