Facts Of The Day 9/16

Extreme Heat

• The ongoing drought in Arizona may force a shift in the relationship between the state’s cattle industry and alfalfa farmers, as alfalfa, which requires large amounts of water, is food for cattle.

• Drought in Montana has reduced the amount of forage for livestock, sometimes leading to pneumonia in the animals due to sudden changes in their diet.

• Potato growers in California’s Central Valley plan to use a microgrid to avoid blackouts and to reduce their climate impacts.

• Connecticut’s $4 billion-a-year agricultural sector has been whacked by extreme weather with Hurricanes Ida and Henri, flooding 1 flooded farm with at least 7 feet of water and killing turkeys and ruining kale, winter squash, pumpkins and other vegetable crops.

• Individual school districts in New Jersey will decide when it is too hot for students to wear masks to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

• 17 schools in Colorado’s Denver Public School District closed on Friday due to extreme heat.

• Human rights groups have asked the Biden administration to consider the effects of excessive heat caused by climate change when designing border policies.

• Washington is set to re-open more than 2 million acres of lands just in time for hunting season in the eastern part of the state that had been closed earlier this year due to wildfire danger.

• Extreme weather events including flooding and wildfires may cost railway Union Pacific more than $100 million 2021.

• Climate migration is already a reality for people who can afford to make the move because of extreme weather events and the coronavirus pandemic.

• Although Sarasota and Manatee Counties in Florida saw some relief from red tide last week, traces of red tide have returned to both counties and continue to be found in Pinellas County waters.

• Backup generators have seen a spike in demand due to extreme weather events and the coronavirus pandemic, with one woman living on Johns Island near South Carolina’s coast spending $12,400 and waiting 3 months for a generator.

Wildfires

• As of Wednesday, there are currently 77 large active wildfires that have burned 3,180,967 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, WA, OR, UT, WA and WY. This year to date, 44,898 wildfires have burned 5,549,094 acres across the country.

• In California, the Dixie Fire burned 960,470 acres and was 86% contained as of Thursday.

  • On Wednesday, more than 200 people sued utility provider PG&E over the Dixie Fire, claiming the company failed to foresee the dangers posed by the dry vegetation around its equipment.

• In California, the KNP Complex Fire burned 8,939 acres and was 0% contained as of Thursday.

  • Firefighters hope that because many of the Sequoia National Park trees’ lowest branches are at least 100 feet off the ground, wildfire flames will remain near the forest floor, rather than move to the crown of the sequoias.

  • About 160 employees evacuated from the national park and about 110 homes are under a mandatory evacuation order as of Wednesday night.

• One fire was contained in Utah on Wednesday – the Oak Grove Fire burned at 771 acres.

Hurricanes

• As of Thursday morning, almost 5 million people in parts of southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi and Alabama as well as the Florida Panhandle are under flash flood watches as Nicholas, now a post-tropical cyclone, continues to linger over the Gulf Coast.

  • Nicholas made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane on the southern Texas coast on Tuesday, and continued to drop rain on parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle as it degraded into a tropical depression.

  • The region may see anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain through Friday, with some areas at risk for as much as 12 inches of rainfall.

  • Georgia and the Carolinas may experience heavy rain on Thursday.

  • Nicholas became a post-tropical cyclone on Thursday morning as it was located near Marsh Island along the central Louisiana coast with winds of 25 MPH.

  • A mass of dry air to the north that is moving in from the west is expected to shift Nicholas slowly northwards over the next few days, moving in southern Arkansas and dissipating by Saturday morning.

• Hurricane Nicholas caused one man’s home to become an island after the storm dumped 2 feet of water outside of his house in Treasure Island, Texas.

  • Multiple houses in Treasure Island, Texas took damage including collapsed walls, a ripped-off roof and blown-in windows, blown out fences and power outages.

  • More than 57,000 people in Texas continue to experience power outages as of Thursday morning.

• Hurricane Ida has been blamed for at least 29 deaths in Louisiana, with 13 of those deaths attributed to excessive heat and 6 deaths attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning as of Thursday morning.

  • About 46,000 people in Louisiana remain without power in Louisiana as of Thursday morning due to Hurricane Ida.

  • Insurance agents warn that Hurricane Ida may have caused at least $40 billion in wind and flood damage, causing rates to go up in states such as Florida, even though the storm did not hit the state.

  • After Hurricane Ida knocked out power to multiple refineries in Louisiana, their restart caused a burn off of extra hydrocarbons that flared, which produced even more greenhouse gases.

  • Due to Hurricane Ida, 29 oil companies along the Gulf Coast shut down 90% of production and all offshore rig employees were evacuated.

  • Multiple Louisiana refineries remain without power 3 weeks after Ida’s landfall, complicating the industry’s efforts to continue oil production with damaged off-shore platforms and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Climate Studies