Key Facts Of The Day 6/24

Hurricanes

• New signs of tropical activity emerge amid a quiet first month of the Atlantic hurricane season.
  • Meteorologists have been keeping a close eye on a series of disturbances that is tracking westward from the coast of Africa and will continue to do so in the coming days and weeks.
  • A tropical depression or storm may develop in the eastern Atlantic and head toward the Windward Islands, then into the Caribbean Sea next week.
• A powerful lightning storm pummeled nearly 1/3 of California over two days this past week.
  • From June 22 to June 23, the National Lightning Detection Network recorded more than 66,000 lightning events, the most in a single day in nearly 5 years.
• On Thursday afternoon, The National Weather Service in Phoenix, Arizona issued thunderstorm and dust storm warnings.
  • Large hail, 60 MPH damaging winds, and ground lightning were expected to occur during the storm.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 17 large active wildfires that have burned 766,333 across AK, AZ, CA, FL, GA, NJ, NM, NC, SD, TX, and UT. As of Friday, 32,247 wildfires have burned 3,360,037 acres across the country.
• In Alaska, 30 fires have burned 925,548 as of Thursday.
  • A record number of acres have burned this month in Alaska.
  • The abnormally warm and dry weather — intensified by human-caused climate change — has helped ignite more than 300 wildfires in recent weeks.
  • More than 2.5 times more acres burned from 2001 to 2020 than in the previous two decades.
  • Only 11 times since 1990 has Alaska seen a million acres of wildland burn in a single year.
  • On Wednesday, the smoke pollution in Fairbanks spiked to unhealthy Code Orange and Red levels.
  • This month, a blaze threatened the 600-person Indigenous Yup’ik village of Saint Mary’s, which lies near the mouth of Yukon River and is only reachable by boat or bush plane.
  • As hot, dry conditions persist and lightning strikes start more fires across the state, crews are being stretched.
    • Two planeloads of firefighters have already flown from the Lower 48 to Alaska, and another is on its way.
  • Residents, who depend on fish and wildlife harvests to feed their families, now must contend with the fire’s aftermath.
    • Areas of tundra where they picked berries have burned.
    • Some community members are wondering how firefighting retardants dropped from aircraft could affect fish and moose.
    •  Managers have closed Yukon River salmon harvests amid a string of poor fish returns.
• In Arizona, 6 fires have burned 66,167 acres as of Friday.
• In California, 1 fire has burned 2,466 acres as of Friday.
• In Florida, 1 fire has burned 415 acres as of Friday.
• In Georgia, 1 fire has burned 2,000 acres as of Friday.
  • Wildfires sparked by lightning have scorched hundreds of acres on St. Catherines Island, Georgia, where crews are battling to protect plantation ruins, the remnants of a 16th-century Spanish mission, and archaeological sites that have yielded human artifacts thousands of years old.
  • The unspoiled island off the Georgia coast has long been prized as an ecological and historic coastal treasure.
  • Slave quarters made from oyster-shell tabby survive on the island, as does the home of a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
• In New Jersey, 1 fire has burned 13,500 acres as of Friday.
• In New Mexico, 3 fires have burned 671,764 acres as of Friday.
  • The Black Fire has burned 325,133 acres and is 70% contained as of Friday.
  • The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire has burned 341,735 acres and is 72% contained as of Friday.
  • The Midnight Fire has burned 4,896 acres and is 98% contained as of Friday.
• In North Carolina, 1 fire has burned 1,088 acres as of Friday.
• In South Dakota, 1 fire has burned 3,810 acres as of Friday.
• In Texas, 1 fire has burned 500 acres as of Friday.
• In Utah, 1 fire has burned 4,623 acres as of Friday.

Extreme Heat

• China, America, Europe, and India have all been recently hit with extreme heatwaves. 
  • Concurrent heat waves seem to be hitting certain groups of far-flung places with growing frequency for reasons related to the jet stream and other rivers of air that influence weather systems worldwide.
  • Individual heat waves can lead to illness and death, wildfires, and crop failures, while concurrent ones can also threaten global food supplies.
• On Thursday, at least 15 states (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado, Nevada, and California) hit 100 degrees and at least 21 high temperature marks were set or broken.
  • Since June 15, at least 113 automated weather stations have tied or broken hot-temperature records.
  • Scientists say this early baking has all the hallmarks of climate change.
• As wildfires continue to rage, unusual heat will expand across much of Alaska into next week.
  • Hyder, a community located in Alaska’s panhandle, is forecast to see four consecutive days with a high temperature above 90 degrees.
    • It has only ever seen 13 days reach temperatures so high.
  • The unusual heat will envelop much of the state and will be accompanied by almost no precipitation.
    • As of Saturday, Fairbanks had seen no measurable rain in 30 days, an unprecedented feat for the time of year.
  • Amid the warm and dry conditions, forecasters are concerned that widespread thunderstorms over the past week may have sparked a number of wildfires.
• A month after three women were found dead inside their stifling hot apartments at a Chicago senior housing facility, the City Council yesterday passed new cooling requirements for residential buildings.
  • Any new construction of senior facilities and larger residential buildings must include permanent air conditioning, giving them the same requirements already in place for nursing homes.
• As many as 3 million Californians could lose electricity with no advance warning this summer, as the nation’s biggest utility expands a system that automatically cuts power after potential wildfire-triggering events.
  • Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said it has increased the system to include 1,000 circuit breakers, up from 170 circuits last year.
• Lake Mead’s water levels this week dropped to historic lows, bringing the nation’s largest reservoir less than 150 feet away from “dead pool.”
  • On Wednesday, Lake Mead’s water level was measured at 1,044.03 feet.
  • If the reservoir dips below 895 feet, Lake Mead would reach dead pool, carrying enormous consequences for millions of people across Arizona, California, Nevada, and parts of Mexico. 
  • Persistent drought conditions over the past two decades, exacerbated by climate change and increased water demands across the southwestern United States, have contributed to Lake Mead’s depletion.

New Reports And Data

• A June 2022 study found that melting Arctic ice could transform international shipping routes.
• A June 2022 study found that the 2021 heat wave created a ‘perfect storm’ for shellfish die-off.