Key Facts Of The Day 6/7

Hurricanes

• Tropical Storm Alex, with 60 MPH winds, became the first named storm of the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season.
  • Tropical Storm Alex brought strong winds and rain to Bermuda before becoming a post-tropical cyclone on Monday.
    • In anticipation of the storm, public schools in Bermuda were closed Monday and government offices would have a delayed opening.
    • Public beaches on the island were also closed for swimming
  • The storm dumped nearly 15 inches of rain on parts of South Florida on Saturday.
    • In Miami, drivers faced heavy rains and impassable streets, leading to the rescue of several people from rising waters.
    • The storm also disrupted air travel across South Florida, where hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed on Saturday.
  • Parts of western Cuba were submerged by the storm, which was also responsible for at least three deaths.
• Dangerous storm complexes possible in central U.S. every day this week.
  • There is a daily chance of torrential rain, strong to locally damaging winds, and occasional hail and tornadoes.
  • These systems, which can cover an entire state, also have the potential to incite flash flooding and generate tremendous amounts of lightning.
  • The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has declared an elevated risk of severe thunderstorms in the central states daily through Friday.

Wildfires

• As of Tuesday, there are currently 8 large active wildfires that have burned 724,414 across AK, AZ, CO, and NM. As of Tuesday, 28,592 wildfires have burned 1,978,445 acres across the country.
• In Alaska, 1 fire has burned 25,000 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Arizona, 1 fire has burned 7,598 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Colorado, 1 fire has burned 242 acres as of Tuesday.
• In New Mexico, 5 fires have burned 691,574 acres as of Tuesday.
  • The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire has burned 317,920 acres and is 65% contained as of Tuesday.
    • The fire has destroyed at least 330 homes and left a financial toll in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
  • The Black Fire has burned 288,424 acres and is 47% contained as of Tuesday.
    • By the time Biden visits, the Black Fire will likely be the second-largest in the state’s history.
  • President Joe Biden will be traveling to New Mexico this week in the wake of multiple record-breaking wildfires.
  • In New Mexico, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced due to fire danger and smoke.

Extreme Heat

• A Canadian tourist, Melanie Goodine, died in Arizona last week while hiking in the Grand Canyon under extreme heat.
  • Temperatures in the shade where Goodine was hiking Thursday reached around 95 to 104 degrees.
  • Hiking in the Grand Canyon during the summer months is particularly difficult when the impacts of the desert’s hot and dry conditions are more intense.
  • The canyon’s dramatic changes in temperature and dryness can create perilous conditions for hikers.
• As drought continues to plague Oregon, farmers practice indigenous farming methods such as dryland farming. 
• The Senate Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources is holding its first hearing in nine years and will examine the drought parching the American West.
• On Friday, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services detected algae blooms at Mascoma Lake and Goose Pond and issued an advisory to avoid contact with water.

New Reports And Data

• A June 2022 report found that clean energy investments could create more than 2 million jobs by 2050.
• A June 2022 study found that the amount of money needed to aid communities in the face of extreme weather-related emergencies has increased by more than 800% in the past two decades.
• A June 2022 report found that plastics pollution is set to nearly triple by 2060.
• A June 2022 report found that older Black Americans are more than three times as likely to die from health problems stemming from soot exposure than their white counterparts.