Key Facts Of The Day 09/01

Hurricanes

• Severe storms that brought damaging winds, heavy rains, and flash flooding to parts of the Midwest and the South were blamed for the deaths of three people, including two children.
  • In Monroe, Michigan, a 14-year-old girl was electrocuted Monday night after coming into contact with an electrical line knocked down by a thunderstorm.
  • In the Detroit-area community of Warren, two boys were hospitalized — including an 8-year-old in critical condition — after one of them touched a downed power line Tuesday morning.
  • In Arkansas, an 11-year-old boy died after he was swept into a storm drain during heavy rainfall on Monday. A 47-year-old woman who tried to help the child was also pulled from the drain and taken to a hospital for treatment.
  • In Ohio, a woman was killed Monday night when a tree fell on her behind her home in Toledo.
  • Monday’s storms also knocked out electrical service to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Indiana and Michigan.
    • Dozens of schools canceled classes in Michigan because of power outages.
• A 200-year-old cactus in Catalina State Park split at the trunk and toppled to the ground after fierce rains swept through the park. 
  • The cactus’s death also rekindled concerns about the many environmental threats facing saguaros, which are highly valued among some Native American tribes.
  • Scientists who study saguaros say extreme weather is a growing menace that could reduce their overall numbers. 
• The U.N. weather agency predicts that the phenomenon of La Nina will last through the end of this year, a mysterious “triple dip” caused by three straight years of its effect on climate patterns like drought and flooding worldwide.
  • La Nina is a natural and cyclical cooling of parts of the equatorial Pacific that changes weather patterns worldwide.
  • La Nina often leads to more Atlantic hurricanes, less rain and more wildfires in the western United States, and agricultural losses in the central U.S.

Wildfires

• As of Thursday, there are currently 46 large active wildfires that have burned 302,460 across AZ, CA, ID, MT, OR, UT, and WA. As of Thursday, 48,331 wildfires have burned 6,153,171 acres across the country.
• In Arizona, 1 fire has burned 1,362 acres as of Thursday.
• In California, 6 fires have burned 109,350 acres as of Thursday.
  • The McKinney Fire has burned 60,138 acres and is 99% contained as of Thursday.
• In Idaho, 14 fires have burned 129,306 acres as of Thursday.
• In Montana, 10 fires have burned 14,129 acres as of Thursday.
• In Oregon, 9 fires have burned 30,363 acres as of Thursday.
  • The Rum Creek Fire has burned 14,940 acres and is 1% contained as of Thursday.
    • As of Tuesday morning, the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center said 5,035 homes and more than 2,600 other structures were at risk.
    • High temperatures and shifting winds in the next several days are expected to increase fire danger and cause the blaze to become more active.
    • Mandatory evacuations are in place for dozens of homes near the towns of Rand and Galice.
    • More than 1,300 firefighters are working the blaze, with additional personnel arriving.
    • An air quality advisory has been issued for the area with the worst rating possible in Grants Pass.
• In Utah, 1 fire has burned 11,702 acres as of Thursday.
• In Washington, 3 fires have burned 4,748 acres as of Thursday.

Extreme Heat

• A prolonged and intense heat wave has begun to swelter much of the Southwest this week — and by early next week, dozens of records are likely to have been set.
  • Nearly 31 million people are now under excessive heat warnings, another 11 million are under heat advisories, and 14 million are under excessive heat watches.
  • The heat wave is forecast to culminate with a dangerously hot Labor Day weekend across much of California, Nevada, Oregon, and surrounding states in the West.
  • In Death Valley, California, September heat records could be threatened or toppled, with a high at or above 125 degrees this weekend.
  • The San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles areas could also reach record-high heat levels this week.
  • Some cities like Los Angeles and Sacramento have opened cooling shelters for residents to find refuge from the heat.
  • Extreme heat events such as this one are becoming more common and intense due to human-caused climate change.
• A new Citi and Gallup analysis found that people who experienced extreme heat days also reported a decrease in their sense of well-being around the same time.
  • The global population experienced three times as many extreme heat days in 2020 than in 2008, and well-being decreased globally by 6.5% in that time as well.
  • Researchers also found that because the climate crisis is pushing temperatures even hotter, global well-being could decrease by another 17% by the end of this decade.
  • Researchers found that the impact on well-being is more significant among older generations than young, and among those living in countries with developing economies – where people are less equipped to handle the economic toll of the climate crisis.
  • The report also noted people living in the southernmost regions of many nations are at increasing risk of sweltering temperatures and its associated decline in well-being, including residents along the US Gulf Coast.
  • Researchers also linked warming temperatures and related disasters like drought to major conflicts and food insecurity – both of which can propel people from poorer and hotter countries to migrate to wealthier nations in cooler climates.
• According to First Street Foundation’s analysis, the number of Americans exposed to “extreme heat,” or a heat index greater than 125 degrees, is expected to jump 13 times over the next 30 years.
  • In Georgia, that impact is projected to translate into the fifth highest increase in cooling costs by 2053, and the sixth highest increase in state CO2 emissions due to that increased AC usage.
  • While all of Georgia will see temperatures increase, Echols County will see the highest increase with 20 days of heat index temperatures above 107.7 degrees by 2053.

New Reports and Data

• An August 2022 study found that people who experienced extreme heat days also reported a decrease in their sense of well-being around the same time.
• An August 2022 report found that Ocean heat reached an all-time high in 2021.