Climate Impact Report – 1/12

Key Facts Of The Day 1/12

Storms and Flooding

• A powerful storm is unleashing blizzard conditions and severe thunderstorms, with damaging winds, heavy rain, and a brutal cold across the eastern half of the U.S.
• Every single state in the country is under a weather warning or advisory as of Friday morning, and the expected frigid weather will set records in dozens of cities. 
• Iowa is under a blizzard warning and is expected to see between four and eight inches of snow.
  • Conditions are expected to deteriorate in the afternoon and evening hours, but temperatures are already in the teens, and wind chills will be well below zero throughout the day. 
  • Des Moines, Iowa, Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, are under blizzard warnings. 
• Winter storm warnings for heavy snow and strong winds are also active in the Midwest and Great Lakes.
  • Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is estimated to see between 5 and 12 inches of snow.
• Parts of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi remain under a tornado watch through Friday morning. 

Wildfires

• A January 2024 report by Washington’s Department of Ecology looked into air pollution across the state and found that the largest contributor to air pollution in over-burdened communities was from wildfire smoke. 

Extreme Heat

• The United Nations estimates that 1.84 billion people worldwide, or nearly a quarter of humanity, were living under drought in 2022 and 2023, the vast majority in low- and middle-income countries.
  • The many droughts around the world come at a time of record-high global temperatures and rising food price inflation.
    • In 2023, the price of rice, a staple grain for the global majority, was at its highest level since the global financial crisis of 2008.
  • Some of the current abnormally dry, hot conditions are made worse by the burning of fossil fuels that cause climate change.