Facts Of The Day 9/24

Extreme Heat

• As of Tuesday, 90% of California is roasting under extreme or exceptional drought conditions.

  • 40% of water suppliers in the South Coast region, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, and Ventura counties consumed more water than they did last year.

  • 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland in the state could receive no water from the State Water Project next year.

  • 80% of the Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River could die this year because of the ongoing drought conditions.

• There is a 3% chance that Lake Powell, located on the Utah-Arizona border, could fall below the minimum level necessary for the lake’s Glen Canyon Dam to produce energy next year with that chance jumping to 34% in 2023.

• Montana’s fisheries are still experiencing impacts from ongoing drought conditions with very low water flows and the full impact may not be known for several fishing seasons.

• Texas is 1 of 13 states that do not have universal air conditioning installed at their state prisons.

• 50 companies in industries ranging from mining to transportation to food are highly exposed to physical climate risks.

• Ongoing drought conditions in New Mexico have forced one cattle rancher to sell off cattle with the expectation that only 15% of the herd will be replenished this year.

• The coastal United States north-east has rapidly heated by 3.6 degrees partly because of the rising temperature of the Atlantic Ocean due to climate change.

• On Thursday California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that designates more than $15 billion to combat wildfires, droughts, and climate change.

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a preliminary report with 28 recommendations to address the issues that caused the power grid in Texas to fail in February 2021.

Wildfires

• As of Friday, there are currently 67 large active wildfires that have burned 3,165,739 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, WA, OR, UT, WA and WY. This year to date, 45,592 wildfires have burned 5,786,564 acres across the country.

• According to the US Forest Service, more than 80 million acres of federal land are overdue for fire mitigation work, which is greater than the acreage of Arizona.

• 15 wildland firefighters have died this year from causes including heart attacks and vehicle accidents while fighting fires.

• In California, 10 fires have burned 1,932,414 as of Friday.

  • State officials warned residents in regions including the Bay Area and the San Joaquin Valley due to air quality concerns from wildfire smoke.

  • The Caldor Fire burned 219,578 acres and was 76% contained as of Wednesday.

  • The Dixie Fire burned 963,276 acres and was 94% contained as of Wednesday.

  • The KNP Complex Fire burned 26,611 acres and was 0% contained as of Wednesday.

    • The most successful measures to protect the sequoias from the KNP Complex Fire were decades of prescribed burns that cleared out brush and other wildfire fuels.

• In Colorado, 1 fire has burned a total of 3,792 acres as of Friday.

• In Idaho, 20 fires have burned a total of 257,513 acres as of Friday.

• In Minnesota, 1 fire has burned a total of 26,797 acres as of Friday.

• In Montana, 11 fires have burned a total of 237,099 acres as of Friday.

• In Nevada, 2 fires have burned a total of 89,637 acres as of Friday.

• In Oregon, 6 fires have burned a total of 291,582 acres as of Friday.

• In Utah, 1 fire has burned a total of 1,466 acres as of Friday.

• In Washington, 9 fires have burned a total of 308,202 acres as of Friday.

• In Wyoming, 4 fires have burned a total of 16,270 acres as of Friday.

Hurricanes

• ore than 90,000 people throughout Michigan remained without power as of Thursday morning from storms earlier in the week.

  • Rain on the M1 Concourse turned the dirt lot into a lake and forced the Motor Bella auto show to close after it flooded the show’s exhibits.

  • One Port Huron, Michigan resident watched tree branches fall during the storm and one tree landed on her house.

  • A Detroit woman has been denied aid from FEMA despite repeated floods that damaged her house at least 4 times since the summer.

  • The cost to rebuild the stormwater infrastructure in Detroit, Michigan is expected to be around $2.2 billion.

• Hurricane Sam became a Category 1 storm and the seventh hurricane of the season as of Friday morning, with winds of 75 MPH, moving west 15 MPH, and located about 1,470 miles east-southeast from the northern Leeward Islands.

  • Sam is projected to move west toward the Caribbean, with the majority of projections seeing the storm move north just before making landfall in Dominica.

  • Sam is projected to strengthen on Saturday and become a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 MPH by the end of the weekend.

  • It is currently unclear if Sam will affect Florida or any other part of the United States.

• Satellite imagery shows significant damage to Louisiana’s coast from Hurricane Ida, including coastal Louisiana, especially to shorelines in the Mid-Barataria basin, although the final extent of the damage may not be known for months.

• Hurricane Ida struck a region that houses about 50% of the total petroleum refining capacity in the United States and about 50% of the nation’s natural gas processing plant capacity.

  • Almost 600 Louisiana industrial sites with toxic chemicals were forecast to be in Ida’s path.

  • The Coast Guard has assessed 2,259 of 2,464 reports of pollution spills as of last week from Ida.

  • Gulf of Mexico oil production accounts for about 15% the total crude oil production in the United States.

  • The Gulf of Mexico has about 20,000 miles of active pipelines and another 18,000 miles of decommissioned or abandoned pipelines.

• As New Jersey continues to recover from Hurricane Ida, it is ranked as being among one of the top states where federal funds are used for flood buyouts of residential properties.

  • New Jersey faces ongoing issues in the wake of Hurricane Ida, including stricter building regulations in flood zones, outdated flood maps and the use of eminent domain to force people out of flood-prone homes.

  • The North Brunswick, New Jersey Police Department has borrowed vehicles from 11 police departments in the region after 30 of its own cars and equipment were damaged from Hurricane Ida’s storms.

Climate Studies