Facts Of The Day 8/25

Extreme Heat

• As of Tuesday, about 45 million people in the regions of eastern Plains, the Midwest, and parts of the Deep South are under heat advisories and excessive heat warnings.

• Power demand in Texas reached its highest level in 2021 on Tuesday and is expected to top that on Wednesday.

  • The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said that power grid use peaked at 73,462 MW on Tuesday and could reach 74,787 MW on Wednesday.

• A COVID-19 testing site in Charlotte, North Carolina, closed for the first time on Tuesday since the pandemic began due to excessive heat.

• City officials in Reading, Pennsylvania announced on Tuesday they would waive the 6 AM start time for waste collection due to concerns over excessive heat.

• Drought is forcing one North Dakota farmer to sell at least 120 cows in addition to the 100 cows he already sold.

• At least two hiking trails in Arizona will be closed due to excessive heat from Wednesday to Friday

• Extreme heat has caused damage such as red or orange needles on Doug firs and ponderosa pines in Oregon.

• Multiple schools in Northeast Ohio either closed or dismissed early on Tuesday and will do the same on Wednesday due to the extreme heat.

• Drought in Minnesota is forcing well drillers to work overtime to keep up with the depleted water tables for both residential and city wells.

• Sarasota County, Florida, is set to receive $3.5 million from the state for red tide management.

• The red tide outbreak in Florida has hiked demand for organic fertilizer.

• Washington, DC, marked its 41st day where temperatures are at 90 degrees or above on Tuesday.

  • Washington, DC was tied for its 27th warmest summer through Monday.

Wildfires

• There are currently 92 large active wildfires that have burned 2,569,930 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, UT, WA, OR, SD, WA, UT, and WY.

• This year to date, 43,438 wildfires have burned 4,786,588 acres across the country.

• Parts of California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana are under air quality alerts as of Wednesday due to the ongoing wildfires.

• Multiple wildfires in California, including the McCash, Antelope, River Complex, Monument, and Dixie Fires have created enough smoke that can be viewed from space.

• Smoke from far away wildfires may be more harmful than local ones because the disappearance of the smoky smell may lead people to believe the air is safe.

• President Joe Biden approved a Presidential Major Disaster Declaration on Tuesday, which provides aid to four counties in California devastated by the Dixie and River Fire.

• The Antelope Fire burned 69,700 acres and was 40% contained as of Wednesday.

• In California, the Caldor Fire burned 122,980 acres and was 11% contained as of Wednesday.

  • Parts of South Tahoe could receive an evacuation warning if the Echo Summit region moves under a mandatory evacuation order.

  • At least 455 homes have been destroyed by the Caldor Fire of Tuesday, with another 17,000 structures threatened.

• In California, the Dixie Fire burned 733,475 acres and was 43% contained as of Wednesday.

  • The Dixie Fire is also burning the headwaters of the Feather River and the California State Water Project, which provides water to more than 25 million people in the state and about 750,000 acres of farmland.

• One fire was contained in Utah on Tuesday – the Morgan Canyon Fire burned 509 acres.

Hurricanes

• Tropical Storm Fred caused flooding in the town of Boone, North Carolina.

  • At the monitoring site at the Deerfield Road Area and East Fork of the New River, the water peaked at about 9.2 feet on August 18th.

  • The monitoring site at Hunting Hills Road and the South Fork of the New River registered flood waters at 12.9 feet on August 18th.

  • Due to the floods, the waters in Boone have been tested for E.coli and sediment.

  • At least 5 people have been killed in North Carolina by Fred as of Tuesday, with 3 of whom were camping at the Laurel Bank Campground.

• Henri, now a post-tropical cyclone, was located 50 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island and moving east at 25 MPH as of Tuesday afternoon.

  • Henri drenched some areas with up to 10 inches of rain.

  • As of Wednesday, damage from Henri is currently estimated to be between $8 to $12 billion

  • In New Jersey, losses include soaked homes, ruined possessions, broken appliances, flooded cars, and an ice cream stand.

  • As of Tuesday, almost 8,000 people were still without power in Rhode Island.

    • Power outages in Rhode Island were caused by high winds between 60 to 70 MPH bringing down tree limbs onto power lines.

• Henri caused corn crops to fall over in Feeding Hills, Massachusetts on Monday, with wind gusts of up to 40 MPH.

  • Weak crops were also weighed down by the amount of rainfall, which measured at 2.77 inches over a 54 hour period.

• The remnants of Tropical Storm Linda have caused stormwater runoff to enter coastal waters.

  • A brown water advisory that had been activated for Oahu’s west coast on Monday has been expanded to the entire island as of Tuesday afternoon.

  • Maui also remains under a brown water advisory that went into effect on Monday.

  • Kealakekua Bay on Hawaii island remains under a high bacteria advisory that began last Thursday.

• A low-pressure system located in the Caribbean Sea as of Wednesday morning is likely to grow into a tropical depression or storm and could threaten Mexico and the Western United States coast.

  • The system could bring heavy rainfall to parts of Central America to the Yucatan later this week and into the weekend.

  • Possible impacts from the system are less clear into next week but parts of the western Gulf Coast, from Louisiana to Texas and Mexico, could be affected.

  • Should high pressure cause the system to reach its western periphery, then the system could move in a northwestward direction and potentially have direct impacts in Texas or even Louisiana.

  • The system could also be positioned so that it moves in a more western direction towards Mexico’s Gulf Coast.

• As of Tuesday, floods in Tennessee have destroyed at least 270 homes and killed 18 people.

  • Another 160 homes had major damage and 28 had minor damage with water reaching from knee to waist-levels.

  • One woman died in Waverly, Tennessee, on Saturday after posting a video of the flooding on Facebook.

Climate Studies