Key Facts Of The Day 10/25

Hurricanes

• A powerful bomb cyclone slammed ashore Sunday in drought-plagued Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, blasting a wide swath of the West Coast with heavy rain, damaging winds, flooding and mudslides.

  • Over 160,000 homes and businesses in California, more than 170,000 in Washington, and over 28,000 in Oregon were left without power on Sunday due to the extreme weather.

  • 2 people were killed when a tree fell on a vehicle in the greater Seattle area.

  • In San Rafael, California many roads are under two feet of water and there have been over 330 calls for fire or police assistance.

  • In Butte County, California’s Highway Patrol closed down State Route 70 due to mudslides and debris flows near the now-contained Caldor Fire.

  • Officials in California are also worried about contamination of the state’s drinking water from toxic runoff

• Sea level rise is a threat to the freshwater marsh system at the Savannah refuge and could in the most extreme case disappear.

• Longer, more frequent outages afflict the U.S. power grid as states fail to prepare for climate change.

• The Texas Public Utility Commission has formally approved a new power plant weather protection rule.

Wildfires

• As of Wednesday, there are currently 17 large active wildfires that have burned 2,229,853 acres across CA, ID, MT, OR, and WA.

• More than 10,000 trees in California need to be removed after being weakened by fires, drought, disease and/or age.

• More than 62,000 trees in Oregon were removed because of this summer’s extreme heat, drought, and wildfires.

• Due to the wildfires, the Pacific Northwest needs to be cautious about flash floods and debris flows.

• In California, Pacific Gas & Electric wants to bury 10,000 miles of power lines, to make the grid more resilient and to reduce the risk of sparking wildfires.

• In California, 8 fires have burned 1,905,702 acres as of Wednesday.

  • The Alisal Fire burned 17,281 acres and was 97% contained as of Wednesday.

  • The Dixie Fire burned 963,309 acres and was 95% contained as of Wednesday.

  • The KNP Complex Fire burned 88,278 acres and was 60% contained as of Wednesday.

• In Idaho, 3 fires have burned a total of 135,842 acres as of Wednesday.

• In Montana, 3 fires have burned a total of 5,684 acres as of Wednesday.

• In Oregon, 2 fires have burned a total of 75,303 acres as of Wednesday.

• In Washington, 1 fire has burned a total of 107,322 acres as of Wednesday.

Extreme Heat

• Arizona offered indigenous tribes $30 million to buy some water rights to help stave off further drought-related cuts in what the state gets from the Colorado River.

• At 2 degrees warmer than 2016, Lake Michigan has record-breaking temperatures for late October.

• Winter in the Phoenix and Tucson areas is going to be warmer and drier than usual, due to a second year in a row of La Niña.

• Communities in South Florida will begin to plant more shade trees than palm trees to fight extreme heat and be more effective at carbon sequestration.

• Salt Lake City drought prevention efforts are still necessary in changing seasons.

• Fresno County, California farmers were told they would no longer receive their water supply allocation from the Central Valley Project and had to buy water from other northern California farmers.

New Reports And Data

• An October 2021 study found different methods to propagate more heat resistant staghorn coral.

• An October 2021 study found that the sideways flow of water through soil can have an important impact on how riparian forests respond to climate change.

• An October 2021 study found that using electricity to remove and inactivate an assortment of waterborne viruses could be a new water purification technology.