Key Facts Of The Day 09/13

Hurricanes

• Thunderstorms were expected to cause flash flooding in parts of Long Island on Tuesday, after a tornado warning earlier in the morning jolted New Yorkers awake.
  • The National Weather Service said up to 4.5 inches of rain was possible in Queens County and northern Nassau County on Long Island.
  • The tornado warning was in effect until 5 a.m. and covered the southern tips of Brooklyn and Queens.
• Hurricane Kay’s remnants will bring a flood threat to Colorado this week.
  • While the rain from Kay’s remnants shouldn’t last too long, there will be a threat of flash flooding in the mountains on Wednesday.
• On Saturday, waterfalls cascaded through Death Valley National Park, marking the latest in a series of floods that have damaged roadways and limited access to a site that is normally the driest place in North America.
  • The National Weather Service recorded 0.11 inches of rainfall over a two-hour period at Furnace Creek, California, and created flood conditions.
  • The Saturday floods also closed several roads within the park, including a state highway.
• Due to climate change, storm surge has become an even greater threat to coastal communities in recent years.
  • A storm surge is a rise in water level caused by a strong storm’s wind pushing water onshore.
  • Almost half of all deaths from tropical cyclones come from storm surges.
• Depending on how much water was pushed ashore and the area’s watershed, it may hang around, causing further damage to communities.

Wildfires

• As of Tuesday, there are currently 93 large active wildfires that have burned 848,343 across CA, ID, MT, NV, OR, UT, WA, and WY. As of Tuesday, 49,820 wildfires have burned 6,726,028 acres across the country.
• In California, 11 fires have burned 151,433 acres as of Tuesday.
  • The Fairview Fire has burned 28,307 acres and is 56% contained as of Tuesday.
    • On Saturday, a pilot and two fire personnel were injured when a helicopter assigned to the Fairview Fire crashed in a residential backyard.
  • The Mosquito Fire has burned 48,700 acres and is 16% contained as of Tuesday.
    • Smoke from the Mosquito Fire begins creating unhealthy to hazardous conditions in Northern California.
• In Nevada, 1 fire has burned 400 acres as of Tuesday.
• In Oregon, 9 fires have burned 307,207 acres as of Tuesday.
  • The Cedar Creek Fire has burned 90,288 acres and is 0% contained as of Tuesday.
  • On Monday, Oregon utility companies restored power to tens of thousands of customers after shutting down service over the weekend to try to prevent wildfires during high winds, low humidity, and hot temperatures.
    • Portland General Electric halted power to about 37,000 customers in 17 service areas starting Friday, and Pacific Power shut down service to 12,000 customers.

Extreme Heat

• Meteorologists described the recent heat wave as the most extreme September heat wave ever observed in the Western U.S.
• More than 7,000 daily temperature records across the United States were broken this summer.
  • In the third-hottest summer on record, more than 400 monthly records and 27 all-time records also fell.
• Over the past two decades of summers, far more record highs have been broken than record lows.
  • This summer, more than three times as many high records were broken than low ones.
• Drought forces Natick, Massachusetts farm to prioritize apples over pumpkins.
• At California’s Lake Isabella, the drought has caused the manmade lake to reveal the long-sunken town of Whiskey Flat.

New Reports and Data

• A September 2022 study found that temperatures above or below a feel-good window of 54-70 degrees Fahrenheit are linked to a marked rise in aggressive online behavior across the U.S.
• A September 2022 study found that climate change is affecting drinking water quality.
• A September 2022 study found that air pollution may trigger lung cancer in people who have never smoked.