Key Facts Of The Day 08/25

Hurricanes

• In California, the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10, east of State Route 177 and Desert Center, remained closed Thursday due to flooding from a storm and an overturned big rig truck on Wednesday.
• Torrential rains Tuesday night into Wednesday resulted in flooding roads and highways around central Mississippi, prompting a flash flood emergency across central portions of the state.
  • The National Weather Service called the flooding a “life-threatening situation.”
  • Since Wednesday morning, more than 6 inches of rain has fallen across the city, and there have been at least 28 reports of flash flooding from weather-trained spotters.
  • In Florence, more than 100 children and employees had to be rescued from rising waters at a local daycare, with Rankin County assisting the save with high-water rescue vehicles.
  • In Brandon, floodwaters breached a nursing home, and more than 40 residents were evacuated.
  • A tornado also touched down approximately 90 miles southeast of Jackson in Hattiesburg.

Wildfires

• As of Thursday, there are currently 41 large active wildfires that have burned 419,980 across AK, CA, ID, MT, NC, ND, OR, UT, WA, and WY. As of Thursday, 43,952 wildfires have burned 6,016,408 acres across the country.
• In Alaska, 5 fires have burned 152,146 acres as of Thursday.
• In California, 4 fires have burned 96,175 acres as of Thursday.
  • The McKinney Fire has burned 60,138 acres and is 99% contained as of Thursday.
• In Idaho, 11 fires have burned 118,041 acres as of Thursday.
• In Montana, 9 fires have burned 18,928 acres as of Thursday.
• In North Carolina, 1 fire has burned 1,226 acres as of Thursday.
• In North Dakota, 1 fire has burned 5,289 acres as of Thursday.
• In Oregon, 5 fires have burned  9,919 acres as of Thursday.
• In Utah, 1 fire has burned 11,702 acres as of Thursday.
• In Washington, 2 fires have burned 2,267 acres as of Thursday.
• In Wyoming, 1 fire has burned 2,925 acres as of Thursday.
• Forest fires are burning nearly twice as many trees as they did two decades ago.
  • Researchers found that a typical forest fire season burns 3 million more hectares (7.4 million acres) than in 2001.
• Indigenous communities are more vulnerable to pollution from wildfires since they tend to be located in rural areas closest to blazes and often have difficulties accessing air filters and upgrading homes.
  • A Columbia University study published in March found that air pollution in Native American communities is worse than in non-Native areas, despite nationwide improvements in air quality over the last 20 years.
  • Tribes are now calling out a lack of federal funding for programs to monitor air pollution and upgrade homes and infrastructure to deal with the worsening smoke.
  • Some tribes started installing low-cost air sensors that deliver data in real-time and can help residents prepare for particularly dangerous air days.

Extreme Heat

• Federal and state officials enforcing agricultural water delivery limits to keep fish alive during extreme drought in the California-Oregon border region are facing opposition from ranchers, farmers, and local irrigation district officials.
  • In Oregon, the Klamath Irrigation District said it plans to defy a U.S. government order issued last week to halt water deliveries to farmers in the drought-stricken basin.
  • Under the Endangered Species Act, the Bureau of Reclamation must uphold protections for several species of fish, including shortnose and Lost River suckerfish in Upper Klamath Lake and coho salmon in the lower Klamath River.
  • The Klamath Tribes sued the federal government in May, claiming any water diverted from Upper Klamath Lake for irrigation in 2022 threatens the survival of suckers during the drought.
  • In California, the state water board warned a farm association to stop taking water from the Shasta River watershed.
• On Monday, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack declared all five of Rhode Island’s counties “primary natural disaster areas” because of the ongoing drought.
  • The declaration allows eligible farms to be considered for low-interest emergency loans and other assistance from the Agriculture Department’s Farm Service Agency.
• In Massachusetts, the city of Worcester declared a drought Monday, restricting the use of outdoor irrigation systems and urging the public to limit indoor water use.

New Reports and Data

• An August 2022 study found that forest fires burn twice as many trees as two decades ago.
• An August 2022 study found that climate change exacerbated Hurricane Harvey’s flood damage, disproportionately hitting low-income and Latino neighborhoods.