Key Facts Of The Day 11/30

Hurricanes

• The 2021 hurricane season officially ends on Tuesday, November 30th.

  • The 2021 season became only the third in history to use all of the names on the rotating seasonal list.

  • The Atlantic hurricane season ends up as more costly than the record-breaking one in 2020.

  • To date, Hurricane Ida is the costliest disaster this year, exceeding $60 billion.

• Washington state sees more flooding as the next storm approaches.

  • People in the small communities of Sumas and Everson in northwest Washington had been asked to evacuate voluntarily Saturday night.

• Northern Washington tribes fear devastation of salmon by extreme floodwaters.

  • The extreme flows flushed away gravel and the salmon eggs incubating just below the surface, likely by the millions.

• Parents are frustrated with virtual learning at a Cresskill, New Jersey school that was hit by Ida flooding.

  • According to district officials, the damage to Cresskill Middle/High School totals approximately $19 million.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 4 large active wildfires that have burned 90,810 acres across AL, CA, and MT. As of Friday, 52,729 wildfires have burned 6,631,430 acres across the country.

  • As of Friday, the KNP Complex fire burned 88,307 acres and was 80% contained.

• As of Monday afternoon, North Carolina Forest Service issued a burn ban and cancelled all burning permits for the entire state due to hazardous forest fire conditions.

• Sunday marked 5 years since the deadly Gatlinburg wildfires in Tennessee spread rapidly.

• A combination of wildfires and climate change are not only destroying western forests, but transforming them to scrubland.

• Wildfires of varying intensity can be good for biodiversity.

Extreme Heat

• At 46.8 degrees, Lake Huron on Monday reached a record warmth for the day since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began recording.

  • Warmer fall water temperatures could change the habits of fish that spawn in fall, such as lake trout or lake whitefish, delaying the hatching of eggs and endangering the offspring’s survivability.

  • A mild winter following a warm-water fall could mean less ice on the lake, jeopardizing the lake whitefish fishery because that fish relies on ice cover to protect its eggs from wind and waves.

• In Southwestern U.S. a building dome of high pressure and Santa Ana winds has led to an autun heat wave.

• Unseasonably warm temperatures over Thanksgiving weekend postponed winter recreation in Missoula County, Montana.

  • As of Nov. 23, almost all of Missoula County is considered in severe drought, along with 93% of the state being in severe drought or worse.

  • Only 2 of Montana’s 12 reporting ski hills are open.

• More tree canopy can stop climate change from killing vulnerable Americans.

  • This summer, when a heat wave enveloped the Pacific Northwest, shattering high-temperature records and ending hundreds of lives, people in neighborhoods with scant tree cover suffered the most.

  • A Portland State University researcher measured ambient temperatures throughout the city and recorded a thirteen-degree difference between one of the city’s poorest (and most treeless) neighborhoods and one of its wealthiest (and more verdant).

• During this summer’s heat dome in the Pacific Northwest, a billion shellfish and other intertidal animals baked to death.

• Miami, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona, Athens, Greece, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, appointed chief heat officers to respond to the public health impact of rising global temperatures.

New Reports And Data

• A November 2021 study found that climate change is making one of the world’s strongest currents flow faster.

• A November 2021 study found that over the past century the Arctic Ocean has been becoming warmer and saltier or as many call it ‘Atlantifying.’

• A November 2021 study found that the world’s eight most extreme wildfire weather years on record have occurred in the last decade.