Climate Impact Report - 11/05 - Climate Power Education Fund

Quick Facts

As of Friday morning, Tropical Storm Wanda was located about 640 miles west-northwest of the Azores with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph moving east-southeast at 6 mph.
- Wanda is projected to remain a named system into the middle of next week potentially threatening the coasts of Ireland and England.
A developing storm system will combine with high astronomical tides to bring areas of serious coastal flooding to the shoreline of Georgia, eastern Florida and South Carolina late Friday and into the weekend.
- Due to the astronomical high tides, some minor coastal flooding has already been observed around Charleston, well ahead of the storm.
The National Weather Service confirmed that last month’s storms produced 8 tornadoes across portions of northeast Ohio.
Storm season is coming to the shores of Southern California which could lead to potential accidents among ships jostling for space in the overcrowded ports.
The Santa Barbara Unified School District greenlit a plan to harness solar power to help keep the lights on and provide a hub for the community in the event of another extreme weather event, such as the mudflow of 2018.
Flooding is also a stressor, which can sweep away trout eggs and pummel a generation of young fish who aren’t yet strong swimmers in the Au Sable River in Michigan.

As of Friday, there are currently 4 large active wildfires that have burned 204,184 acres across CA and MT. This year to date, 48,725 wildfires have burned 6,529,662 acres across the country.
Climate change is essentially two-thirds to 88% responsible for the atmospheric conditions fueling increasingly destructive wildfires.
Wildfire smoke causes migratory birds to make detours.
In California, 3 fires have burned 202,805 acres as of Friday.
- The Alisal Fire burned 16,970 acres and was 99% contained as of Friday.
- The KNP Complex Fire burned 88,307 acres and was 75% contained as of Friday.
- The Windy Fire burned 97,528 acres and was 92% contained as of Friday.
In Montana, 1 fire has burned a total of 1,379 acres as of Friday.

According to the USGS and the hydrology team at the California Department of Water Resources, California needs 140% of precipitation to reach average runoff conditions.
North Dakota’s drought conditions ease with precipitation, but some areas of the state are still dealing with poor conditions.
As water in the Central Valley has become scarcer, small farmers struggle with their livelihoods and have to compete with larger farmers for the limited water supply.
- Amid this year’s severe drought, Hmong farmer June Moua had to leave a portion of her 10-acre plot of land in eastern Fresno County dry and fallow; large sections of the rows of crops she did plant, wilted and shriveled.
- Small farmers who rent their land face the fear that the owners might sell the land to larger farm corporations.
Closing Arizona’s golf courses would not make a significant impact on the impending water shortage.
In the Great Lakes, consistently elevated temperatures allowed invasive zebra mussels to colonize, transforming the ecosystem’s food chain and nutrient flow beyond repair.
Rosy-faced lovebirds use human innovations to keep cool when Arizona temperatures soar.
After hundreds of tons of marine life were killed by toxic red tide blooms that spread throughout Bay Area waterways between May and September, the red tide blooms could still return during winter months.
Local micro forests are being planted in Sarasota, Florida, to combat climate change.

A November 2021 study found that new climate pledges issued ahead of COP26 boost the chances of limiting global warming to 2 degrees.
A November 2021 study found that most coralline algae are negatively affected by ocean acidification, but some species may be more resilient than others.
A November 2021 study found that both local climate and human activity, such as the dryness of fuel available to burn and housing density, play key roles in determining wildfire probabilities throughout California.