Facts Of The Day 9/27

Extreme Heat

• Portland, Oregon will be giving away 1,800 trees to make greenery more accessible, especially for areas east of the Willamette River, where a lack of shade contributes to higher temperatures.

• Due to the ongoing drought in Arizona, one farmer is not planning to grow corn for cows next year and is even considering leaving farming completely to start a trucking business.

• From March 2000 to March 2021, Arizona was the most drought-ridden state in the United States with 87,702 square miles, which is 76.9% of the land area and 4,867,057 residents representing 76.1% of the population under some sort of drought condition.

• Due to the ongoing drought, Jewish people in the San Francisco Bay Area have encountered a shortage of the etrog fruit for their Sukkot holiday.

• As of Thursday, more than 94% of the Western states still remain in drought conditions.

• With La Niña conditions and rising temperatures, droughts in the Southwest will intensify.

• Northern California has endured the third driest year and highest evaporative demand on record.

• California is the second-largest U.S. producer of rice, but the recent droughts that have been exacerbated by climate change put rice crops at risk.

• The Santa Clara Valley Water District in California has been recycling wastewater in an attempt to increase water supply while also conserving water.

• As of Monday, the Texas legislature is in a special 30-day legislative session to address a bill that requires state prisons to maintain temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees and install new air conditioning.

Wildfires

• As of Monday, there are currently 65 large active wildfires that have burned 3,154,071 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, WA, OR, UT, WA, and WY. This year to date, 45,971 wildfires have burned 5,879,222 acres across the country.

• Households moving into areas with histories of recent wildfire activity up 21% between March 2020 and February 2021 compared to the previous year.

• On Friday, California utility provider PG&E was charged with manslaughter for its role in starting 2020’s Zogg Fire, which killed 4 people and burned almost 90 square miles.

• Oregon will map out which parts of the state are at the highest risk for wildfires, with defining the wildland-urban interface expected to be a key sticking point.

• In California, 10 fires have burned 1,983,406 acres as of Monday.

  • Around 9,800 firefighters were battling 11 wildfires in California as of Saturday.

  • 6 of the 10 largest wildfires in California have burned in the last 2 years.

  • The Caldor Fire burned 221,774 acres and was 76% contained as of Monday.

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

    • The growth of the Dixie Fire has been partially attributed to outdated fire suppression methods that have allowed vegetation to grow in the state’s forests, giving the fire abundant fuel.

  • The Fawn Fire burned 8,559 acres and was 45% contained as of Monday.

    • At least 4,000 people have been evacuated because of the Fawn Fire as of Monday morning.

    • As of Sunday, the fire had destroyed 70 homes and threatened another 2,000.

    • A woman was arrested and charged with arson and starting a fire during a state of emergency on Friday.

  • The KNP Complex Fire burned 45,790 acres and was 8% contained as of Monday.

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

• In Idaho, 20 fires have burned a total of 2258,175 acres as of Monday.

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

• In Montana, 11 fires have burned a total of 223,067 acres as of Monday.

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

• In Oregon, 6 fires have burned a total of 292,253 acres as of Monday.

• In Texas, 1 fire has burned a total of 700 acres as of Monday.

• In Washington, 8 fires have burned a total of 258,466 acres as of Monday.

• In Wyoming, 4 fires have burned a total of 16,283 acres as of Monday.

Hurricanes

• As of Monday morning, Hurricane Sam was a Category 4 storm with winds measuring at 130 MPH and was moving northwest at 8 MPH and was located 880 miles east-southeast from the northern Leeward Islands.

  • It remains unclear whether Sam will affect Florida or any other part of the United States.

  • Sam could still generate swells that would reach the Lesser Antilles and continue to affect the islands over the next few days.

  • Although Sam deteriorated overnight, it is likely to remain a major hurricane until next week.

  • Sam is the 7th named hurricane of the year.

• Bangor Township in Bay County, Michigan is still recovering from last week’s storms, which dumped as much as 4 inches of rain in parts of the state.

  • During the storm, the township’s fire department received about a dozen calls from residents, leading to their evacuation.

  • The recovery process has included picking up damaged and flooded items and trash from people’s homes, which risk growing mold from the rains.

• Last week’s storms in Michigan have delayed farmers from planting or harvesting crops.

  • Pepper, cabbage, and pumpkin harvesting have been delayed by at least 3 to 4 days with those crops still in the fields.

  • Wheat planting is expected to be delayed at least 8 to 10 days.

  • Corn harvests are expected to be delayed by a week to 10 days, with worries about tar spots possibly damaging the crops.

• About 30 to 40 caskets from Ironton, Louisiana were swept out of their resting places in the city’s cemetery due to Hurricane Ida.

  • The all-Black Irontron community has had to rebuild twice after Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac.

  • The search has been complicated by high grass, marsh mud, and snakes.

  • Irontron and the surrounding communities had levees that were not constructed by the federal government and were easily overwhelmed by Ida.

  • Work on projects to build 10 to 14 feet levees to better protect the community is expected to start this coming December or January and take 2 years to complete.

• About 16% of oil production and 24% of gas production in the Gulf of Mexico remain shut down as of Monday in the wake of Hurricane Ida.

• The levee system in the southern part of the Lafourche Parish in Louisiana withstood a Category 4 storm in Hurricane Ida despite being designed for a strong Category 2 or weak Category 3 storm.

  • The South Lafourche Levee District created a program to raise the levee at least 13 to 16 feet above sea level after the U.S. Corps of Army Engineers decertified the level after Hurricane Katrina for being too low to provide adequate protection.

  • An estimated 96% of North Lafourche Levee District levels withstood the 12 to 15 feet storm surges from Ida.

  • 5 floodgates in the Terrebonne Levee District sustained damage but were back in operation by last Thursday.

Climate Studies