Key Facts Of The Day 12/8

Storms and Flooding

• As of Thursday morning, the tropical disturbance was located 925 miles east-southeast of Bermuda, and the system decreased to a 10% chance of development.
• Driven by a low-pressure system moving south from the Gulf of Alaska, two storm systems will bring heavy rain and blizzard conditions to Northern California.
  • The first of two storm systems aiming for the Bay Area is set to arrive Thursday afternoon, dumping rain on the region and impacting the evening commute.
  • The back-to-back storms could also bring 4 to 6 feet of fresh snow to the Tahoe Basin.
• Underground greenhouses are helping Indigenous communities ease farming amid the climate crisis and increase food security.
• Hurricane Ian has exacerbated the affordable housing crisis in Southwest Florida, leaving displaced renters with nowhere to go.
  • The storm has driven even more low and middle-income families out of the region.
  • Nearly 14,000 Southwest Florida renters are receiving assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency.
  • More than 1,120 households are being housed in hotels under the agency’s Transitional Sheltering Assistance program.

Wildfire

• As of December 7, there are currently 2 large active wildfires that have burned 906 across IN and NC. As of December 7, 64,127 wildfires have burned 7,343,939 acres across the country.
• In Indiana, 1 fire has burned 110 acres as of December 7.
• In North Carolina, 1 fire has burned 796 acres as of December 7.
• A new study found that Indigenous burning practices between 1500 and 1900 helped mitigate natural fire cycles and weaken the link between climate and wildfires at the local scale.
  • Regularly conducting controlled burns and removing excess fuel helped make the landscape less susceptible to large, drought-fueled blazes.

Extreme Heat

• Household water wells are drying up in record numbers as the California drought worsens.
  • The water crisis has hit rural farming areas particularly hard and left some families to fend for themselves or wait years for permanent solutions as nonprofits, state water officials, and well drillers struggle with a growing backlog of assistance requests.
  • This year, nearly 1,400 household wells have been reported dry — an almost 40% increase over the same period last year and the highest annual number reported since 2013.
  • Areas with the highest number of well failures included Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Tehama counties.
  • In parts of the Central Valley, some residents have been forced to live more than five years on water hauled to temporary storage tanks.
• The worst-case prediction from the Bureau of Reclamation shows that Lake Powell could drop below the minimum power pool as soon as July 2023.
• The projections from the Bureau of Reclamation for Lake Mead show the water level staying above the minimum power pool for the next two years but shows the water levels still falling dramatically.

New Reports and Data

• A December 2022 study found that Indigenous burning practices between 1500 and 1900 helped mitigate natural fire cycles and weaken the link between climate and wildfires at the local scale.
• A December 2022 survey found that 24% of the respondents said climate change has made them consider having fewer biological children, and 22% said climate change has made them reconsider having any children at all.
• A December 2022 report found that renewables would overtake coal and become the world’s biggest source of electricity generation by 2025.