Facts Of The Day 9/9

Extreme Heat

• At least 9 people in New Orleans, Louisiana have died from excessive heat between August 30th and September 6th in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

• Phoenix, Arizona firefighters had to rescue a construction worker who passed out from the excessive heat on Wednesday.

• Additional drought relief has been made available to North Dakota producers, allowing them to be reimbursed for 60% of transportation costs in addition to the reimbursement of water transportation costs.

• Maine farmers expect a better potato crop this year compared to 2020 due to less severe weather conditions this summer.

• Excessive heat in Utah has forced construction workers to begin work at 5 AM to beat the hot weather and avoid issues such as heat rash.

• As of Wednesday, red tide has receded from the waters around Anna Maria Island and Manatee County in Florida.

• Lake Superior dropped 1.2 inches in August due to drought, which is the first time it has dropped below normal levels since 2014.

• Disabled people, who are twice as likely to be unemployed as abled people and therefore have less reliable access to electricity or air conditioning during extremely hot weather, are at further risk from climate mitigation efforts.

• Louisiana utility provider Entergy is facing questions about whether its investments to improve the grid, which has included $4.2 billion for new transmission capacity since 2014, is able to keep pace with the increased intensity and frequency of storms.

• Nevada’s utility provider, NV Energy, requested customers conserve power over the next few days due to supply issues caused partially by excessive heat.

• A Texas woman is suing Austin Energy and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) for $1 million in damages for her mother’s death from a frozen urinary catheter after the power went out in February during the winter storm.

Wildfires

• As of Wednesday, there are currently 79 large active wildfires that have burned 2,927,373 acres across CA, CO, ID, MN, MT, NV, WA, OR, UT, WA, and WY. This year to date, 43,869 wildfires have burned 5,165,103 acres across the country.

• Despite the destruction that wildfires cause, many people refuse to move away due to the community ties they have due to work, school or family.

• Reforestation efforts are not replacing trees at a rate fast enough to keep up with the destruction of wildfires.

• As wildfires season increasingly overlaps with football season, school sports teams will have to increasingly consider issues such as air quality being affected by fires happening states away.

• One fire was contained in California on Wednesday – the Chaparral Fire burned 1,427 acres.

• In California, the Caldor Fire burned 217,859 acres and was 50% contained as of Thursday.

  • Due to the lack of firefighting labor in the United States, officials have turned to Mexican nationals to help contain blazes like the Caldor Fire.

  • Since South Lake Tahoe residents evacuated the city, bears took advantage of the empty city and broke into homes and trash cans in search of food.

  • Fire blankets, which are wraps with aluminum on the outside, woven threads of polyester and fiberglass inside, and laminated with a high-temperature adhesive, have helped at least one home survive the Caldor Fire.

• One new fire sparked in Idaho on Wednesday – the Cabin Creek Fire burned 12,170 acres and was 71% contained.

Hurricanes

• As of Thursday, Hurricane Ida’s economic impact could surpass $95 billion, making it the 7th costliest hurricane in the United States since 2000.

• At least 82 people have died due to Hurricane Ida as of Thursday morning.

  • Two people died of carbon monoxide poisoning and 2 people died of excessive heat in Louisiana.

• Louisiana’s death toll from Hurricane Ida has risen to at least 26 people as of Thursday morning.

  • As of late Wednesday, more than 270,000 people across the state remained without power.

  • Hospitals in Louisiana had to cope with Hurricane Ida on top of the coronavirus pandemic, meaning they were often too full to take on any more patients and their current patients were often also too sick to evacuate or be sent home.

  • More than 2,000 oil spills in Louisiana waters were reported as of Wednesday.

  • Louisiana Governor John bel Edwards ordered that elections be delayed by about a month due to the destruction of Hurricane Ida.

  • All 4 of Louisiana’s state-recognized tribes and several with any official status suffered loss of homes, income and sites of cultural or religious importance in the wake of Ida’s destruction

• At least 27 people in New Jersey died in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida as of Thursday morning.

  • 2 drivers who had been trapped in their cars and drowned were identified, and 1 who died after driving into the floodwaters.

  • 3 police officers who had been attempting to help at least 1 driver clung to a tree for several hours before being rescued, even firing their guns in the air to help rescuers identify their location last Thursday night.

  • Residents of Manville, New Jersey consider whether they should leave after Hurricane Ida caused floodwaters from the Raritan River to knock out entire foundations of homes.

  • As of Wednesday afternoon, Passaic, Paterson, and parts of Clifton and Woodland Park in New Jersey remained under boil water orders.

• In New York, Hurricane Ida’s rainfall caused part of a wall to collapse in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York, drowning a woman and her adult son.

  • At least 8 people died in Queens after Ida, aged 2 to 86, with most found dead in their basement homes.

  • Ida brought 17.9 inches of rain to New York’s Central Park, which caused flash flooding.

  • Ida revealed that building seawalls will not be enough to stop flooding in urban areas such as New York City due to impervious surfaces such as concrete forcing water to run downhill rather than be absorbed by the ground.

• Hurricane Ida has caused more than $100 million in damage in Pennsylvania.

  • More than 400 homes in southeastern Pennsylvania have been reported as destroyed or severely damaged with another 400 reported minor damage.

  • Bridgeport in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania had at least 500 people who were displaced by the flooding from Ida.

  • Ida’s tornadoes, rain, and floods caused more than 110,000 power outages throughout the state, created issues at least 60 water and wastewater plants, and pushed 2 dams close to failure.

  • At least 75 boat rescues and 300 evacuations occurred in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Montgomery County during Ida.

• Mindy made landfall as a tropical storm Wednesday night at St. Vincent Island with winds of 45 MPH.

  • Mindy blew a semi-truck off the road near Tallahassee, Florida on Wednesday, but no injuries or damage were reported.

  • After making landfall, Mindy weakened to a tropical depression with winds of 35 MPH.

  • As of early Thursday, Mindy was moving northeast at about 20 MPH and located about 80 miles south-southeast of Valdosta, Georgia.

  • Parts of southeast Georgia and coastal South Carolina may receive up to 6 inches of rain, with other areas seeing 2-4 inches of rain from Mindy on Thursday.

• Hurricane Larry is forecast to pass by Bermuda on Thursday before it heads north to Newfoundland, Canada with top winds of 100 MPH.

  • As of Thursday morning, Larry was located 210 miles east-southeast of Bermuda, moving on a path to the north-northwest at 16 MPH.

  • Larry is currently a Category 2 storm, as of Thursday morning after being a Category 3 storm for 4 days, making it the longest-lasting Atlantic hurricane since Dorian in 2019.

  • Larry is expected to bring 2 inches of rain and to make landfall near Cape Race, Newfoundland in Canada as a Category 1 storm.

  • Larry is expected to degrade into an extratropical cyclone early Saturday and then weaken further as it passes southeast of Greenland on Sunday night.

  • Florida and the eastern United States coast can expect dangerous swells through the end of the week from Larry.

Climate Studies