Facts Of The Day 6/28

Hurricanes

• Hurricane Enrique became the first hurricane for the 2021 season early Friday morning in the Pacific. 
  • Enrique was producing winds of 90 MPH as of Sunday night.
  • Enrique will move north by northwest and will be close to the southern tip of Baja California Sur, possibly making landfall as a tropical storm or tropical depression.
  • Areas from Acapulco to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico have the greatest risk of local downpours and mudslides.
• A tropical disturbance has the potential to develop into a tropical depression or to form Tropical Storm Danny before it makes landfall in South Carolina or Georgia on Monday evening.
• Tropical Storm Claudette cost between $1.5 million to $4 million in damage to water and sewer pipes in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
• Heavy rain in parts of Michigan led to an overwhelmed freeway pumping system, leading to floods and trapped motorists.
  • Detroit saw 5 inches of rainfall from Friday into Saturday morning, and Dearborn saw 2.4 inches Friday into Saturday.
  • The Garden City and Grosse Pointe areas received more than 6.5 inches of rain from Friday to Saturday.
  • Michigan’s Lower Peninsula saw five tornadoes touch down on Saturday. One tornado dropped near Sylvester, in Mecosta County and destroyed a barn. The most damaging tornado was in Port Austin with hit speeds of 120 MPH, damaged several homes and injured six people.
• Heavy rain also fell in Illinois, where McLean County saw between 4.3 to 6.5 inches of rain.
  • The rain flooded parts of Bloomington-Normal, and a flash flood warning is still in effect until 7 PM local time Tuesday for most of the area including Northwest Indiana.
  • Two tornadoes in the Chicago area touched down on Saturday.
    • A tornado in Crete measured speeds of 70 MPH.
    • A second tornado in Dyer and Schererville, IN, reported estimated winds of 75 MPH.
  • A tornado in Chatsworth, IL, measured winds of 80 MPH on Saturday.
  • A tornado in Danforth, IL, measured winds of 95 MPH on Friday.

Wildfires

• There are currently 47 large wildfires active across AZ, CA, CO, FL, ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, and WA. Nationally, 628,590 acres have burned so far this year.  
• Fires in Arizona are negatively impacting the air in places such as Maricopa County, despite the fires being miles away.
• Arizona officials implemented closures on recreational activities on all state-owned and managed lands in the state’s 15 counties on Friday due to high fire danger.
• In Arizona, the Rafael Fire, located 4 miles north of Perkinsville, has burned 62,376 acres and was 11 contained as of Sunday evening. The Coconino County Sycamore Canyon and Loy Ranch in Yavapai are under evacuation orders as of Sunday evening.
• In Colorado, the Sylvan Lake Fire in Sylvan Lake State Park burned more than 3,775 acres and was 10% contained as of Sunday night. The area of Hardscrabble remains under a mandatory evacuation order.
• Oregon’s state legislature passed a bill on Friday that would establish more than a dozen new programs to fight and mitigate wildfire, bolster recovery, help communities adapt to smoke, and implement changes to the state’s building code for developing structures within high-risk areas of the wildland-urban interface.
• In Utah, the Pack Creek Fire, located south of Moab, has burned 8,952 acres and is 77% contained as of Thursday evening. Evacuations remain in place for the Holyoak and Dark Canyon wilderness areas
• In Washington, heatwaves sparked the Lind Fire in Adams County over the weekend. The fire, which threatens homes, crops and other infrastructure, has burned an estimated 20,000 acres and has unknown containment as of Sunday evening. 

Extreme Heat

• TriMet, the agency that operates mass transit in the Portland metropolitan area, shut down all MAX and WES train lines until Tuesday due to extreme heat.
• About 3,000 customers in the Greater Portland area were without power on Sunday, and 3,400 customers in the Greater Seattle area also saw outages.
• The Pacific Northwest saw a historic heat wave over the weekend.
  • Portland, Oregon saw back to back record temperatures this weekend. The city hit 108 degrees on Saturday, setting an all-time record, and temperatures of 112 degrees were then recorded on Sunday, breaking Saturday’s record.
  • Eugene, Oregon, hit 110 degrees on Sunday, breaking a previous record.
  • Salem, Oregon saw a record-breaking 112 degrees on Sunday.
  • Seattle, Washington, reached 104 degrees on Sunday.
• Parts of Idaho will see a week of triple-digit temperatures with the highest temperatures  projected on Wednesday.
• The Washington, D.C. region is expected to see a heat wave beginning on Monday.
• The Texas Public Utility Commission decided on Thursday it will require ERCOT to report power plant outages within three days as opposed to the previous 60 day period.

Climate Studies

• A report published in June 2021 found that human activity creates a four-day rain delay, which could mean delayed crop production, exacerbated heat waves, and worsened wildfires.