Facts Of The Day 9/17

Extreme Heat

• Higher temperatures are expected to continue into the fall, with drought likely to spread into Texas, Oklahoma, and Nebraska.

• The glaciers on Mount Shasta’s peaks in California are in danger of disappearing forever due to climate change and intense heat.

• Arizona’s program to close popular hiking trails during times of excessive heat has reduced the number of hikers and firefighters who have needed hospitalization for heat exhaustion.

• Extreme weather events, including excessive heat, have affected as many as 1.1 million students across the United States by keeping them out of school because of a lack of air conditioning.

• Drought in Idaho could result in 20 to 25% fewer onions for the fall harvest, with this year’s crop being possibly the worst in a decade.

• Heat has damaged corn crops in Minnesota, making them less able to withstand insects and wind, which causes losses as corn cobs break off their plants.

• The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources suspended 230 irrigation permits this year because of the drought, affecting the  600,000 acres in the state that grow soybeans, corn and potatoes.

• Marin County, California, will be spending $684,000 to purchase battery storage and complete a microgrid for its Center Exhibit Hall in case of power outages.

• The Wisconsin Public Service Commission awarded almost $1 million to UW-Madison researchers to study projects such as microgrids for disaster mitigation efforts.

Wildfires

• As of Thursday, there are currently 76 large active wildfires that have burned 3,181,743 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, WA, OR, UT, WA, and WY. This year to date, 44,968 wildfires have burned 5,587,152 acres across the country.

• In California, the Dixie Fire burned 960,581 acres and was 86% contained as of Friday.

  • As of Friday, the Dixie Fire has destroyed 1,329 structures and burned through 5 counties.

• In California, the KNP Complex Fire burned 9,365 acres and was 0% contained as of Friday.

  • Firefighters wrapped the base of the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world, other trees in Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest, buildings, and the Giant Forest Museum in fire-resistant blankets in the hopes the blankets will provide some protection.

• One new fire sparked in Idaho on Thursday – the Curl Fire burned 337 acres and was 10% contained.

• One fire was contained in Montana on Thursday – the Granite Pass Complex Fire burned 5,910 acres.

• One fire was contained in Washington on Thursday – the Muckamuck Fire burned 13,297 acres.

Hurricanes

• As of Friday morning, post-tropical storm Nicholas drifted northwest into western Louisiana, and was located about 40 miles west-southwest of Alexandria, Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds of 15 MPH and moving north at 7 MPH.

  • Parts of southeast Louisiana, across southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, and into the Florida Panhandle are under flash flood watches as of Friday morning.

  • Nicholas is expected to dissipate over Louisiana sometime Friday, although rain is expected to continue for several days.

  • As of Friday morning, 37,219 people in Texas remain without power due to Hurricane Nicholas along with 95,000 people in Louisiana, some of whom may have lost power again from Nicholas after initially seeing electricity restored in the wake of outages from Hurricane Ida.

• Louisiana residents are coping with the double whammy of Hurricanes Ida and Nicholas.

  • Nicholas’s rainfall of 4-6 inches on the Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes left residents scrambling to cover their roofs with blue tarps after suffering damage from Ida.

  • One family has lost clothes, TV, and bed in their damaged mobile home, which has started to see mold grow on the ceiling after Ida and Nicholas.

  • An estimated 80% of homes in the Point-Aux-Chenes community of the Terrebonne Parish are uninhabitable.

  • After Hurricane Ida hit one of the poorest regions of the country, Louisiana residents face an ongoing housing crisis worsened by the storm.

• As of Friday morning, a disturbance was located about 100 miles southeast of the Outer Banks in North Carolina and is expected to move closer to the state over the weekend.

  • North Carolina could see heavy surf and rain, which could reach as far down as the north Georgia line.

  • Conditions are favorable for storm formation as there is no significant wind-shear or dry air.

• Drivers in the Washington, DC, region had to be rescued from their vehicles after storms on Thursday night flooded streets, downed wires, and trees.

  • In Montgomery County, Maryland, Bradley Boulevard was closed in both directions at Ewing Drive due to fallen trees and wires.

  • In Washington, DC, part of MacArthur Boulevard in Northwest was closed as of Friday morning because of downed trees and reports of high water in Rock Creek Park near K Street in the Northwest neighborhood.

  • 2 people in Fairfax County, Virginia, had to be rescued after one got stuck in flooded waters on Terrell Street and another on Rolling Road.

  • Alexandra, Arlington, as well as parts of Richmond in Virginia all reported high water, with Richmond receiving as much as 3 inches of water.

• Hurricane Ida may have caused a loss of at least 30 million barrels of oil supply as of Friday morning.

  • As of Wednesday, at least 36 production platforms, or 6.43% of the 560 manned platforms in the Gulf of Mexico have not seen staff return after evacuating ahead of the storm.

  • Ida shut down 288 platforms, which stopped the production of 1.74 million oil barrels.

  • The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement estimates that 29.52% of current oil production and 39.40% of gas production in the Gulf of Mexico are shut in as of Friday morning.

  • Abandoned wells off the coast of Louisiana may compound environmental problems as at least some of those wells may be leaking in the wake of Ida and require state or federal agencies to manage the plugging and clean up.

Climate Studies