Key Facts Of The Day 3/8

Storms and Flooding

• A snowstorm will track from the West to the Plains, Midwest, and Northeast through the end of the workweek.
  • Snow is expected in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Detroit.
  • Southern Wisconsin is under a winter storm watch as 6-9 inches of snow are expected on Thursday and Friday.
• Another atmospheric river storm is expected to hit California this week and drop warm rain atop the state’s near-record snowpack, which could lead to flooding and structure damage.
  • The brunt of the warm storm is expected to hit Northern and Central California late Thursday and into Friday, but Southern California will also feel some effects.
  • As warm rain melts the snow, it could lead to runoff that swells small streams and rivers and causes localized flooding.
  • Evacuation warnings have been issued for parts of Fresno County, California, ahead of expected winter storms.
    • An estimated 17,000 people who live in the Fresno County foothills and mountains, as well as lower elevations prone to flooding, are asked to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Wildfire

• As of March  3, 8  large active wildfires have burned 6,357 acres across the country.
• As of March  3, 4,278 wildfires have burned 63,647 acres across the country.
• In Florida, 1 fire has burned 400 acres as of March 3.
• In Texas, 1 fire has burned 2,816 acres as of March 3.
• burned 28,701 acres across the country.

Extreme Heat

• During summer 2022, extreme heat killed five people in Multnomah County, Oregon.
  • Four men died of hyperthermia during seven straight days of temperatures above 95 degrees from July 25 to July 31.
  • The extreme heat on August 10 resulted in the death of the fifth person.
• A fifth of the Sierra Nevada’s conifer forests are out of sync with the warming climate around them, which makes them less likely to grow back after a major wildfire.
• In February, Antarctic sea ice shrank to a record low.
  •  As sea ice dwindles, coastal glaciers are more susceptible to the influence of the warming water.

New Reports and Data

• A March 2023 study found that greenhouse gas emissions from the way humans produce and consume food could add nearly 1 degree of warming to the Earth’s climate by 2100.
• A March 2023 study found that sea level rise poses a particular risk for Asian megacities.