Key Facts Of The Day 11/3

Hurricanes

• As of Wednesday morning, Tropical Storm Wanda is 705 miles west of the Azores and moving at 8 mph, with top winds at 50 MPH.

  • At present, Wanda is no threat to land.

  • Wanda formed late Saturday as a subtropical storm, the 21st named storm, and exhausted all of the letters in the World Meteorological Organization’s Atlantic hurricane season alphabet.

• Lake effect snow has been falling across Michigan’s lake effect snowbelts, with more than 7 inches of snow in some areas and will continue until Thursday.

• Boston is among the U.S. cities most vulnerable to costly hurricane damage.

• The nor’easter that struck Massachusetts last Tuesday, knocked out electricity for 5 days to more than half Easton residents and businesses.

  • The storm brought down more than 140 trees in Easton and also snapped utility poles.

• New York City is fighting to protect the city from rising flood threats through multiple projects including the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project and a possible sea wall.

• Another series of storms is set to sweep through the Pacific Northwest and Northern California into next week and not only bring much-needed rain and mountain snow but also flooding concerns.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 6 large active wildfires that have burned 336,400 acres across CA,  MT, OR, and WA.

• Utah saw a decrease in human-caused wildfires this year, but officials say fire season isn’t going away.

  • The 2021 wildfire season in Utah saw $43 million in suppression costs and a loss of 17 homes and 23 non-home structures.

• Oregon State University received a grant to develop ways to protect the country’s multi-billion dollar wine industry from wildfire smoke.

• Fire officials announced that the wildfire season in Santa Rosa, California is officially over.

• The Flagstaff Fire Department in Arizona has created the Formal Training Exchange for other fire department agencies in the country to send their firefighters to train on how to fight wildfires.

• In California, 3 fires have burned 202,805 acres as of Friday.

  • The Alisal Fire burned 17,281 acres and was 99% contained as of Friday.

  • The KNP Complex Fire burned 88,307 acres and was 73% contained as of Friday.

• In Montana, 1 fire has burned a total of 1,379 acres as of Friday.

• In Oregon, 1 fire has burned a total of 24,894 acres as of Friday.

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

Extreme Heat

• Since the ongoing drought has depleted chinook salmon, state and federal fish hatcheries in Northern California are spawning millions of additional salmon smolts in order to increase their odds of survival.

• Due to the wildfires and on-going drought in California, there has been a glass bottle shortage for winemakers forcing them to leave the wine in barrels for longer.

• Increases in extreme humid-heat disproportionately affect populated regions.

• Rising temperatures are increasingly threatening workers in the United States, endangering their health as well as their performance, and creating major economic consequences for the entire country.

• Temperatures continue to rise and farmworkers, who are mostly foreign-born and/or undocumented continue to be at risk.

  • Because of their immigration status, many workers often don’t complain about poor working conditions, such as lack of air conditioning or access to water, that complicate the risk of extreme heat.

  • According to an Investigate Midwest analysis of OSHA data, at least 65 farmworkers have died from heat-related causes since 2002.

• Miami-Dade County, Florida will start officially marking a “heat season’ next year from May 1 to Oct. 31.

New Reports And Data

• A November 2021 study found that PM2.5 are responsible for more than 4 million premature deaths every year and pollution caused by consumption in G20 Nations leads to half of those deaths.

• A November 2021 study found that incorporating energy efficiency measures can reduce the amount of storage needed to power the U.S.’s buildings entirely with renewable energy.

• A November 2021 study found that over the past 40 years, global warming has caused extreme ice melting events in Greenland to become more frequent and more intense, raising sea levels and flood risk worldwide.