Facts Of The Day 8/19

Extreme Heat

• About 48,000 in 13 counties in Northern California were affected by shutoffs by utility provider PG&E that began Tuesday evening to reduce wildfire risk.

  • As of Thursday morning, about 55% of affected customers had their power restored.

• Multnomah County, Oregon, released a report detailing how it addressed the June 2021 heatwave, noting that 3 cooling centers had served 1,400 people and 6,330 meals and 9 libraries had also served as cooling spaces.

• York County, Maine hospitals saw 33-heat related emergencies so far this summer, with almost half of those occurring during the late June heat waves.

• The school board of Flint, Michigan voted to cancel Thursday’s classes because of complaints of excessive heat.

• Volunteers in Atlanta, Georgia are collecting data for researchers to understand which neighborhoods are the hottest and highlight solutions for the most vulnerable populations.

• Fresno, California is in the process of completing its recycled water distribution system that will generate 6,000 acre-feet of recycled water that can be used as a source of drinking water.

• San Diego County’s wine grape harvest declined in value from $5.6 million to $5.2 million in 2020, due to issues including drought.

• Heat stress from June heatwaves impacted wheat crop yields, lowering bushel count 80 bushels per acre to 50 bushels.

• Stonington, Connecticut, has had to pay $25,000 for 200,000 gallons of water as the town has had no snow and very little rain for the past 3 years.

• The neighborhood of Sun Valley in Denver, Colorado has 88% of residents who identify as people of color while only 3% of the area is shaded by trees, in contrast to the Denver neighborhood of Capitol Hill, where only 15% of residents identify as people of color but has tree canopy ranging from 10% to 17%, and makes it 4 degrees cooler than Sun Valley.

• As of Wednesday, Pinellas County, Florida had collected 1,836 tons, or about 3,672,000 pounds of dead fish and debris caused by the red tide.

• Florida’s red tide problem has been documented by TikTok users, with one video receiving 500,000 views and 170,000 likes.

• Salt Lake City, Utah, has seen 20 days where temperatures reached triple digits this summer.

Wildfires

• There are currently 104 large wildfires that have burned 2,557,537 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NM, NV, UT, WA, and WY.

• 2 new large fires were reported in California and Nebraska and 2 large fires were reported contained on Wednesday.

• Amtrak’s Coast Starlight line that travels between Seattle and Los Angeles was damaged by California’s Lava Fire in July and is set to resume service next week.

• Lakes can reveal the effects of wildfire smoke as they do not receive any inflow of water and can be sensitive to air pollution that falls to the ground as rain.

• The costs of landscaping can be inaccessible to those with lower incomes, which in turn exacerbates wildfire risk by leaving yard debris such as fallen leaves, branches, and unkempt trees as fuel.

• One new fire sparked in California on Wednesday – the French Fire burned 1,500 acres and was 0% contained.

• In California, the Caldor Fire burned 62,586 acres and was 0% contained as of Thursday. 23,000 people have fled El Dorado County and 2 people have been injured as of Thursday morning. The Caldor Fire has exploded 10 times in size over the last 2 days.

• One fire was contained in Idaho on Wednesday – the Williams Fire burned 381 acres.

• One fire was contained in Montana on Wednesday – the Cottonwood Fire burned 3,900 acres.

Hurricanes

• The remnants of Tropical Storm Fred brought downpours which caused flash flooding in West Hartford and Bloomfield, Connecticut.

  • At least 2,000 people were without power as of Thursday morning.

  • Hartford, Tolland, and Windham counties are all under flash flood warnings until 11:15 AM local time.

  • Several crashes and flash flooding occurred along the Southbury/Newtown area of I-84 highway and a tractor-trailer jack-knifed on the eastbound side, causing delays.

  • 35 people have been reported missing in Haywood County, North Carolina as of Thursday morning in North Carolina in association with Fred.

    • About 37,000 customers in North Carolina and West Virginia were left without power on Wednesday, although power had been mostly restored by Thursday morning. 20,000 customers in Pennsylvania and New York were still dealing with power outages as of Thursday morning.

    • Haywood County also saw multiple homes damaged or destroyed by Fred.

    • Two bridges in Candler, North Carolina had been washed out by Fred, leaving dozens of residents unable to leave their homes.

• Hurricane Grace made landfall at Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Thursday morning, bringing strong winds and heavy rain to parts areas including Cancun, Cozumel and Punta Herrero.

  • As of Thursday morning winds measured at Playa del Carmen were at 85 mph, with 80 mph winds at Cancun.

  • About 125 tourists were evacuated from hotels in the Quintana Roo as of late Wednesday.

  • Grace is forecast to exit the Bay of Campeche as a tropical storm as it loses strength over the Yucatan, and then regain its strength over open waters to threaten Mexico’s mainland Friday night and into Saturday.

• Tropical Storm Henri was located more than 800 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and was moving west at about 10 MPH as of Thursday morning.

  • Henri is expected to strengthen into a hurricane over the Atlantic, and while its exact path and strength are currently unknown, residents in the Northeast, especially in New England are urged to be aware impacts could occur to the region starting later in the weekend to early next week.

  • The storm is forecast to turn toward the northwest late this week, then turn toward the north and eventually the northeast.

  • Henri is currently forecast to be a category 1 hurricane or a tropical storm as it approaches New England.

  • Parts of the Southeast and mid-Atlantic could see high surf and life-threatening rip currents that could threaten beaches by late week.

• Hurricane Linda deteriorated into a category 1 storm, moving west at about 16 MPH with maximum wind speed of 90 MPH and located about 1,330 miles east of Hilo, Hawaii as of Wednesday night.

  • Linda is scheduled to begin weakening Wednesday night and steadily deteriorate Thursday into Friday.

  • Linda could bring showers to Hawaii as a remnant low into the weekend.

  • The storm is forecast to move into the central Pacific in about 36 hours and forecast to pass the Northern Hawaiian islands as a post-tropical gale late Sunday into Monday.

• Officials are urging people to get their COVID-19 vaccination shots as physical distancing may not be possible in shelters and hospitals may not be able to take additional patients should an outbreak occur in a shelter.

Climate Studies