Key Facts Of The Day 11/18

Hurricanes

• Nearly half of Gulf oyster harvesting areas are closed after summer deluge and active hurricane season.

• Flooding and landslides have devastated the western seaboard of Canada and the US, months after the region suffered a record-breaking heatwave.

  • The extreme weather was caused by an extended “heat dome” parked over the Pacific north-west.

  • Scientists who analysed the regional heatwave found that human-caused climate change made the extreme weather at least 150 times more likely.

  • More rain fell in Bellingham, Washington between Saturday and Monday than normally falls there during all of November.

  • Whatcom County, Washington experienced the worst flooding in more than 30 years, and hundreds of residents were displaced.

• Wisconsin’s Great Lakes communities expect to spend more than $245 million in five years to protect shorelines as the climate drives extreme shifts in water levels.

• Northern Michigan could see up to five inches of snow by Friday.

• Half the U.S. would qualify for a flood program aimed at the poor.

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has released its final report on the Texas power grid failure during the February 2021 winter storm.

  • Protecting just four types of power plant components from icing and freezing could have reduced outages by 67% in the ERCOT region.

  • The report states that 87% of unplanned outages were due to natural gas production and processing issues, while the remaining 13% was due to issues with other fuel sources such as oil and coal.

  • 81% of freezing-related outages occurred at temperatures above the units’ stated ambient design temperature.

Wildfires

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

• Residents in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana are facing evacuations as wildfires fueled by strong winds engulf mountains.

• The Kruger Rock fire erupted after strong winds pushed a tree onto a power line.

  • The Kruger Rock Fire is burning amid drought and unusually warm weather in Colorado.

  • While fighting the Kruger Rock Fire in Colorado, a pilot crashed and died.

• The area burned by wildfires could increase by as much as 92% by 2040s in the Sierra Nevada in California.

  •  As planet-warming fossil fuel emissions rise, the number of fires and charred areas will only worsen.

  • The Caldor and Dixie fires alone torched nearly 1.2 million acres of the Sierra Nevada and destroyed more than 2,300 structures.

• Lawmakers advance bill to reduce wildfire impacts as climate change fuels more intense blazes.

  • The legislation would supply $2 billion to federal agencies over five years to support better understanding and prediction of wildfires.

Extreme Heat

• Climate change and extreme weather, including droughts, wildfires and power shutdowns are impacting many of the ingredients to make pies causing shortages and prices to increase.

• Fall rains can’t undo the pains of drought in Oregon and Washington.

  • This year, spring and summer precipitation in Oregon neared the lowest ever level recorded.

  • The Oregon Health Authority recorded more than 300 wells going dry across Oregon this year.

•  No-till farming has seen major benefits by cutting CO2 emissions and conserving water run-off.

• In Texas, groundwater is pumped out of aquifers so quickly that more wells are in danger of going dry, and more springs and surface water may begin to dry up.

  • Statewide, Texas is losing groundwater at nearly twice the maximum sustained rate.

  • Groundwater is being pumped out of the Ogallala Aquifer 6.5 times faster than its sustainable rate.

• The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported that 1,003 manatees have died in Florida as of Nov. 12 partly due to red tide and algal bloom.

New Reports And Data

• A November 2021 report found that efficient electric water heating could slash multifamily buildings’ carbon emissions.

• A November 2021 study found that the social cost of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is the largest remaining threat to the ozone layer, is understated.

• A November 2021 study found that rising temperatures will cause the world’s soil to release carbon.

• A November 2021 study found that air pollution decrease in India during COVID-19 lockdown was not as high as originally thought.