Key Facts Of The Day 11/17

Hurricanes

• An atmospheric river in Washington caused flooding, evacuations, outages.

  • Gov. Jay Inslee issued a severe weather emergency proclamation on Monday for Clallam, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, Lewis, King, Kitsap, Pierce, Mason, San Juan, Skagit, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom counties.

• A ‘potentially significant’ storm could hit the East Coast with rain and snow during the busy Thanksgiving travel week.

  • The storm system could begin to develop Sunday in the Midwest, strengthening daily.

  • By the time it gets near the East Coast on Tuesday, a secondary system could develop along the coast, exacerbating the disrupting weather conditions in places like New York.

• After a report highlighted more than 100 areas where Austin-Travis County could have improved its response to the winter storm that hit Texas earlier this year, the county is taking steps to prepare for a potential emergency.

• North Carolina’s new state budget aims to prevent flood damage by funding several resiliency projects.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 3 large active wildfires that have burned 106,656 acres across CA and MT.

• As of Tuesday, wildfires pushed by strong winds forced the evacuation of homes in Montana, Wyoming and Colorado and led to a death in Wyoming.

  • On Monday night downed power lines caused a fire near the northern Wyoming community of Clark that burned at least 2 homes and 7 outbuildings.

  • In south-central Montana, 35 evacuation notices were issued and deputies also went door-to-door.

  • In north-central Colorado, the Kruger Rock Fire southeast of Estes Park forced evacuations in a forested region of Larimer County.

    • Winds near the Kruger Rock Fire are currently gusting to about 25 to 30 miles per hour out of the west and are expected to strengthen, with gusts up to 50 mph possible.

• A historic drought and recent heat waves tied to climate change have made wildfires harder to fight in the west.

• A law passed by the Colorado Legislature is helping expand wildland fire mitigation efforts in the state, including nearly doubling the size of a team of prison inmates specially trained in reducing fuels in communities at high risk of wildfires.

Extreme Heat

• California, Arizona and Nevada are discussing plans to take even less water from the shrinking Colorado river and leave it in Lake Mead in an effort to prevent the reservoir from falling to dangerously low levels.

• The Santa Clara Valley Water rebate program aims to encourage Santa Clara County, California residents to reduce water usage.

  • The Santa Clara Valley Water reservoirs in California are at historic lows with total capacity at 11%.

• Chesapeake Bay summer water temperatures are increasing by nearly a half degree per decade and rising nearly twice as fast as global surface ocean water temperatures.

• Preexisting problems in the Coachella valley including unstable energy infrastructure, lack of affordable housing and income inequality are all compounded by rising temperatures.

  • The aging energy infrastructure in the Coachella Valley faces a number of problems, including  frequent outages caused by downed power lines and record-breaking heat waves pushing the demand for power.

  • The lack of adequate energy infrastructure also affects accessibility to water.

  • As summer temperatures continue to rise, conditions in the fields of Coachella Valley become more dangerous.

• Due to climate change events such as hot summers, droughts and flooding, the Christmas tree crop this season is smaller than usual at Big Tree Plantation in Ohio.

• Fires and droughts decimated the Christmas tree crop in the top tree-producing state of Oregon.

• Pre-cut, Cut-your-own, and artificial Christmas tree prices are going to be higher this year.

• Florida Gov. DeSantis proposed $960 million in environmental budget funding, including money to address red tide.

New Reports And Data

• A November 2021 study found a new process using coordination materials that can accelerate the use of low-cost materials and make solar energy even more sustainable.

• A November 2021 study found a way to improve the prediction of high impact climate phenomena, which can potentially save thousands of lives and avoid billions in economic losses.

• A November 2021 study found that emissions from the Uinta Basin oil and gas wells have fallen by half, partly because of methane leaks.