Key Facts Of The Day 08/02

Hurricanes

• Damage to critical infrastructure hampered efforts to help Kentucky residents hit by recent massive flooding.
  • A 17-year-old girl whose home in Whitesburg was flooded Thursday put her dog in a plastic container and swam 70 yards to safety on a neighbor’s roof.
  • As of Tuesday morning, 37 people died in the flood, and hundreds remain unaccounted.
  • While more than 1,300 people have been rescued, crews still tried to reach some people who remain cut off by floods or mudslides.
    • Residents in eastern Kentucky are being airlifted to safety.
  • Cooling stations are being set up in buildings that were spared the floods as more than 9,600 customers remain without electricity in eastern Kentucky.
    • After devastating floods, Kentucky residents now face high heat.
  • As of Tuesday, nearly 430 people were staying at 11 such shelters, and 191 were temporarily housed in state parks.
• Storms produced torrential downpours across the southwest.
  • Roads into Death Valley National Park closed after they were inundated over the weekend with mud and debris from flash floods that also hit western Nevada and northern Arizona hard.
  • Motorists were also urged to avoid Southern California’s Mojave National Preserve after flooding buckled pavement on some roads. 
  • In a mountainous area east of Los Angeles at the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, mudslides sent trees and large rocks onto roads, blocking them near the city of Yucaipa.
• Climate experts anticipate heavy rain events to increase in intensity and frequency as the planet warms since warmer air can hold more moisture.

Wildfires

• As of Tuesday, there are currently 60 large active wildfires that have burned 1,609,797 across AK, AZ, CA, ID, MT, NE, NV, NM, OK, OR, TX, UT, WA, and WY. As of Tuesday, 39,435 wildfires have burned 5,757,504 acres across the country.
• In Alaska, 27 fires have burned 1,038,942 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Arizona, 4 fires have burned 4,822 acres as of Tuesday.
• In California, 4 fires have burned 81,612 acres as of Tuesday.
  • The China 2 Fire has burned 1,989 acres and is 0% contained as of Tuesday.
  • The McKinney Fire has burned 55,493 acres and is 0% contained as of Tuesday.
    • The fire generated its own weather in the form of pyrocumulus clouds, which are triggered by intense heat that forces air to rise rapidly.
    • Crews are working to defend nearly 5,000 structures from total devastation.
    • 2,000 people are under evacuation orders.
    • Dry lightning strikes in the forest complicated the early stages of the firefight. 
    • By Monday, there were more than 1,300 firefighters battling the blaze from multiple agencies. 
  • The Oak Fire has burned 19,244 acres and is 74% contained as of Tuesday.
  • The Washburn Fire has burned 4,886 acres and is 97% contained as of Tuesday.
• In Idaho, 4 fires have burned 61,422 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Montana, 6 fires have burned 17,811 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Nebraska, 1 fire has burned 15,592 acres as of Tuesday. 
• In Nevada, 3 fires have burned 8,033 acres as of Tuesday.
• In New Mexico, 1 fire has burned 341,735 acres as of Tuesday.
  • The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire has burned 341,735 acres and is 98% contained as of Tuesday.
• In Oklahoma, 1 fire has burned 7,542 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Oregon, 2 fires have burned 1,700 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Texas, 2 fires have burned 7,082 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Utah, 1 fire has burned 11,701 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Washington, 1 fire has burned 4,500 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Wyoming, 3 fire has burned 7,303 acres as of Tuesday.

Extreme Heat

• Oregon has at least 14 potential heat deaths after an extreme heat wave.
  • Multnomah County, which is home to Portland, recorded seven deaths suspected to be related to heat, the highest of any Oregon county.
  • Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington set records Sunday for most consecutive days of high temperatures.
    • In Portland, temperatures on Sunday rose above 95 degrees Fahrenheit for the seventh day in a row.
    • In Seattle, the temperature rose to 91 degrees by early afternoon, marking a record six days above 90 degrees.
  • Temperatures neared the triple digits nearly all of last week in the Portland area, prompting officials to open emergency overnight shelters and cooling stations.
  • Residents and officials in the Northwest have been trying to adjust to the likely reality of longer, hotter heat waves following last summer’s deadly “heat dome” weather phenomenon that prompted record temperatures and deaths. 
• Nearly three-quarters of California is in either extreme or exceptional drought, considered worse than severe.
  • About 40% of the drought’s severity is due to climate change.
  • The conditions have affected a broad swath of regions and industries. 
  • More than 660 California wells have gone dry. 
  • Farmers either pay a premium for water or let their fields sit empty. 
    • Both state and federal water delivery projects have cut shipments to farmers because of the lack of water available in their reservoirs.
  • There is growing concern that water exports from the Colorado River could halt.
  • Tooleville, a town of about 700 people, depends on wells for water. Those wells have run dry as climate change exacerbates summer heat and shrinks California’s winter snowpack.
    • State- and county-funded water deliveries are now arriving a few days a week in Tooleville, Seville, and Yettem.
  • In East Orosi, a home caught fire and burned down in part because there was no water pressure in a fire hydrant.
  • Lake Oroville, the largest state-managed reservoir in California, was 41% full yesterday.
  • Lake Shasta, a federally-managed reservoir, yesterday was at 37%.

New Reports And Data

• An August 2022 report found that more days of high temperatures and intense humidity can affect regular organ functioning, especially when temperatures do not cool down overnight.
• A July 2022 study found that the bigger the temperature change, the larger the extinction event.