Key Facts Of The Day 10/26

Hurricanes

• The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado left a path of damage in Central Texas during severe storms Monday night.
  • Williamson County Judge Bill Gravell said an aerial survey showed about three dozen homes or businesses had light to severe damage.
  • At least one home that was under construction had collapsed.
  • One of the buildings hardest hit was a local fire station that had part of its roof and doors blown off.
• A new storm system in the southern Plains will bring threats of severe thunderstorms and flooding rainfall beginning Thursday as the fall severe weather season rolls on.
  • These storms will pose threats of large hail, damaging wind gusts, and even a tornado.
  • The low-pressure system will continue tracking eastward on Friday, spawning another risk of isolated severe thunderstorms across southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana.
  • As the storm system becomes more organized on Friday, widespread heavy rainfall is expected to develop across the southern Plains and lower Mississippi Valley.
• Despite a quiet few weeks since the demise of Ian in late September, hurricane season is far from over and meteorologists are tracking three disturbances with varying potential for development.
  • The first area to watch is a small swirl of clouds just north-northwest of Bermuda.
  • The second is a low-pressure system that is expected to form midway between Hispaniola and Bermuda sometime Thursday or Friday.
  • The third system is a disorganized group of showers and thunderstorms about 700 miles east of the Windward Islands.
• The Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort off Vanderbilt Beach in North Naples and the South Seas Island Resort on the northern tip of Captiva Island laid off a total of 829 workers while repairs are underway at the local properties.
• Contract workers struggle to find homes in southwest Florida as prices soar after Hurricane Ian.

Wildfires

• As of Wednesday, there are currently 25 large active wildfires that have burned 278,194 across AL, ID, IN, KY, MO, MT, OR, TN, and WA. As of Wednesday, 59,397 wildfires have burned 7,190,414 acres across the country.
• In Oregon, 2 fires have burned 128,183 acres as of Wednesday.
  • The Cedar Creek Fire has burned 127,283 acres and is 55% contained as of Wednesday.
• In Washington, 11 fires have burned 45,129 acres as of Wednesday.
• The PG&E Fire Victim Trust has paid less than half, or $5.2 billion, of the more than $13 billion owed to the survivors of the Camp Fire in the two years since it was established.
  • Some survivors of California’s deadliest wildfire continue to live in trailers, tents, and makeshift homes nearly four years later as they wait for payments from the trust.
  • The 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and displaced roughly 50,000 others in Northern California’s Butte County.

Extreme Heat

• Climate change-induced warming means the amoeba can now be present in areas of the country where it didn’t use to be and has extended the amoeba’s life span past the summer months.
• This summer was the deadliest on record with 359 heat-associated fatalities in Maricopa County, Arizona, amid a growing wave of homelessness.
• A new report from UNICEF estimates that under both low and very high emission scenarios nearly all the world’s children — more than 2 billion — will be exposed to high heat-wave frequency by 2050.
  • Young children and infants are more susceptible to heat-related illnesses, in part because their bodies cannot regulate temperature as effectively as adults.
  • Children also lose fluid more quickly and are at a greater risk of heat stroke because they lack the judgment needed to taper their physical exertion or rehydrate.
• California is about to enter its wet season, but for the fourth year in a row, the state could languish in a drought that is having dire effects on its water resources.

New Reports and Data

• An October 2022 poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans think the federal government is not doing enough to fight climate change.
• An October 2022 report found that transmission connections to wind and solar projects could help the eastern U.S. get through extreme weather crises and Eastern customers would save $3 billion in electricity costs in 2035.
• An October 2022 report found that nearly all the world’s children — more than 2 billion — will be exposed to high heat-wave frequency by 2050.