Key Facts Of The Day 5/5

Storms and Flooding

• On Thursday, two brief tornadoes, with wind speeds around 75 MPH, damaged the roofs of at least two buildings just miles apart in Carson and Compton, California.
  • The strong winds ripped holes in the roofs of at least two warehouse businesses. Some debris landed on vehicles parked near the business in a Carson industrial park.
  • The tornadoes formed during a spring storm that drenched Southern California with overnight rain.
• Snow-laden California received more snow halfway through spring after an unseasonably cold system spun off the San Francisco Bay.
  • On Wednesday, the Heavenly ski resort at Lake Tahoe reported that 15 inches of snow had fallen over 48 hours.
  • Northwest of Tahoe, 5.5 inches was recorded over two days at the University of California, Berkeley, Central Sierra Snow Lab, raising its season total to 743 inches.

Wildfire

• As of April 28, 13  large active wildfires have burned 45,376 acres across CO, FL, KS, NJ, NM, NC, OK, and WV.
• As of April 28, 12,972 wildfires have burned 392,287 acres across the country.
• In Colorado, 1 fire has burned 4,618 acres as of April 28.
• In Florida, 2 fires have burned 1,353 acres as of April 28.
• In New Mexico, 1 fire has burned 989 acres as of April 28.
• In North Carolina, 1 fire has burned 32,400 acres as of April 28.
• In Oklahoma, 5 fires have burned 2,384 acres as of April 28.

Extreme Heat

• Farmers in northern Oklahoma and western Kansas struggle in a long-lasting dry spell.
  • 60% of Kansas is in either exceptional or “extreme” drought.
  • 20% of Oklahoma is in “exceptional” drought, and more than a third of the state is in extreme or exceptional drought.
  • Parts of southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma saw their driest March on record.
  • About half of winter wheat, nationally, is in a drought condition.
  • Sorghum — grown largely in Kansas as a livestock feed and source of biofuel — is 80% affected by drought.
  • Four out of every 10 beef cows in the nation is affected by drought.
  • Short on pasture and feed, some farmers have sent a quarter or even a third of their cattle to slaughter, and thousands of acres may not produce a meaningful wheat crop if the region doesn’t receive significant and repeated rainfall.
  • Meat prices are on the climb and will keep rising all around the country for a few years due to the ongoing drought.
  • Due to the ongoing drought, flour, bread, and other baked goods that rely on the region’s grain crop could become more expensive.
• A new program looks to replant warm weather trees in the Superior National Forest of northern Minnesota to help them adjust to a rapidly warming world.

New Reports and Data

• A May 2023 study found that Indo-Pacific corals are more resilient to climate change than Atlantic corals.
• A May 2023 study found that growers lose between 10 and 23% of their crops to fungal infection each year, and it will worsen with global warming.