Key Facts Of The Day 4/20

Storms and Flooding

• More severe storms threaten some 50 million people from Texas to Wisconsin after the same system left people dead in Oklahoma, with a dozen tornadoes reported across three states and search-and-rescue still underway in some places.
• The town of Cole, south of Oklahoma City, had significant damage as storms and reported tornadoes struck the state.
  • Three people died in Oklahoma after a possible tornado struck Wednesday night.
• St. Paul, Stillwater, and other Minnesota communities have been preparing for major flooding on the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers.
  • The Mississippi and St. Croix rivers are swollen with water from one of the snowiest winters on record in the region.
  • The Metropolitan Airports Commission temporarily shut down flight operations for much of Tuesday at the St. Paul Downtown Airport while crews installed flood control barriers to hold back rising water on the Mississippi River.
• Insurance losses from the March tornado that hit parts of Mississippi are approaching $100 million, and uninsured losses will likely exceed that number.
  • The damage is particularly severe in the Mississippi Delta, one of the poorest regions in the country.

Wildfire

• As of April 14, 20  large active wildfires have burned 24,230 acres across the country.
• As of April 14, 11,246 wildfires have burned 302,755 acres across the country.
• In Arizona, 2 fires have burned 1,648 acres as of April 14.
• In Michigan, 1 fire has burned 303 acres as of April 14.
• In Oklahoma, 8 fires have burned 5,491 acres as of April 14.
• In Pennsylvania, 1 fire has burned 387 acres as of April 14.

Extreme Heat

• Temperatures in Erie, Pennsylvania, are warming across all four seasons.
• While about two months from the official start of summer, the Tampa Bay area in Florida is already seeing summer-like conditions.
• Part of Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, and Citrus Counties, Florida, are in extreme drought conditions.

New Reports and Data

• An April 2023 report found that about 64 million people of color live in areas that have received at least one failing grade for ozone or fine particle pollution.
• An April 2023 study found that as climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, one of Greenland’s previously most stable glaciers is now retreating at an unprecedented rate.
• An April 2023 study found that there is a massive amount of methane coming from wildfires — a source not currently being accounted for by California state air quality managers.