LONDON, UK - The holiday travel plans of hundreds of people were upended Saturday after Eurostar canceled train services to and from London because a tunnel under the River Thames became flooded.
Large crowds of travelers trying to get across the English Channel were stranded at London’s St. Pancras International station and the Gare du Nord station in Paris. Eurostar, which runs services from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam, said it canceled all 41 trains scheduled for Saturday because of the flooding.
Engineers working on the tunnel said water levels were receding. The volume of water in the tunnel was “unprecedented,” they said.
The U.K. has been battered by strong, gusty winds and heavy rain brought by Storm Gerrit throughout the holiday period. More stormy weather and travel disruption is expected during the last weekend of the year.
Many travelers stuck at the train stations sat on floors and suitcases, scrambling to find last-minute accommodation or alternative plans. Chris Dillashaw, from San Antonio, Texas, was among many whose plans for New Year’s Eve were ruined by the travel chaos.
“Our entire family is here ... We were celebrating Christmas in Paris and then headed to London for our New Year’s Eve plans,” he told The Associated Press while waiting at Gare du Nord. “It’s pretty disappointing to find out via an email what happened.”
Christina David, 25, and Georgina Benyamin, 26, from Sydney, said they have nowhere to stay after finding out that their train from London to Paris — their final stop in a weeks-long European tour — was canceled.
“We paid for an expensive hotel with an Eiffel Tower view,” Benyamin said. “Now we have to book a hotel to stay for the night here. We don’t know where to go; we have nowhere to stay.”
Eurostar said it was “extremely sorry for the unforeseen issues affecting our customers and services.”
“We understand this is a vital time to get home at the end of the festive season and ahead of New Year,” the company said.
Eurostar services were also disrupted just before Christmas due to a strike by staff at Eurotunnel.
(Sylvia Hui, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Waves as high as 25 feet continue to pummel the West Coast after a damaging barrage flooded beaches in Southern California on Thursday and left logs scattered across roads as far north as southern Oregon.
Powerful cyclones over the North Pacific are combining with higher-than-normal tides to create dangerous waves and flooding.
The National Weather Service called it “an exceptional high-surf and coastal flooding event that has not occurred in many years,” in a forecast discussion Friday.
Conditions improved somewhat on Friday, with the Weather Service downgrading high surf warnings to a lesser high surf advisory for much of the California coast.
Even so, authorities issued high-surf and coastal flood warnings until 2 p.m. today for Northern California from the North Bay coast to the Big Sur coast, where breaking waves of 30 to 40 feet are still possible.
In San Diego, one of the largest swells of the year slammed county beaches Friday, throwing up 6- to 15-foot waves that had spectators lining up from Oceanside to Imperial Beach.
Lifeguards and forecasters urged the public to keep a safe distance.
Some of the biggest waves hit the breakwater at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla, leading to its temporary closure. A parking lot at Cardiff State Beach also was closed.
The waves are expected to be roughly the same size today and will begin to fade out on Sunday.
The swell arrived just ahead of two weak, back-to-back storms that will dart through San Diego County this weekend. The first will drop nearly 0.20 inches of rain early today, and the second will deliver slightly more late Sunday and early Monday, the National Weather Service said.
Some coastal areas of California, Oregon and Washington state were also under a gale warning until late Friday night, meaning that wind gusts of 39 to 54 mph were imminent or occurring.
“Dangerously large” waves about 28 to 33 feet tall, and potentially up to 40 feet tall, were forecast overnight in some coastal spots in the San Francisco Bay Area and for some parts of Central California, where a few communities in Santa Cruz County had received evacuation warnings a day earlier.
A coastal flood warning remains in effect for beaches in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties through 10 p.m. today, while some parts of San Diego and Orange counties are under a coastal flood advisory — with less serious flooding expected — until 2 a.m. Monday.
Already, emergency responders have had to rescue several people from the ocean in Southern California, according to Ariel Cohen, the meteorologist in charge at the Weather Service’s Los Angeles office.
“We are dealing with potentially deadly conditions at the beaches so we really just encourage everyone to stay away from the water and be prepared for coastal flooding,” Cohen said.
(Gary Robbins, U-T NEWS SERVICES; ASSOCIATED PRESS, WASHINGTON POST)
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At least 20 people have died following landslides caused by torrential rains that hit the South Kivu region in eastern Congo, officials announced on Friday.
That brings to more than 60 the number of deaths caused by flooding and landslides in Congo in the past week alone.
Officials said the landslides swallowed up houses and dwellings on Thursday in the locality of Burhiny, in the Mwenga territory.
The government said Friday that it was deploying emergency assistance to those affected and evacuating residents from the area.
Flooding also affected other parts of the country on Friday, including the capital, Kinshasa.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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San Diego markets itself as the land of endless warmth and sunshine. That seems like a goof as 2023 comes to an end.
The city received only two hours of sunshine in the entire month of May. The temperature was below average for 11 straight months.
And in August, when there’s typically no rain, the public was told to brace for a tropical storm — something that San Diego hadn’t seen since 1939.
“It was a weird year,” said Casey Oswant, a forecaster at the National Weather Service. “And a challenge to forecast.”
Here’s a look back.
Hello, Hilary
The waters off Baja California and San Diego County usually aren’t warm enough to sustain the tropical storms and hurricanes that form off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Most of these systems curve away from land and die.
This year was different.
A very warm pool of water formed just south of Baja and stretched nearly to San Diego, allowing Hurricane Hilary to charge northwest. The cyclone weakened to a tropical storm as it approached Southern California. But it still delivered a punch when it blew through San Diego County on Aug. 20.
Hilary dropped 2 inches of rain at and near the coast and upward of 7 inches in the mountains, causing widespread flash flooding. Thirteen people had to be rescued from surging waters in the San Diego River. Traffic slowed to a crawl on parts of state Route 94, Interstate 5 and Interstate 8. In Julian, authorities kept an eye on boulders loosened by the rain. A tornado warning was issued in Alpine.
As this began to unfold, Oswant looked out a window and said, “Why aren’t the leaves moving?” Mother Nature seemed to be listening. Minutes later, powerful gusts exploded out of the south, damaging trees over wide areas of the county. The winds hit 84 mph in the Cleveland National Forest and more than 40 mph in San Diego Bay.
Hilary moved on, flooding parts of Palm Springs, destroying crops in the Coachella Valley and damaging roads across Death Valley National Park, which closed for more than two weeks. The collective damage has been estimated at $150 million.
Something hugely positive came of all this.
San Diego had experienced a wet winter. But by late spring, the backcountry was starting to dry out, raising the risk of wildfires in a county whose thick chaparral and Santa Ana winds make it prone to burning. Hilary’s unexpected rains tamped down that threat. Fresh green grass quickly appeared.
“We found that the chaparral actually started drawing moisture from Hilary,” said Brian D’Agostino, vice president of wildfire and climate science at San Diego Gas & Electric. “We weren’t sure it was going to do that.”
The county will finish 2023 without a single red flag fire weather warning having been issued. The weather service usually posts several.
Brrrr
Until fairly recently, San Diego County had been dealing with years of record heat, damaging drought and wildfire. Scientists attributed much of this to climate change and expected things to get worse.
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, 2023 didn’t play out that way.
From January through November, the average monthly temperature in San Diego was below average — in some cases by nearly 4 degrees. The city had not had a streak like that since 1948, when San Diego was emerging from World War II.
Outsiders laughed at San Diegans who complained about being cold when the thermometer read 68 degrees. But that is cold if you’re used to temperatures in the mid-70s.
The bee population also wasn’t digging the big chill.
“It wasn’t warm enough in March and April for bees to come out of their hives to pollinate the fruit trees,” said Jim Horacek, manager of the Armstrong Garden Centers location in Del Mar. “So the fruit didn’t form as it should.”
Where’d the sun go?
People’s spirits often sag when thick clouds develop for long periods of springtime along the county’s coastline — earning the months of April, May and June the nicknames Graypril, May Gray and June Gloom.
Some years are worse than others. This one was flat-out horrible in San Diego. Especially in May.
The sun usually peeks through the clouds for varying lengths of time seven or eight days during that month. This year, there was only one day — May 7 — on which the skies cleared enough to see the sun. And that lasted all of two hours. Miguel Miller, a weather service forecaster, put a colorful spin on it, telling The New York Times that the fog seemed to be on steroids.
This year, the bleak streak extended into June and affected most of coastal Southern California, leading a Los Angeles media outlet to call it “Gloomageddon.”
Snowbound
Many San Diego County peaks are higher than those found in more than 30 states. But they never receive the sort of snowfall required to sustain a major ski resort.
Or maybe we should say rarely. During a weeklong period starting Feb. 22, Palomar Mountain received a near-record 60 inches — 5 feet — of snow. At times, near-whiteout conditions existed. It was the second highest snowfall in Palomar’s history.
The storm would have gotten a lot more publicity if not for what happened not far away, in the higher San Bernardino Mountains, where upward of 100 inches of rain fell during a similar stretch. Residents in Big Bear and Lake Arrowhead got trapped in their homes. Food rationing became necessary.
Palomar became a footnote.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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SAN CLEMENTE, CA - Big surf and maintenance work have placed a San Clemente beach restoration, which takes sand from offshore deposits near Oceanside, on hold for a few days and could delay completion until early February.
“They are a little behind schedule,” Leslea Meyerhoff, San Clemente’s coastal administrator, said Thursday afternoon. “It took a couple days to repair the dredge, and they may not be able to work in the big swell.”
Large waves and high tides are expected to continue through Monday. Until this week, the dredging crew was working around the clock, seven days a week, Meyerhoff said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project began Dec. 15 and is expected to deliver about 251,000 cubic yards of material, enough to widen more than half a mile of beach by 50 feet in the area around the San Clemente Pier. The process will be repeated about every six years for 50 years.
The “borrow pit” for the project is about one mile out in the ocean near the Oceanside Harbor and Camp Pendleton’s Del Mar Boat Basin.
The dredge is on a hopper barge that collects the sand near Oceanside and carries it north to San Clemente, then pumps it from the barge through a pipe onto the beach. The initial phase is expected to take about 50 days.
“Sand replenishment work will protect our beaches, ensure their viability for years to come, and address some of the pressing coastal issues facing our region,” Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, said in early December.
San Diego County’s offshore deposits have been used in previous beach replenishment projects, including regional efforts completed by the San Diego Association of Governments in 2001 and 2012. City and regional officials have said sand accumulates outside the surf zone, and there’s enough to share with neighboring communities.
In September, the Corps of Engineers awarded the San Clemente contract to Manson Construction, the same company that dredges the Oceanside harbor every spring.
Levin helped secure $9.2 million in the federal fiscal 2022 budget to fund the San Clemente project, which will help protect the San Diego-to-Los Angeles railroad that runs along the eroding beach. The total cost of the project through January is $16 million, of which 65 percent is funded by the federal government, and 35 percent by the city of San Clemente with the assistance of California State Parks.
Levin also helped obtain $32 million in federal funding for the Encinitas-Solana Beach Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project, a different 50-year Corps of Engineers sand project about to begin in San Diego County.
Manson Construction also has the contract for that project and will move the hopper dredge to Solana Beach after completing the work in San Clemente, Meyerhoff said.
Some of the piping for that project has already been installed.
Both the San Clemente and the Encinitas-Solana Beach projects are the result of more than 20 years of planning by federal, state and local agencies.
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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A storm that battered the U.K. with high winds and heavy snow and rain damaged houses, canceled trains and left thousands of people without electricity on Thursday across Scotland and parts of northern England.
Workers faced wind speeds of 80 mph in some coastal areas of Scotland as they tried to restore power that was cut off when falling branches and other debris hit utility lines.
About 14,000 homes remained without power on Thursday morning.
Police in Manchester in northwest England said they received numerous reports late Wednesday of homes damaged by a brief “localized tornado.” Photos showed roofs torn from houses and cars smashed by fallen trees, and residents reported garden sheds being blown away.
The U.K.’s weather forecaster, the Met Office, said a “supercell thunderstorm” with a “strong rotating updraft” crossed the Greater Manchester area late Wednesday.
Local officials said some 100 properties were evacuated overnight. Greater Manchester Police declared a major incident due to the severity of the damage and potential risk to public safety.
Storm Gerrit also caused widespread disruption to train service across Scotland.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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LOS ANGELES, CA - Powerful surf rolled onto beaches on the West Coast and Hawaii on Thursday as a big swell generated by the stormy Pacific Ocean pushed toward shorelines, causing localized flooding.
Forecasters urged people to stay off rocks and jetties, and to not turn their backs to the ocean because of the danger of “sneaker waves” — occasional much bigger waves that can run far up the sand and wash someone off a beach.
A high surf warning for parts of Northern California said waves would range from 28 to 33 feet and up to 40 feet some locations, the National Weather Service said, adding that there were reports of flooding in low-lying coastal areas.
In Aptos on the north end of Monterey Bay, surf overran the beach and swept into a parking lot, leaving the area strewn with debris. Santa Cruz County issued warnings for people in several coastal areas to be ready to evacuate.
“Mother Nature’s angry,” said Eve Krammer, an Aptos resident for several years. “I mean, these waves are gnarly. They’re huge.”
The same area was battered by the ocean last January as the West Coast was slammed by numerous atmospheric rivers.
“I feel for the people that are down low here,” said Jeff Howard, also an Aptos resident.
While not quite as huge, the waves along Southern California were also described as hazardous, with life-threatening rip currents. Nonetheless, surfers couldn’t resist.
Patience was key, according to Alex Buford, 27, who was catching waves just north of Manhattan Beach on the Los Angeles County coast.
“I was waiting for awhile because the waves were really sick, and they’re kinda hard to get into even though I have a really big board,” he said. “Just waited for a good one and I got it”
In Hawaii, the weather service forecast surf rising to 30 to 40 feet along north-facing shores and 18 to 22 feet along west-facing shores of five islands.
Professional Hawaii surfer Sheldon Paishon was getting ready to surf Thursday morning at Makaha, a world-famous surfing beach on Oahu’s west side.
Paishon, 30, has been surfing at various spots around Oahu this week, taking advantage of waves during this week’s high surf warning in effect till this morning.
“It’s always big waves in the winter time in Hawaii,” he said.
He warned that novice surfers should check with lifeguards before heading into the water and “make sure you got some people around you and stay safe.”
Honolulu Ocean Safety lifeguards, posted at beaches across Oahu, rescued 20 people along the island’s famed North Shore on Wednesday, said spokesperson Shayne Enright. They were also busy with thousands of “preventative actions,” she said.
“This time of year produces incredible surf but it can also be very dangerous,” she said.
The dangerous surf could also cause surges that could hit coastal properties and roadways, the weather service warned.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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At least 12 people were found dead in Australia after storms and floods in the eastern part of the country caused power outages and damaged infrastructure over the Christmas holiday period, authorities said.
The extreme weather has mainly affected people in the eastern states of Queensland and Victoria. Even as rainfall tapered on Wednesday, search and rescue operations continued in flooded areas, and power crews were trying to restore electricity to tens of thousands of customers.
Queensland authorities have linked at least seven deaths to the storms this week, including a woman killed by a falling tree on the Gold Coast, a region south of Brisbane, on Monday and three men whose bodies were found after a motorboat carrying 11 people overturned on Tuesday in Moreton Bay, near Brisbane.
The storms this week also caused damage and death in the southeastern state of Victoria, which includes Melbourne.
Two people died when a campground about 200 miles east of Melbourne flooded Tuesday, the local news media reported.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Flooding triggered by heavy rains in central Congo killed at least 22 people, including 10 from the same family, a local official said Tuesday.
The hours-long rainfall in the district of Kananga in Kasai Central province destroyed many houses and structures, the province’s governor, John Kabeya, said as rescue efforts intensified in search of survivors. Five more deaths were confirmed later on Tuesday in addition to the initially reported death toll of 17, he said.
“The collapse of a wall caused 10 deaths, all members of the same family in Bikuku,” said Kabeya.
There was significant material damage caused by the floods, according to Nathalie Kambala, country director of the Hand in Hand for Integral Development nongovernmental organization.
Flooding caused by heavy rainfall is frequent in parts of Congo, especially in remote areas.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Nearly 1 million people across the Northern and Central Plains were under blizzard or ice storm warnings Tuesday, and one was person was killed in a traffic accident on Christmas, as heavy snow, freezing rain and powerful winds created treacherous road conditions that forecasters said could last through early today.
A blizzard warning affecting more than 550,000 people in parts of five states Tuesday afternoon — Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming — would be in effect until early this morning in part of the region, where areas could receive as much as 6 inches of snow and wind gusts of up to 60 mph, the National Weather Service said.
A storm is a blizzard when it contains large amounts of snow, winds of more than 35 mph and visibility of less than one-quarter mile for at least three hours.
An 86-year-old woman in Kansas was killed Monday evening after a man driving a pickup truck on state Highway 156 lost control on the icy, snowy road and slid into oncoming traffic, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.
The woman, identified as Evelyn D. Reece of Wichita, Kan., was riding in an SUV that was struck by the truck, authorities said. She was pronounced dead at the scene. Three people were taken to a hospital for injuries.
Nearly 400,000 people were under an ice storm warning Tuesday afternoon in the Dakotas and a slice of western Minnesota. A dangerous mix of sleet and freezing rain was expected to blanket the Dakotas and northern Minnesota on Tuesday, bringing ice accumulation totals above a half-inch and creating hazardous travel conditions, according to the weather service.
As the storm exits the Plains, a wintry mix will likely follow into a portion of the Mississippi Valley today.
Parts of Nebraska and South Dakota had recorded about 4 inches of snow as of Tuesday morning, though strong winds prevented accurate readings, said Amanda Viken, a meteorologist at the weather service’s office in North Platte, Neb. Some towns in southeastern South Dakota had received up to 1 foot of snow since Monday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Before the storm tapers off Tuesday night into today, up to 4 more inches of snow are expected in western South Dakota, western Nebraska, far eastern Wyoming and northeastern Colorado, the weather service said. In areas where snowfall has stopped or slowed, freezing temperatures and wind gusts of more than 55 mph could cause icy roads and whiteout conditions throughout the day, forecasters said.
“It’s pretty slick out, and the visibility restrictions that we’re seeing with this strong wind aren’t helping,” Viken said.
Snow showers and blustery north winds were sweeping across northwest Nebraska on Tuesday, causing visibility to be below 1 mile in some areas, the weather service said on social media.
“Be safe and take it slow if you’re traveling today,” the Nebraska State Patrol said on social media Tuesday.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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As you gobble Santa’s uneaten cookies, get ready for the last and longest full moon of the year. The full moon will reach peak illumination tonight and will be visible above the horizon across most of the United States for about 15 hours.
Although the moon will be at its fullest today, it will appear full from Monday evening to Thursday morning. December’s full moon is known as the “cold moon” because of this month’s long, frigid nights, although January typically has the lowest average temperatures.
December’s full moon rarely falls on Christmas, making this sighting a celestial gift to Earthlings. The lunar cycle takes around 29.5 days, so the dates of the full moon vary from year to year.
The last two Christmastime full moons happened in 2015 and 1977. The next one will occur in 2034.
The long lunar event comes on the heels of the winter solstice on Dec. 21, which was marked by the shortest period of daylight for the year and the longest period of night for the year in the Northern Hemisphere. During the solstice, the sun hangs lower than normal in the sky, and the moon appears at its highest opposite the sun.
The full moon will be visible above the horizon three hours longer than average — providing a good opportunity for moon-gazing. Our neighbor will appear bluer and whiter higher in the sky (as opposed to more orange near the horizon). That’s because the moon’s light takes a shorter and more direct path to the ground, so air molecules will scatter less-blue hues from our vision. This light scattering in our atmosphere also affects the colors of sunsets and sunrises.
In San Diego, the full moon will be seen alongside the sun. The moon rises at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and the sun sets at 4:49 p.m.
Saturn, Jupiter and Venus also will appear in the Northern Hemisphere while the moon is up, according to space.com. Mars and Mercury will be obscured by the sun’s glare.
The moon will also shine against a brighter evening sky at this time of the year. During the winter, the night sky is pointing away from thick stars and clouds in the center of the Milky Way and faces toward the outskirts of our galaxy and to huge stars.
The moon will rise in Gemini, which is one of the brightest winter constellations.
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Hundreds of people reported feeling minor earthquakes of similar intensity on Hawaii’s Big Island and on the Olympic Peninsula northwest of Seattle, but no damage was reported.
The earthquakes Saturday afternoon in Hawaii and Sunday morning in Washington state were over 2,600 miles apart and apparently unrelated.
A magnitude 4.1 quake struck around 4:30 p.m. Saturday 9 miles southwest of a volcano off the southeastern coast of the island of Hawaii.
The quake was too small to generate a tsunami, according to the National Weather Service U.S. Tsunami Warning System.
However, dozens reported feeling it through the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was in the area of Kilauea, a volcano that erupted for several weeks before quieting in September.
Shortly after 7 a.m. Sunday, dozens more people in the Puget Sound area reported feeling a magnitude 4.0 quake centered on the northeastern Olympic Peninsula 25 miles northwest of Seattle.
A magnitude 4.0 quake is strong enough to wake people and rattle cars and dishes but will not cause damage.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Residents of the small Icelandic fishing village near where a volcano erupted were told Friday they could return home.
The regional police chief said residents, business owners and employees could enter Grindavik beginning today and could stay overnight.
The town of 3,800 near Iceland's main airport was evacuated Nov. 10 when a strong swarm of earthquakes led to cracks and openings in the earth between the town and Sýlingarfell, a small mountain to the north. The volcano finally erupted Monday, spewing semi-molten rock in a spectacular show that lit up the night sky.
Scientists said Thursday that the eruption had stopped, though pressure could start building far beneath it once again.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The spectacular electrical storm that woke people late Thursday and early Friday across San Diego County has moved east, making way for cool but clear weather that will last through the Christmas holiday.
Scattered showers could fall through noon today. But that will be the end of the weather system. The daytime high in San Diego will be in the mid-60s through Monday, which is 3 to 4 degrees below average.
The upturn follows some genuinely violent weather.
A large line of thunderstorms formed from Oceanside to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday night, sat offshore a while, then blew in around 11 p.m., throwing off a lot of sparks. Forecasters say that 132 cloud-to-ocean lightning bolts were reported at sea, along with 31 cloud-to-ground strikes.
The sky show had been projected by the weather service. But forecasters underestimated the strength of the wind.
The gusts hit 55 mph at Carlsbad Airport and Imperial Beach, 54 mph at Otay Mountain, 51 mph at Fallbrook, 43 mph at Oceanside and 39 mph at MCAS Miramar. The winds made driving treacherous in many areas of the county. No significant damage was reported.
The system also produced less than half of the rainfall that had been forecast. But it was still a significant shot that helps tamp down the risk of wildfires.
Some of the heaviest rainfall was reported at Point Loma, which got 0.68 inches during the 24-hour period ending at 1:45 p.m. on Friday.
Usually, inland areas gets more rain than the coast, but things were different this time because the storm arrived straight from the west, unimpeded by high mountain ranges. Winter storms typically arrive from the north.
Slick roads, urban flooding and mudflows continued to plague other areas of Southern California on Friday, leading to at least one death as a stormy week that brought tornado warnings, heavy flooding and at-times historic rainfall began to wind down.
A 28-year-old man was killed when his vehicle plunged into the Dominguez Channel in Carson at 4:55 a.m., said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Pasquale Aiello of the Carson station. The investigation into the crash is ongoing, but a witness said the vehicle was hydroplaning and speeding at about 70 to 75 mph, according to Aiello.
A flood watch was in effect in Los Angeles County until noon Friday. An estimated 0.5 to 2 inches of additional rainfall along the coasts and valleys and 2 to 5 inches in the foothills and mountains were expected through Friday night, according to the National Weather Service.
The weather service also reported a “band of heavier showers and isolated thunderstorms” affecting state Route 1 near Point Mugu in Ventura County on Friday with possible localized flooding.
At least 60 homes were red-tagged in Ventura County as a result of flooding Thursday, which hit Oxnard and Port Hueneme hard.
Eastern Ventura County was hit hardest by the dual storm systems that began Sunday, recording more than 4 inches of rain culminating with Thursday’s deluge that caused extensive flooding and misery for residents.
Annika Hernandez of Port Hueneme was among those evacuated in the city Thursday amid flooding. She, husband Albert and their children, Adam, 13, and Kiara, 11, lay on cots in the shelter set up at Oxnard College.
“Last night when the rain started hitting really hard, about 1 a.m.,” said Hernandez, “it kept me up — because you could tell that it was not a normal amount of rainfall.”
Preliminary data from Thursday suggested that Oxnard experienced one of the heaviest downpours ever seen in the area, with rainfall rates of 3 inches an hour sustained for more than an hour. That amounts to a month’s worth of rain in less than 60 minutes, officials said. Tornado warnings were also briefly issued for parts of the region Thursday.
Joe Sirard, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said this week’s storm forecasts underestimated rainfall for the region’s coasts and valleys, while it overestimated amounts in the foothills and mountains.
In Los Angeles County, as of 7 a.m. Friday, the National Weather Service’s five-day rainfall totals for Los Angeles proper ranged from 1 to more than 4 inches, with the highest amounts recorded in the San Fernando Valley, including 4.82 inches in Porter Ranch, 4.54 inches in Northridge and 4.3 inches in Van Nuys.
In Santa Barbara County, the highest rainfall amounts were recorded in the Santa Ynez Valley and the county’s southern coast, with many locations recording more than 6 inches of rain. The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management reported several roads flooded during Thursday’s deluge.
Eastern Ventura County also recorded more than 4 inches of rain in most parts. Matilija Canyon, in the mountains north of Ojai, recorded a whopping 10.31 inches of rain during the storm system.
On the central coast, the storm dropped about 16 inches of rain at Rocky Butte in San Luis Obispo County, the weather service said.
Despite the storm’s prolific precipitation, it brought little snow to Southern California’s mountains, a condition also being experienced elsewhere in the country.
Winter weather advisories were to remain in effect until 4 a.m. today but forecasters said there would be little, if any, accumulation below 7,500-foot elevations.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS;)
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SANTA BARBARA, CA - Motorists were stranded in their vehicles on flooded roadways in Santa Barbara on Thursday, while nearby Oxnard got a month’s worth of rain in a single hour in a storm that pummeled Southern California while Christmas travel got under way.
The slow-moving system is expected to drench San Diego County today and could spark lightning, the National Weather Service said. The storm is projected to drop 1.00 to 1.50 inches of rain from the coast to inland valleys and foothills. The heaviest precipitation is expected to fall in the northern part of the county, from Oceanside and Carlsbad off to Palomar Mountain in the east.
On Thursday, the storm targeted Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, swamping areas in the cities of Port Hueneme, Oxnard and Santa Barbara, where a detective carried a woman on his back after the SUV she was riding in got stuck in knee-deep floodwaters.
Between midnight and 1 a.m., the storm dumped 3.18 inches of rain in downtown Oxnard, surpassing the area’s average of 2.56 inches for the entire month of December, according to the National Weather Service.
The deluge prompted flash flooding in Ventura County around 1:30 a.m., the weather service said. Later in the morning, streets began filling with water in parts of Santa Barbara as the storm delivered another deluge. By midday, the rain and wind had eased and residents ventured outside to look at the damage.
Sven Dybdahl, owner of olive oil and vinegar store Viva Oliva in downtown Santa Barbara, said he had trouble finding dry routes to work Thursday morning, but most of the heavy rains and flooding had receded shortly before 11 a.m. He said he was grateful that the weather is only expected to be an issue for a few days at the tail end of the holiday shopping season, otherwise he’d be worried about how the rains would affect his store’s bottom line.
“It will have an impact but thankfully it’s happening quite late,” he said.
By late afternoon, the city of Port Hueneme had lifted evacuation orders for residences on four streets. About 60 houses were affected by the orders, all in a senior citizen community, said Firefighter Andy VanSciver, a Ventura County fire spokesperson. An evacuation center was set up at a college gymnasium.
Three people from the senior community were taken to hospitals out of an abundance of caution, and there were multiple rescues of drivers from flooded vehicles, he said.
The city of Oxnard said in a social media post that many streets and intersections were heavily impacted. “Please stay off the city streets for the next several hours until the water recedes,” the post said.
“This is a genuinely dramatic storm,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a briefing. “In Oxnard, particularly, overnight there were downpours that preliminary data suggests were probably the heaviest downpours ever observed in that part of Southern California.”
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Oxnard and the city of Ventura at 1:28 a.m. due to a high-intensity thunderstorm, but no tornado activity was immediately observed, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post.
Hours later at Heritage Coffee and Gifts in downtown Oxnard, manager Carlos Larios said the storm hadn’t made a dent in their Thursday morning rush despite “gloomy” skies.
“People are still coming in to get coffee, which is surprising,” he said. “I don’t think the rain is going to stop many people from being out and about.”
The storm swept through Northern California earlier in the week as the center of the low-pressure system moved south off the coast. Forecasters called it a “cutoff low,” a storm that is cut off from the general west-to-east flow and can linger for days, increasing the amount of rain.
The system was producing hit-and-miss bands of precipitation rather than generalized widespread rainfall. Forecasters said the low would wobble slightly away from the coast on Thursday, drawing moisture away and allowing some sunshine, but will return.
The San Diego-area weather office warned that rather than fizzling, the storm was gathering energy and its main core would move through that region overnight through today.
The region will get hit by stiff winds out of the south that could break or topple the county’s eucalyptus trees, which become loose in saturated soil. The winds will gust upwards of 30 mph in some areas as the system peaks.
It is possible that the lower San Diego River will reach flood stage by dawn today. Even if it doesn’t, there’s likely to be enough rain to impact traffic flow to Fashion Valley Mall in Mission Valley for last-minute Christmas shopping.
A flash-flood watch will be in effect for all of San Diego County until 10 p.m. today. The city of San Diego will provide residents up to 10 empty sand bags at 11 recreation centers; locations are available online at sandiego.gov.
(Eugene Garcia & John Antczak, ASSOCIATED PRESS; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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BEIJING, China - Rescue workers strained to plow through piles of frozen sludge, which blocked the entrances to destroyed villages. Emergency vehicles struggled to navigate icy, damaged mountain roads. Victims with serious injuries were rushed to hospitals in cities, as demand for medical care overwhelmed the villages’ limited capacities.
In the wake of China’s deadliest earthquake in nearly a decade, emergency workers raced to find survivors and distribute aid in Jishishan County in China’s northwest. They were running up against the challenges of rescue work in bitter cold in a remote part of Gansu, one of China’s poorest provinces.
The quake, which hit late Monday night, killed at least 131 people, most in Gansu but some in neighboring Qinghai province, according to official tallies updated on Wednesday. The death toll had risen from 120 the day before, and the window for rescuing survivors — shorter than usual due to the freezing conditions, experts said — had narrowed.
More than 87,000 people had been temporarily resettled as of Wednesday morning, Gansu officials said at a news conference.
Photos in state media showed rows of blue tents erected at three main resettlement sites, where residents wrapped in thick coats huddled around vehicles equipped with power outlets to charge their phones, or lined up for bowls of hot food. Others lit bonfires in the street to keep warm.
When the quake struck, temperatures in Jishishan, a rural and mountainous cluster of towns and villages home to about a quarter of a million people, were at nearly minus-20 degrees Celsius, or minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit. The quake had a magnitude of 5.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, though the China Earthquake Administration put it at 6.2.
The quake injured at least 980 people and damaged more than 200,000 buildings, officials said.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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PORTLAND, ME - Megan Michaud and her family of five lost power for three days after a powerful storm throttled her home state of Maine, and a new challenge is creeping up on her: It’s almost time for Christmas.
“This morning, my second-grader told me, ‘It’s five days until Christmas’ and I told myself that can’t be right,” said Michaud, 42, of Kennebunkport. “But it turns out the calendar keeps moving even when you’re in the middle of something.”
Michaud has had to toss all of the family’s food. She has not wrapped a single gift and hasn’t been able to start prepping Christmas dinner because of the chaos the storm has unleashed in Maine. She spent three days heating her home with a gas fireplace, shuffling back and forth from her parents’ house and waiting patiently for power before it was finally restored Wednesday afternoon.
It’s a scene playing out all over northern New England, where the havoc wrought by an unexpectedly strong storm has made the festive season anything but.
The heavy pre-Christmas storm that hit Monday has brought dangerous flooding and widespread power outages to Maine. The aftermath of the storm has left hundreds of thousands in the dark, closed ski resorts, washed out roads, closed bridges and caused families to throw away spoiled holiday food.
It’s unclear when everyone will have power back, but officials and utilities in the state have said some will have to wait until the holiday.
People across the northeastern U.S. were still mopping up Wednesday after the storm dumped torrential rains and brought damaging winds from Pennsylvania to Maine, as some rivers in the region rose even higher. Some of the worst damage was in Vermont and Maine.
At least five people in East Coast states were killed in the storms with deaths reported in Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Maine.
Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills said water levels were expected to drop in the coming days but they remained dangerously high and posed a serious risk in many parts of the state. The Kennebec River, which runs through Augusta, and the Sandy, Swift, Carrabassett and Androscoggin rivers were all seeing higher water levels than typical, leading to damage and closures, the Maine Department of Transportation said.
Mills urged people in heavily impacted areas to avoid travel Wednesday. It was a tough blow just before the holiday, Mills said.
“It can’t be ignored that this storm arrives just a few days before Christmas, a time of joy,” Mills said. “For many in Maine that may no longer be the case. People dealing with the loss of their homes and damage to property.”
Several ski resorts in Maine that were forced to close due to flooding announced they were cleaning up and planning to reopen in the coming days. But most of the resorts were still assessing the damage. It was clear they were hit hard.
Dirk Gouwens, executive director of Ski Maine, a nonprofit that represents ski interests in the state, said all of the 19 ski areas in the state closed or chose not to open due to the floods.
“Most of the damage was done to the road infrastructure around the state, mostly due to culverts washing out, rivers overflowing their banks,” Gouwens said. “The main issue is access and getting around the state. There are still tons of roads that are closed.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The death toll in Monday’s strong overnight earthquake in a mountainous region of northwestern China rose to 131 people, authorities said Tuesday.
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck just before midnight on Monday, injuring more than 700 people, reducing homes to rubble and leaving residents outside in a below-freezing winter night, was the nation’s deadliest quake in nine years.
As emergency workers searched for the missing in collapsed buildings and at least one landslide, people who lost their homes spent a cold winter night in tents at hastily erected evacuation sites.
“I just feel anxious, what other feelings could there be?” said Ma Dongdong, who noted in a phone interview that three bedrooms in his house had been destroyed and a part of his milk tea shop was cracked wide open.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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At least 100 elephants have died in Zimbabwe's largest national park in recent weeks because of drought, their carcasses a grisly sign of what wildlife authorities and conservation groups say is the impact of climate change and the El Niño weather phenomenon.
Authorities warn that more could die as forecasts suggest a scarcity of rains and rising heat in parts of the southern African nation including Hwange National Park.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare has described it as a crisis for elephants and other animals.
“El Niño is making an already dire situation worse,” said Tinashe Farawo, spokesperson for the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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A volcanic eruption in southwest Iceland was diminishing Tuesday, authorities said, but it could nonetheless continue for days. Though lava flows did not present any threat to life, winds could blow harmful gases toward Reykjavik by this morning, they warned.
The long-anticipated eruption began Monday night, with live-streamed footage showing plumes of smoke billowing up from lava — all cast against the pitch-black Icelandic night. By Tuesday evening, lava flows were estimated to be about one-quarter of what had been observed at the start of the eruption, according to the Icelandic Met Office. Most of the lava was flowing eastward, not toward any populated areas.
Exactly where and when magma might breach the surface had been a matter of high uncertainty — and high anxiety — since early November, when scientific measurements determined that a tunnel of magma had extended underneath the coastal town of Grindavik, not far from Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon geothermal spa resort.
Police ordered the evacuation of the town of nearly 4,000 residents on Nov. 10 — the first time in half a century that a sizable populated area had to be fully evacuated in anticipation of an eruption in Iceland.
Geophysics professor Magnus Tumi Gudmundsson of the University of Iceland said the main worries had been that the lava could flow over parts of Grindavik and even reach the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, which supplies electricity and heat for about 30,000 people.
Ultimately, the volcano erupted about 2 1/2 miles northeast of Grindavik. Police warned people to stay away from the area. The Blue Lagoon has been closed as a safety precaution. The power plant is being run remotely.
Gudmundsson, who flew over the site on Tuesday with the coast guard, said that the location of the eruption was probably the “best in a complicated situation,” with the lava flowing away from the town and power station, but he said it “wasn’t impossible” for the lava to change direction if it flowed for some time, or if it burst through in another area. He said that from air the scene looked like “a continuous row of fire fountains.”
The government said in a statement that there had been no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and that international flight corridors remained open.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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PORTLAND, Maine - Just days before the Christmas holiday, people across the northeastern U.S. were mopping up Tuesday after a major storm dumped torrential rains and brought damaging winds from Pennsylvania to Maine, as some rivers in the region rose even higher. At least five people were killed.
Karen Williams, owner of Woodbury Mountain Toys in Montpelier, Vt., which flooded in July and relocated across the street, said Monday’s weather put a damper on holiday business.
“It was about half of expectations,” she said.
By Tuesday, customers were calling to see if the store was open. “It’s been a good day so far,” she said Tuesday, noting this time she just got a couple of inches of water in her basement.
In South Berwick, Maine, Jessica Hyland said her family was told they’d be without power until after Christmas — a hardship for her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum. It was also going to be difficult to finish buying holiday gifts, Hyland said.
“I’m praying that’s a mistake,” Hyland said.
Utility crews worked to restore power to hundreds of thousands of customers after the powerful storm that saw wind gusts reach nearly 70 mph along the southern New England shoreline, and more than 5 inches of rain in parts of New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania, according to the National Weather Service.
Maine State Police were looking Tuesday for two people whose car was swept away by floodwaters.
Some rivers in the region crested. The Androscoggin River in Rumford, Maine, reached a maximum stage of 22 feet in a 24-hour period ending early Tuesday, the National Weather Service said. Flood stage is 15 feet. The river was expected to fall below flood stage Tuesday afternoon.
The Kennebec River at Augusta was expected to reach a crest of 25 feet Thursday evening, the weather service said. Flood stage is 12 feet.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The Pacific storm that’s expected to reach San Diego County today could slow to a crawl, causing widespread street flooding into early Friday and making travel dicey for drivers traveling to Orange and Los Angeles counties, where conditions will be worse, the National Weather Service says.
The system will drop 1 to 2.25 inches of precipitation from the coast to inland valleys, up to 3 inches in Julian and possibly 4 inches on Palomar Mountain. Local deserts, which usually get little or no rain this time of year, could get 1 inch. The heaviest rain is expected to fall in the area from Oceanside and Carlsbad at the coast to Palomar Mountain off to the east.
The region also will get hit by stiff winds out of the south that could break or topple the county’s ubiquitous eucalyptus trees, which become loose in saturated soil. The winds will arrive late tonight and last into Thursday, gusting upwards of 30 mph in some areas as the system peaks.
It is possible that the lower San Diego River will reach flood stage on Thursday. Even if it doesn’t, there’s likely to be enough rain to affect the flow of traffic to the Fashion Valley Mall in Mission Valley in the midst of peak last-minute Christmas shopping.
In San Clemente in southern Orange County, the city shored up the Casa Romantica site of a hillside slide that threatens the railroad tracks of the coastal rail line that links San Diego to Los Angeles.
“The hillside has been tarped with visqueen in preparation for the stormy weather expected in the next few days,” said City Manager Andy Hall.
A flash flood watch will be in effect for all of San Diego County until Friday afternoon. The city of San Diego will provide residents up to 10 empty sandbags at 11 recreation centers; locations are available online at sandiego.gov.
Forecasters also say the storm could produce lightning west of the mountains today through Friday, mostly because the system — a classic cut-off low — is drawing unstable air from a region hundreds of miles off the west coast of Baja California. Lightning rarely occurs at the coast.
The weather service stopped short of calling this an El Niño storm. But forecaster Alex Tardy said El Niño is starting to affect the path of the northern jet stream, which can in some cases steer storms and damaging waves into Southern California. Heavy surf was already rolling ashore along the entire San Diego County coastline by Tuesday afternoon.
How much rain the region will get through Friday hinges on whether the storm basically stalls in the Southern California bight, the coastal region between Point Conception and San Diego, forecasters say. That could intensify both rainfall and the frequency of lightning and gusty winds.
The storm is fairly warm, which will limit its ability to generate snow in the mountains. But it is possible that a modest amount of very wet snow will fall on Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna on Friday.
The weather service stressed that lightning is possible across highly populated areas. The agency’s parent, NOAA, offered the following advice for staying safe:
Hey, gardeners: Jim Horacek, the manager of the Armstrong Garden Centers location in Del Mar, said now is a good time to plant seeds for California poppies. The freshly planted flowers will benefit from the incoming rain.
(Gary Robbins, Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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REYKJAVIK, Iceland - A volcano in southwestern Iceland, the country’s most populated region, began erupting Monday with lava fountains reaching high in the air and the glow lighting up the sky miles away in the center of the capital, Reykjavik.
The fissure, which is some 2.5 miles long and growing quickly, is not far from the Svartsengi power plant and the town of Grindavík, which was evacuated last month because of heightened seismic activity, leading to concerns that an eruption was likely.
In the initial assessment Monday night, volcanologists said the eruption had occurred in one of the worst possible locations, posing a significant and immediate threat to both the evacuated town and the geothermal power plant.
But after volcanologists had a chance to fly over the site of the eruption in the Reykjanes Peninsula, the immediate situation did not appear as dire as initially feared, though the size of the eruption was larger than anticipated and the direction of the lava’s flow still unpredictable.
“This is larger than previous eruptions on Reykjanes,” Magnus Gudmundsson, a volcanologist and among the first people to view the eruption from the air, told The New York Times.
Lava is flowing 1.6 miles north of Grindavík, according to Kristín Jonsdottir, the head of the volcanic activity department at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.
However large the eruption, with the town of Grindavík evacuated, it poses no immediate risk to people, a police official, Ulfar Ludviksson, told reporters.
Still, authorities were cautioning people not to get too close. Hjordis Gudmundsdottir, a spokesperson for the Department of Civil Protection, urged people to stay away from the area, emphasizing this was “no tourist volcano.”
“The fissure size is expanding fast,” she said in an interview.
While an eruption had been anticipated for weeks, following a series of earthquakes, Monday’s eruption came without any immediate advance warning. The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland’s top tourist destinations, which is nearby, had reopened for guests Sunday as concern that an eruption was imminent had diminished.
Thousands of earthquakes had been detected in Iceland since late October, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. In November, with homes and roads being damaged, authorities declared a state of emergency and evacuated Grindavík, a town of more than 3,000 people near the volcano.
In just the past two years, there have been four eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland’s most populated corner and home to its capital. When Grindavík was ordered evacuated Nov. 11, authorities said in a statement that the country was “highly prepared for such events.”
Authorities raised the aviation alert to orange, because a volcanic eruption could pose a risk to aircraft flying in the North Atlantic if ash spewed into the sky.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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BEIJING, China - An overnight earthquake killed at least 116 people in a cold and mountainous region in northwestern China, the country’s state media reported today.
Search and rescue operations were under way in Gansu and Qinghai provinces. The quake left more than 500 people injured, severely damaged houses and roads, and knocked out power and communication lines, according to the media reports.
The magnitude 6.2 earthquake struck in Gansu at a relatively shallow depth of 6 miles just before midnight on Monday, the China Earthquake Networks Center said. The U.S. Geological Survey measured the magnitude at 5.9.
By mid-morning, 105 people had been confirmed dead in Gansu and another 397 injured, including 16 in critical condition, Han Shujun, a spokesperson for the provincial emergency management department, said at a news conference. Eleven others were killed and at least 140 injured in Qinghai, according to state media.
The earthquake was felt in much of the surrounding area, including Lanzhou, the Gansu provincial capital, about 60 miles northeast of the epicenter. Photos and videos posted by a student at Lanzhou University showed students hastily leaving a dormitory building and standing outside with long down jackets over their pajamas.
“The earthquake was too intense,” said Wang Xi, the student who posted the images. “My legs went weak, especially when we ran downstairs from the dormitory.”
Tents, folding beds and quilts were being sent to the disaster area, state broadcaster CCTV said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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PORTLAND, ME - A storm barreled into the Northeast on Monday, flooding roads and downing trees, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, forcing flight cancellations and school closures, and killing at least four people.
More than 5 inches of rain fell in parts of New Jersey and northeastern Pennsylvania by midmorning, and parts of several other states got more than 4 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts reached nearly 70 mph along the southern New England shoreline.
Power was knocked out for hundreds of thousands of customers in an area stretching north from Virginia through New England, including nearly 423,000 in Maine and about 200,000 in Massachusetts as of Monday night, according to poweroutage.us.
The weather service issued flood and flash-flood warnings for New York City and the surrounding area; parts of Pennsylvania, upstate New York, western Connecticut and western Massachusetts; and parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
An 89-year-old Hingham, Mass., man was killed early Monday when high winds caused a tree to fall on a trailer, authorities said. In Windham, Maine, police said part of a tree fell and killed a man who was removing debris from his roof.
In Catskill, N.Y., a driver was killed after the vehicle went around a barricade on a flooded road and was swept into the Catskill Creek, the Times Union reported. A man was pronounced dead in Lancaster County, Pa., after he was found in a submerged vehicle Monday morning.
On Sunday in South Carolina, one person died when their vehicle flooded on a road in a gated community in Mount Pleasant.
Five months after flooding inundated Vermont’s capital city of Montpelier, water entered the basements of some downtown businesses as the city monitored the level of the Winooski River, officials said. Authorities in the village of Moretown, Vt., urged residents to evacuate some 30 to 50 homes because of flooding.
However, the city announced Monday night that the river was receding and forecasts predict the rain will taper off overnight.
“Several businesses needed to pump water from basements but damage was minimal due to many basements being empty as a precaution following the July flood,” the statement said.
Three people were rescued from a home in Jamaica and another in Waterbury when that person’s vehicle was swept away by floodwaters, said Vermont Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison at a news conference with the governor.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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More than 300 people were rescued overnight from floodwaters in northeast Australia, with dozens of residents clinging to roofs, officials said on Monday.
Cairns Airport was closed today due to flooding and authorities were concerned that the city of 160,000 people will lose drinking water.
While rain was easing in Cairns, severe weather warnings were in place in nearby Port Douglas, Daintree, Cooktown, Wujal Wujal and Hope Vale, with more rain forecast.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll described the flooding as “absolutely devastating.”
There were no deaths or serious injuries, she said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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GEORGETOWN, SC - An intense late-year storm barreled up the East Coast on Sunday with heavy rains and strong winds that shattered rainfall records, forced water rescues from flooded streets and washed out holiday celebrations.
Authorities rescued dozens of motorists stranded by floodwaters in South Carolina’s waterfront community of Georgetown, Georgetown County spokesperson Jackie Broach said. More than 9 inches of rain fell in the area situated between Charleston and Myrtle Beach since late Saturday.
“It’s not just the areas that we normally see flooding, that are flood-prone,” Broach said. “It’s areas that we’re not really expecting to have flooding issues... It’s like a tropical storm, it just happens to be in December.”
The tide in Charleston Harbor hit its fourth highest level on record and was “well above the highest tide for a non-tropical system,” according to the National Weather Service.
Rising sea levels driven by human-caused climate change mean even relatively weak weather systems can now produce storm surges previously associated with hurricanes, said Meteorologist Jeff Masters, co-founder of the Weather Underground. In South Carolina that’s worsened by natural subsidence along the coast.
By 2050, Charleston is expected to see another 14 inches of sea level rise, Masters said.
“In Charleston, this is the sixth time this year already that they’ve had a major coastal flood. Most of those would not have been major flooding 100 years ago, because the sea level has risen that much,” he said.
The storm was forecast to gain strength as it tracked along the Georgia and Carolina coasts, producing heavy rain and gusty winds before sweeping into New England by this morning, the weather service said. Wind gusts of 35 mph to 45 mph could bring down trees, especially on saturated ground.
There were numerous road closures in Charleston and across South Carolina’s Lowcountry, while stranded cars littered streets.
There were no reports of injuries or deaths in Georgetown County, Broach said. Gusty winds were strong enough to topple some signs and trees. Outdoor holiday decorations were tossed about, she said.
Farther up the coast, minor to moderate coastal flooding was expected Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, N.C.
There were more than 31,000 power outages in South Carolina, according to PowerOutage.us, along with over 14,000 in North Carolina and more than 11,000 in Florida.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul warned of a possible 2 to 4 inches of rain, powerful winds and potential flooding in parts of the state. Flood watches were in effect in many locations in New York City, and high wind warnings were activated around the city and Long Island.
City officials told residents to expect several hours of rain and possible delays during this morning’s commute.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Guatemala violated Indigenous rights by permitting a huge nickel mine on tribal land almost two decades ago, according to a ruling from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Friday.
The landmark verdict marks a monumental step in a four-decade struggle for Indigenous land rights and a long, bitter legal battle, which has at times spilled into the streets of northern Guatemala.
According to a verdict read from Costa Rica, the Guatemalan government violated the rights of the Indigenous Q’eqchi’ people to property and consultation by permitting mining on land where members of the community have lived at least since the 1800s.
In its written ruling, the court linked the human rights violations to “inadequacies in domestic law,” which fail to recognize Indigenous property and ordered the state to adopt new laws.
Leonardo Crippa, an attorney with the Indian Law Resource Center who has been researching and representing the community since 2005, said that the finding against the state of Guatemala was a once-in-a-century advance for Indigenous rights internationally.
“All countries in Latin America are going to look at this decision,” Crippa said. “All courts will have to secure that any decision that this made on mining, on Indigenous lands or titling of Indigenous land is done in a way that is consistent with what the court decided today.”
The court also ordered an immediate stop to all mining activities, gave Guatemala six months to begin awarding a land title to the community, and ordered the creation of a development fund. No further mining can take place, it said, without the community's consent.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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CAPE CANAVERAL, FL - A NASA telescope has captured the biggest solar flare in years, which temporarily knocked out radio communication on Earth.
The sun spit out the huge flare along with a massive radio burst on Thursday, causing two hours of radio interference in parts of the U.S. and other sunlit parts of the world. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it was the biggest flare since 2017, and the radio burst was extensive, affecting even the higher frequencies.
The combination resulted in one of the largest solar radio events ever recorded, Shawn Dahl of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center said Friday.
Multiple pilots reported communication disruptions, with the impact felt across the country, according to the space weather forecasting center. Scientists are now monitoring this sunspot region and analyzing for a possible outburst of plasma from the sun, also known as a coronal mass ejection, that might be directed at Earth. This could result in a geomagnetic storm, Dahl said, which in turn could disrupt high-frequency radio signals at the higher latitudes and trigger northern lights, or auroras, in the coming days.
The eruption occurred in the far northwest section of the sun. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory caught the action in extreme ultraviolet light, recording the powerful surge of energy as a huge, bright flash. Launched in 2010, the spacecraft is in an extremely high orbit around Earth, where it constantly monitors the sun.
The sun is nearing the peak of its 11-year or so solar cycle. Maximum sunspot activity is predicted for 2025.
Now attention turns to today and Sunday, when magnetism and solar material from the flare’s associated “coronal mass ejection,” or CME, could impact Earth. The slower-moving matter takes a couple days to reach Earth. Once it arrives, however, it’s known for causing geomagnetic storming, pulsing through Earth’s magnetic field as it’s transformed into visible light — the aurora or northern lights.
NOAA is expecting intermittent geomagnetic storming during the next three days. That should allow the aurora to slide down into southern Canada and possibly into the northern United States.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The first tropical cyclone to hit Australia in the current season weakened to a low pressure system but continued to lash the northeast coast today with flooding rain and left almost 40,000 homes and businesses without power.
Cyclone Jasper crossed the Queensland state coast late Wednesday as a category 2 storm o that whipped the sparsely populated region with winds of up to 87 mph.
The winds quickly eased as the storm tracked west across land, but heavy rain was forecast to continue today with the risk of flooding. Some weather stations in the region reported more than 16 inches of rain in 24 hours.
Emergency crews rescued 12 people and a dog from floodwaters, officials said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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DUBAI, UAE - A new compromise floated early today at United Nations COP28 climate talks called for the world to eventually wean itself off planet-warming fossil fuels in a global rallying cry stronger than proposed days earlier.
The new proposal doesn’t specifically use the language of calling for a “phase-out” of fossil fuels, which more than 100 nations had pleaded for. Instead, it calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade.” The transition would be in a way that gets the world to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050 and follows the dictates of climate science. It projects a world peaking its ever-growing carbon pollution by 2025 to reach its agreed-upon threshold, but gives wiggle room to individual nations like China to peak later.
Intensive sessions with all sorts of delegates went well into the early hours this morning after the conference presidency’s initial document angered many countries by avoiding decisive calls for action on curbing warming. Then, the United Arab Emirates-led presidency presented delegates from nearly 200 nations a new central document — called the global stocktake — just after sunrise.
It’s the third version presented in about two weeks and the word “oil” does not appear anywhere in the 21-page document. It mentions “fossil fuels” twice, but Alden Meyer, a veteran climate negotiations analyst at the European think tank E3G said that if approved it would be somewhat of a first mention of fossil fuels in context of getting rid of them.
The aim of the global stocktake is to help nations align their national climate plans with the 2015 Paris agreement that calls to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Earth is on its way to smashing the record for hottest year, endangering human health and leading to ever more costly and deadly extreme weather.
Nations were given a few hours to look at what COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber and his team produced. They will then meet in a session that could lead to the text’s adoption or could send negotiators back for more work.
Some of the language in previous versions of the draft that most upset nations calling for dramatic action to address climate change was altered. Actions that had previously been presented as an optional “could” changed to a bit more directing “calls on parties to.”
After a quick debriefing, Union of Concerned Scientists climate and energy policy director Rachel Cleetus said it was “definitely an improvement” over earlier versions that environmental advocacy groups like hers had criticized.
Other documents presented before sunrise today addressed, somewhat, the sticky issues of money to help poorer nations adapt to global warming and emit less carbon, as well as how countries should adapt to a warming climate.
Many financial issues are supposed to be hammered out over the next two years at upcoming climate conferences in Azerbaijan and Brazil.
The annual conference was supposed to end Tuesday after nearly two weeks. Instead, negotiators were in closed meetings as they reworked the cornerstone document that flopped a day earlier.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Climate change is worsening the planet’s biodiversity crises, making environments more deadly for thousands of species and accelerating the precipitous decline in the number of plants and animals on Earth, according to an international organization that tracks species health.
Species of salmon and turtles are among those facing a decline as the planet warms.
Atlantic salmon isn’t yet threatened with extinction, but its population dropped by nearly a quarter from 2006 to 2020, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which tracks biodiversity around the globe, said on Monday. It is now considered near threatened. They live in fewer places and face human-created hazards like dams and water pollution. Climate change is making it harder for the fish to find food and easier for alien species to compete, according to the group. Although there are some signs of hope: their numbers ticked up in Maine this past year.
The news was announced at the United Nations climate conference in the United Arab Emirates on Monday. Leaders of the IUCN updated their Red List of Threatened Species, a tracker of biodiversity around the globe. It was mainly bad news. The list includes information on 157,000 species, about 7,000 more than last year’s update.
The IUCN said just over 44,000 species are threatened with extinction. That’s roughly 2,000 more than last year.
“Species around the world are under huge pressure. So no matter where you look, the numbers of threatened species are rising,” said Craig Hilton-Taylor, head of the Red List unit at the IUCN.
Climate change is worsening conditions for about 6,700 species threatened with extinction.
The Central South Pacific and East Pacific green turtle is at greater risk because of climate change, for example. Fewer turtles hatch as higher seas inundate nests. Warming waters can harm its food supply of seagrasses.
The update includes the first broad assessment of the health of freshwater fish species. One-quarter of species — just over 3,000 — face an extinction risk. As climate change raises sea levels, salt water is traveling further up rivers, for example. And these species already face tremendous threats from pollution and overfishing, the IUCN said.
Frogs, salamanders and other amphibians are suffering the most. About 41 percent of these species are under threat.
“They are climate captives because of higher temperatures, drought — whatever happens amphibians cannot move out of harm’s way and are directly impacted by climate change,” said Vivek Menon, deputy chair of the IUCN’s species survival commission.
There was a bit of good news. Two antelope species are fairing better, although they still have a long way to go before their long-term survival is stabilized. For example, the scimitar-horned oryx, a light-colored animal with curved horns, had previously been categorized as extinct in the wild but is now endangered. It faced a lot of threats: poaching, drought and car accidents all played a role in largely eliminating the species by the turn of the century. But recent efforts to reintroduce the species in Chad have helped and there are now at least 140 adults and more than twice as many calves on a large nature reserve.
Grethel Aguilar, IUCN’s director general, said it is clear humans need to act to protect biodiversity and when conservation is done right, it works. To combat the threat posed by climate change, she said fossil fuels need to be phased out, a contentious focus of this year’s COP28 negotiations.
“Nature is here to help us, so let us help it back,” she said.
(Michael Phillis, ASSOCIATES PRESS)
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Five countries in eastern and southern Africa are in the middle of outbreaks of the anthrax disease, with more than 1,100 suspected cases and 20 deaths this year, the World Health Organization said Monday.
A total of 1,166 suspected cases had been reported in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Thirty-seven cases had been confirmed by laboratory tests, the WHO said. It said the five countries have seasonal outbreaks every year, but Zambia was experiencing its worst since 2011 and Malawi reported its first human case this year. Uganda had reported 13 deaths.
Anthrax usually affects livestock like cattle, sheep and goats, as well as wild herbivores. Humans can be infected if they are exposed to the animals or contaminated animal products. Anthrax isn't generally considered to be contagious between humans, although there have been rare cases of person-to-person transmission, the WHO says.
Anthrax is caused by spore-forming bacteria and is sometimes associated with the weaponized version used in the 2001 attacks in the United States, when five people died and 17 others fell sick after being exposed to anthrax spores in letters sent through the mail.
In a separate assessment of the Zambia outbreak, which was the most concerning, the WHO said that 684 suspected cases had been reported in the southern African nation as of Nov. 20, with four deaths. Human cases of anthrax had been reported in nine out of Zambia's 10 provinces.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Humans are often to blame for illnesses and injuries that land animals in wildlife rehabilitation centers, a recent analysis in the journal Biological Conservation suggests. The broad-reaching study looked at animals housed in wildlife centers in the United States and Canada — and highlighted threats that humans present to over 1,000 species.
The study reviewed a data set of 674,320 digitized records from 94 wildlife centers throughout North America running from 1975 to 2019. The records contain information about all kinds of animals, but Eastern cottontail rabbits, Eastern gray squirrels, Virginia opossums, American robins and raccoons were most frequently admitted to wildlife rehab centers, though species varied by region.
Researchers pinpointed several leading reasons for animal injuries, including human disturbances such as collisions with vehicles, injuries and illness; predators; and poisonous substances.
Nearly 40 percent of all cases were caused by humans, and vehicle collisions were the main cause of injury, affecting 12 percent of animals admitted, the study says. Other dangers included fishing, collisions with buildings or windows, and run-ins with domesticated dogs and cats, researchers found. Reptiles suffered the highest proportion of human-caused rehab admissions.
Overall, human activities have “a large, negative impact on wildlife,” the researchers concluded.
Just 32.5 percent of animals ended up being released back into the wild, and about 9 percent were transferred to another facility or otherwise being treated; the rest died or were euthanized. More mammals were eventually released than any other type of animal.
Humans’ presence could be felt throughout the study, even in cases in which they did not directly injure the animals.
Lead poisoning and the effects of human-caused climate change also put animals in danger, with heat stress, die-offs and other issues linked to the extreme weather thought to be fueled by human activity. These factors affected different animals in different ways: For example, bald eagles were dramatically more likely to be admitted for lead poisoning than other animals, and red-tailed hawks bore the brunt of pesticide exposure.
The researchers called for wildlife centers across the continent to standardize their systems to enable more research. Overall, they write, such records are “an excellent source of data for identifying threats to wildlife health and establishing management and conservation priorities and responses.”
(Erin Blakemore, WASHINGTON POST)
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NASHVILLE, TN - Residents of central Tennessee communities slammed by deadly tornadoes this weekend described tragic and terrifying scenes in which one mobile home landed on top of another, roofs were ripped from houses and an entire church collapsed during a string of powerful storms that killed six people.
Emergency workers and community members cleaned up Sunday from the severe weekend storms and tornadoes that also sent dozens more to the hospital while damaging buildings, turning over vehicles and knocking out power to tens of thousands.
Marco Tulio Gabriel Pérez came to Nashville from Atlanta after hearing that his sister and 2-year-old nephew were killed in the tornado. He said two other children in the family survived with minor injuries.
“Regrettably, a tragedy happened here. Since it’s a tornado, it came through like you can see here. She lived in this trailer. The other trailer overturned on top of my deceased sister. She remained underneath, the other trailer went on top,” Pérez said in Spanish.
The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department identified the victims killed north of downtown as Joseph Dalton, 37; Floridema Gabriel Pérez, 31; and her son, Anthony Elmer Mendez, 2.
Officials elsewhere confirmed that three people, including a child, died after a tornado struck Montgomery County 50 miles northwest of Nashville near the Kentucky state line on Saturday afternoon. They did not immediately provide names.
At least six tornado tracks were reported Saturday in central Tennessee, according to the National Weather Service, and teams on Sunday were attempting to confirm these potential tornadoes and calculate their severity.
(ASSOCIATES PRESS)
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Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano found the last body of climbers who were caught by a surprise weekend eruption, raising the number of confirmed dead to 23, officials said today.
About 75 climbers started their way up the 9,480-foot mountain in Agam district of West Sumatra province on Saturday and became stranded.
Some 52 climbers were rescued after the initial eruption Sunday, and 11 others were initially confirmed dead. New eruptions on Monday and Tuesday spewed hot ash, temporarily halting search and recovery operations, said Abdul Malik, chief of the Padang Search and Rescue Agency.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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DUBAI, UAE - The world this year pumped 1.1 percent more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air than last year because of increased pollution from China and India, a team of scientists reported.
The increase was reported early Tuesday at international climate talks, where global officials are trying to cut emissions by 43 percent by 2030. Instead, carbon pollution keeps rising, with 36.8 billion metric tons poured into the air in 2023, twice the annual amount of 40 years ago, according to Global Carbon Project, a group of international scientists who produce the gold standard of emissions counting.
“It now looks inevitable we will overshoot the 1.5 (degree Celsius, 2.7 degree Fahrenheit) target of the Paris Agreement, and leaders meeting at COP28 will have to agree rapid cuts in fossil fuel emissions even to keep the 2 (degree Celsius, 3.6 degree Fahrenheit) target alive,’’ study lead author Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter said.
Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is “just possible’’ but only barely and with massive emission cuts, said Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Chair Jim Skea.
“We are clearly not going in the right direction,” Friedlingstein said.
This year, the burning of fossil fuel and manufacturing of cement have added the equivalent of putting 2.57 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every second.
If China and India were excluded from the count, world carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacturing would have dropped, Friedlingstein said.
The world in 2023 increased its annual emissions by 398 million metric tons, but it was in three places: China, India and the skies. China’s fossil fuel emissions went up 458 million metric tons from last year, India’s went up 233 million metric tons, and aviation emissions increased 145 million metric tons.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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PADANG, Indonesia - The bodies of 11 climbers were recovered today after a furious eruption of the Mount Marapi volcano as Indonesian rescuers searched for at least 22 others reportedly missing.
Mount Marapi in Agam district in West Sumatra province spewed thick columns of ash as high as 10,000 feet into the sky in a sudden eruption Sunday and hot ash clouds spread several miles. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed by tons of volcanic debris.
About 75 climbers started their way up the 9,480-foot mountain on Saturday and became stranded.
Eight of those rescued Sunday were rushed to hospitals with burn wounds and one also had a broken limb, said Hari Agustian, an official at the local Search and Rescue Agency in Padang, the provincial capital.
West Sumatra’s Search and Rescue Agency head Abdul Malik said rescuers today found 11 bodies of climbers as they searched for those still missing and rescued three others.
Two climbing routes were closed after the eruption and residents living on the slopes of Marapi were advised to stay 2 miles from the crater’s mouth because of potential lava, said Ahmad Rifandi, an official with Indonesia’s Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation Center at the Marapi monitoring post.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MANILA, Philippines - A powerful earthquake that shook the southern Philippines killed at least one villager and injured several others as thousands scrambled out of their homes in panic and jammed roads to higher ground after a tsunami warning was issued, officials said Sunday.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the quake Saturday night had a magnitude of 7.6 and struck at a depth of 20 miles. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said it expected tsunami waves to hit the southern Philippines and parts of Indonesia, Palau and Malaysia, but later dropped its tsunami warning.
The USGS recorded further earthquakes Sunday with magnitudes of 6.6 and 6.9, but but there were no tsunami alerts.
In Japan, authorities issued evacuation orders late Saturday in various parts of Okinawa prefecture, including for the entire coastal area, affecting thousands of people.
A pregnant woman died after she, her husband and daughter were hit by a 15-foot concrete wall that collapsed in their neighborhood as the ground shook and prompted them to flee their house in Tagum city in Davao del Norte province, the city’s disaster-mitigation chief, Shieldon Isidoro, said.
Her husband and daughter were injured. Two other children and their parents jumped from a second-floor window in panic as their house swayed but were not injured after landing on a grassy lot, said Isidoro, who was at his home when the ground started to shake.
Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. told a news conference that authorities were assessing the quake’s impact but initial reports indicated there was no major damage except for two damaged bridges and pockets of power outages.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Back-to-back storms fueled by atmospheric rivers were expected to move over the northwestern United States this week, bringing heavy rains and snow and raising concerns about flooding, forecasters said.
After a brief break between atmospheric rivers Sunday evening, another was expected today, with the heaviest rainfall likely to occur in western Washington state.
The forecast came as snow had blanketed mountain areas of Washington state with as much 40 inches since Thursday, according to the National Weather Service office in Seattle.
Through this evening, 3 to 7 inches of rain could drench areas of western Washington and Oregon, forecasters said.
The weather service said there were “moderate-to-high chances” of more than 12 inches of snow falling in the higher terrain of central Idaho, the Tetons in western Wyoming, the Colorado Rockies and the Wasatch mountain range in Utah.
The weather service in Cheyenne, Wyo., also warned of strong gusts continuing today, with winds as strong as 60 mph.
Atmospheric river storms get their names from the long, narrow shape and the prodigious amount of water they carry. They form when winds over the Pacific draw a filament of moisture from the band of warm, moist air over the tropics and channel it toward the West Coast.
The Weather Prediction Center said there was a “slight risk” of river flooding and flash flooding for the Oregon coast and the Cascade Range in both Oregon and southern Washington. Rain “will fall heavily in areas” that have fresh snowpacks, such as in western Oregon, the weather service said.
“Those in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to take action should flooding occur,” the National Weather Service office in Portland, Ore., warned on social media.
There was a moderate risk of flooding as a result of heavy rain and melting snow in Oregon and western Washington state, forecasters said.
“This will stream milder air into western Oregon and Washington, forcing rain to be the dominant precipitation type,” the weather service said, noting the storms could last through Wednesday.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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MANILA, Philippines - A powerful earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck Saturday off the southern Philippine coast, prompting many villagers to flee their homes in panic around midnight after Philippine authorities issued a tsunami warning.
The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. at a depth of 20 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There were no immediate reports of major damage or casualties.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially said that based on the magnitude and location, it expected tsunami waves to hit the southern Philippines and parts of Indonesia, Palau and Malaysia. But the center later dropped its tsunami warning.
In Japan, authorities issued evacuation orders in various parts of Okinawa Prefecture, including for the entire coastal area, affecting thousands of people.
Teresito Bacolcol, the head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, told The Associated Press his agency advised residents along the coast of southern Surigao del Sur and Davao Oriental provinces to immediately evacuate to higher ground or move farther inland.
Owners of boats in harbors, estuaries or shallow coastal waters off the two provinces were urged to secure their boats and move away from the waterfront, the quake agency said. Boats already at sea were advised to stay offshore in deep waters until further notice, it said.
Based on the quake’s magnitude, Bacolcol said a 3.2-foot tsunami was possible.
Pictures posted on the Facebook account of the Hinatuan city government showed residents fleeing to higher ground on foot or by cars, trucks, motorcycles and tricycle taxis at night.
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Biden administration on Saturday issued a final rule aimed at reducing methane emissions, targeting the U.S. oil and natural gas industry for its role in global warming as President Joe Biden seeks to advance his climate legacy.
The Environmental Protection Agency said the rule will sharply reduce methane and other harmful air pollutants generated by the oil and gas industry, promote use of cutting-edge methane detection technologies and deliver significant public health benefits in the form of reduced hospital visits, lost school days and even deaths. Air pollution from oil and gas operations can cause cancer, harm the nervous and respiratory systems and contribute to birth defects.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan and White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi announced the final rule at the U.N. climate conference in the United Arab Emirates. Separately, the president of the climate summit announced Saturday that 50 oil companies representing nearly half of global production have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the top American representative at the summit, said the U.S. and other nations must act boldly to confront the fallout from climate change.
“The urgency of this moment is clear,” Harris said. “The clock is no longer just ticking. It is banging. And we must make up for lost time.”
The U.S. rule on methane emissions is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration that includes financial incentives to buy electric vehicles and upgrade infrastructure — spending that Harris said will total roughly $1 trillion over 10 years.
Oil and gas operations are the largest industrial source of methane, the main component in natural gas and far more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term. It is responsible for about one-third of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The methane rule finalizes a proposal Biden made at a U.N. climate conference in Scotland in 2021 and expanded a year later at a climate conference in Egypt. It targets emissions from existing oil and gas wells nationwide, rather than focusing only on new wells, as previous EPA regulations have done. It also regulates smaller wells that will be required to find and plug methane leaks.
The plan also will phase in a requirement for energy companies to eliminate routine flaring, or burning of natural gas that is produced by new oil wells.
The new methane rule will help ensure that the United States meets a goal set by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030 from 2020 levels, Regan said.
(Matthew Daly, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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DUBAI, UAE - Fifty oil companies representing nearly half of global production have pledged to reach near-zero methane emissions and end routine flaring in their operations by 2030, the president of this year’s United Nations climate talks said Saturday, a move that environmental groups called a “smokescreen.”
Methane emissions are a significant contributor to global warming, so sharply reducing them could help slow temperature rise. If the companies carry out their pledges, it could trim one-tenth of a degree Celsius (0.18 degree Fahrenheit) from future warming, a prominent climate scientist calculated and told The Associated Press. That is about how much the Earth is currently warming every five years.
The announcement by Sultan al-Jaber, president of the climate summit known as COP28 and head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., comes as he and others have insisted his background would allow him to bring oil companies to the negotiating table. Al-Jaber has maintained that having the industry’s buy-in is crucial to drastically slashing the world’s greenhouse emissions by nearly half in seven years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times.
Signing on to the pledge were major national oil companies such as Saudi Aramco, Brazil’s Petrobras and Sonangol, from Angola, and multi-nationals like Shell, TotalEnergies and BP.
“The world does not work without energy,” said al-Jaber, speaking in a session on the oil industry. “Yet the world will break down if we do not fix energies we use today, mitigate their emissions at a gigaton scale, and rapidly transition to zero-carbon alternatives.”
For months leading up to COP28, there was speculation of action on methane. Not only do methane leaks, along with flaring, which is burning of excess methane, and venting of the gas, all contribute to climate change, but these problems can largely be solved with current technologies and changes to operations. Indeed, oil and gas companies could have taken such measures years ago but largely have not, instead focusing more on expanding production than focusing on the byproduct of it.
In that way, the methane deal represented a potentially significant contribution to combating climate change that also largely maintained the status quo for the oil and gas industry. Many environmental groups were quick to criticize it.
The pledge is a “smokescreen to hide the reality that we need to phase out oil, gas and coal,” said a letter signed by more than 300 civil society groups.
Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said “the commitments to cut methane are significant, but they address the symptom, not the source.”
But Environmental Defense Fund President Fred Krupp said Saturday’s deal “could be the single most impactful day of announcements from any COP in my 30 years at the Environmental Defense Fund.”
Methane has caused about half of the world’s warming since pre-industrial times, al-Jaber said, promoting the deal as significant. However, methane escaping from oil and gas drilling accounts for only about 23 percent of the world’s methane emissions, with agriculture and waste being bigger culprits, said Climate Analytics CEO Bill Hare, the climate scientist who calculated the proposal would trim a tenth of a degree from future warming.
“It would be a significant, but not a fundamental contribution” to making sure average temperatures don’t rise beyond 1.5 degrees, Hare said. To keep within that limit, the world needs to cut carbon dioxide about 40 percent and methane by about 60 percent by 2030, he said.
Saturday’s announcement did not address the oil and natural gas being burned off by the end users, so-called Scope 3 emissions, which can be motorists in their cars or plants powering cities. In his speech, al-Jaber said oil and gas companies needed to do more to research solutions to Scope 3 emissions.
(Jon Gambrell, Peter Prengaman & Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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FORT LAUDERDALE, FL - A busy hurricane season that saw the National Hurricane Center in Miami issue the first-ever tropical storm warning for the coast of California and hurricane warnings as far north as Nova Scotia drew to a close Thursday night.
The Atlantic basin had 20 named storms — the fourth-highest total since 1950. They included seven hurricanes, three of which became major hurricanes at a Category 3 or higher.
“The 2023 hurricane season does show that we can get impacts just about everywhere,” said Michael Brennan, director of the hurricane center. “We had a tropical storm affect Southern California, Hurricane Idalia make landfall as a major hurricane along the Florida Gulf Coast, and we had Ophelia affect the U.S. East Coast all the way up to New England, and we also had effects all the way up in the Northeast with Hurricane Lee making landfall in Nova Scotia.”
There were also multiple hurricane landfalls across Mexico, especially late in the season, including Hurricane Otis, a Category 5 storm that devastated Acapulco and killed dozens.
“It was a really busy season,” Brennan said.
The high number of named storms is part of a period of active storms dating back to 2017, he said. This season in particular brought a “continuous period of activity” in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
But Brennan said there were some positives.
“I think one thing to focus on is we had a major hurricane landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida, which is an area that’s very vulnerable to storm surge, and we had no storm surge fatalities,” he said.
The marshy area of Florida’s west coast where the storm made landfall is sparsely populated, which helped residents evacuate ahead of the storm.
“That’s a success, and we should be proud of that,” Brennan said. He added that the hurricane center’s new storm surge warning system and consistent forecasts played a major role.
Forecasters at the hurricane center in Miami may take a day or two to recover after the busy hurricane season, but Brennan says “the offseason is busy in a different way” as they prepare for the 2024 season beginning June 1. The team will focus on reports on every storm that formed in 2023, and they’ll begin training and preparedness activities for next season.
“So it’s either hurricane season, or you’re getting ready for the next hurricane season,” he said.
(Freida Frisaro & David Fischer, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The U.N. weather agency said Thursday that 2023 is all but certain to be the hottest year on record, and warning of worrying trends that suggest increasing floods, wildfires, glacier melt, and heat waves in the future.
The World Meteorological Organization also warned that the average temperature for the year is up some 1.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times — one-tenth of a degree under a target limit for the end of the century as laid out by the Paris climate accord in 2015.
The WMO secretary-general said the onset earlier this year of El Niño, the weather phenomenon marked by heating in the Pacific Ocean, could tip the average temperature next year over the 1.5-degree (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) target cap set in Paris.
“It’s practically sure that during the coming four years we will hit this 1.5, at least on temporary basis,” Petteri Taalas said in an interview. “And in the next decade we are more or less going to be there on a permanent basis.”
WMO issued the findings for Thursday’s start of the U.N.’s annual climate conference, this year being held in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.
The U.N. agency said the benchmark of the key Paris accord goal will be whether the 1.5-degree increase is sustained over a 30-year span — not just a single year — but others say the world needs more clarity on that.
“Clarity on breaching the Paris agreement guard rails will be crucial,” said Richard Betts of Britain’s Met Office, the lead author of a new paper on the issue with University of Exeter published in the journal Nature.
“Without an agreement on what actually will count as exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius, we risk distraction and confusion at precisely the time when action to avoid the worst effects of climate change becomes even more urgent,” he added.
WMO’s Taalas said that whatever the case, the world appears on course to blow well past that figure anyway.
“We are heading towards 2.5 to 3 degrees warming and that would mean that we would see massively more negative impacts of climate change,” Taalas said, pointing to glacier loss and sea level rise over “the coming thousands of years.”
His message for attendee at the U.N climate conference, known as COP28?
“We have to reduce our consumption of coal, oil and natural gas dramatically to be able to limit the warming to the Paris limits,” he said. “Luckily, things are happening. But still, we in the Western countries, in the rich countries, we are still consuming oil, a little bit less coal than in the past, and still natural gas.”
“Reduction of fossil fuel consumption — that’s the key to success.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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KYIV, Ukraine - A powerful wintry storm battered southern Ukraine on Monday, washing away Russian coastal defenses from some beaches on the occupied Crimean peninsula. The storm, which Ukrainian meteorologists said was among the most intense in decades, snarled supply routes for both countries’ armies and deepened the misery of tens of thousands of soldiers huddled in shallow trenches across the sprawling front line.
As temperatures plunged below freezing across much of the country, hundreds of thousands of civilians were left without power in Russian-occupied territories and tens of thousands more lost power across southern Ukraine.
All the hardships that a winter storm typically delivers were compounded and complicated by the exigencies of war. A blizzard of snow, for example, stranded civilians on roads while complicating the movement of humanitarian aid to communities across Ukraine ravaged by fighting.
Violent waves stirred by hurricane-force winds threatened to tear maritime mines from their moorings in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea — as less violent storms have done in the past — complicating the navigation of already dangerous shipping lanes.
Russian and Ukrainian officials both reported widespread flooding in coastal communities, and soldiers from both armies posted photos of the havoc the storm created. The storm raged on both sides of the front, with the Odesa region in southern Ukraine along the Black Sea among the hardest-hit areas. Around 150,000 families in the region were without power on Monday, city officials said.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Heavy snowfall and strong blizzards in Romania and Moldova on Sunday left one person dead and hundreds of localities without electricity, as well as forcing the closure of some national roads, authorities said.
A 40-year-old man in Moldova died on Sunday after the vehicle he was in skidded off the road and crashed into a tree, Moldova’s national police said, adding that six road accidents had been reported by about midday.
“We repeatedly appeal to drivers not to hit the road with unequipped cars and to drive at low speed,” Moldovan police said in a statement posted on Telegram, and warned against driving “without an urgent need.”
In Romania, red weather warnings were issued in the counties of Constanta, Tulcea, Galati, and Braila.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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WRANGELL, AK - Authorities recovered the body of an 11-year-old girl Saturday evening from the debris of a landslide in southeast Alaska that tore down a wooded mountainside days earlier, smashing into homes in a remote fishing village.
The girl, Kara Heller, was the fourth person confirmed killed by last Monday night’s landslide.
The girl’s parents, Timothy Heller, 44 and Beth Heller, 36, and her sister Mara Heller, 16, were discovered and confirmed dead in the initial days after the landslide.
Search crews are looking for a third child still missing from the Heller family, Derek, 12, and neighbor Otto Florschutz, 65, according to Tim DeSpain, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Florschutz’s wife survived the disaster.
The landslide came down in the direct path of three homes near Wrangell, a fishing community of about 2,000 residents located on an island about 155 miles south of Juneau. Only two of the affected homes were occupied.
DeSpain said the latest victim was found under debris in the slide area. Authorities used trained dogs and an excavator to find and recover the remains.
Photos showed the aftermath of the slide, which occurred during significant rainfall and heavy winds: a stark dirt path estimated to be 450 feet wide running from the top of a nearby mountain down to the ocean in the middle of lush evergreen trees.
The debris field covered the coastal highway before reaching the sea.
Troopers had initially said a large-scale search and rescue mission wasn’t possible because the site was unstable and hazardous. But a geologist from the state transportation department later cleared areas of the debris field for ground searches.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Nearly 14 million people were under various winter weather alerts Sunday as a post-Thanksgiving snowstorm moved over the Rockies and Central Plains and travelers trekked home after the holiday, forecasters said.
Winter storm warnings were in effect Sunday for parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, while weather advisories were in effect for parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes region, the Weather Service Prediction Center said Sunday.
Moderate to heavy snowfall was expected to affect portions of the Southern Rockies and Central Plains, including much of Kansas, where as much as 1 foot of snow had fallen in some places as of Sunday.
“Gusty winds and heavy snow will increase hazardous travel conditions,” the National Weather Service said.
In Wichita, KA, the weather service warned drivers Sunday that a majority of roadways across the state were “snow packed and icy.” Meteorologists urged drivers to reduce their speed and allow extra time to reach their destination. The Harvey County Sheriff’s Office, in Newton, KA, said on social media that it had responded to multiple vehicles that slid off roadways Saturday.
As of Sunday morning, parts of Iowa had received up to 4 inches of snow, while areas of Missouri had received as much as 5.3 inches. Parts of Nebraska reported getting 10 inches, and parts of Colorado got between 10.5 and 23 inches, the weather service said.
The wintry weather comes as roughly 55.4 million people were estimated to be traveling for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, according to projections from AAA, the automobile association that also tracks air travel.
The organization said this year’s travel forecast increased 2.3 percent from last year’s, making it the third-highest Thanksgiving forecast since 2000, when the organization began tracking holiday travel.
The Transportation Security Administration said it anticipated that airport security checkpoints nationwide “will be busier than ever this holiday travel season” through Tuesday.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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ACAPULCO, Mexico - Below the shattered windows of the high-rise hotels in downtown Acapulco, people walk alongside towering hills of garbage bags filled with rotting food and debris, from mattresses to Christmas decorations. Volunteer firefighters from distant states clear the waste, wiping away swarms of cockroaches from their arms.
Miles from the coastal beachside resorts, Elizabeth Del Valle, 43, listened as her teenage daughter Constanza Sotelo described the “mountains of trash” still blocking many streets surrounding their home.
“We have no way to find face masks to keep ourselves healthy,” said Del Valle. “We expect that we’re going to get an infection from the smell, from the garbage.”
Weeks after Hurricane Otis shocked forecasters and government officials by intensifying rapidly into the strongest storm to hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast and devastate much of Acapulco, residents say they now face an unfolding health disaster.
Many locals, public health officials and emergency responders say they believe that the uncollected garbage is linked to stomach infections, diarrhea, skin rashes and other ailments that people have complained about since the storm.
Local business groups this past week called on federal and state officials to declare a sanitation emergency, citing “the accumulation of garbage, construction material, lack of potable water, and the presence of insects and harmful fauna,” including human remains.
As thousands of troops descended on Acapulco after Otis made landfall, authorities first prioritized clearing debris and restoring power to the tourist resort areas, according to city officials, local business leaders and residents. Some hotels in that area have since reopened.
But people who live outside the city’s beachfront tourist neighborhoods say they must navigate so many piles of trash and debris that it is hard to reach hospitals and health centers.
Even as authorities respond to Acapulco’s many needs — providing water to residents, restoring power and finding missing people — federal and local officials are sounding alarms over the hurricane’s longer-term health consequences and say that clearing trash needs to be priority.
The city’s mayor estimates that 666,000 tons of garbage are piled across Acapulco. Under normal conditions, local officials said, 700 to 800 tons of waste are picked up every day.
Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has promised a quick recovery, saying that families in Acapulco will be “content by Christmas.”
The mayor, Abelina López Rodríguez, believes the timeline will be far longer. “To say that in one month or five months we will rebuild Acapulco would be a lie,” she said.
The president’s support is vital, López Rodríguez said, “because garbage does not forgive.” The situation could soon become “a health crisis,” she added.
Since Otis ravaged Acapulco — killing at least 50 people and leaving 30 missing — health brigades made up of federal workers have cleaned and disinfected a little more than one-third of the city’s 507 neighborhoods, disposing of hundreds of pounds of rotting food, Mexican officials said.
Natural disasters can often result in an outbreak of infectious diseases, public health experts said. Piles of garbage left outside can attract mosquitoes and rats, which can then spread infectious diseases. A lack of power can also lead to contaminated food, raising the risk of stomach infections and illnesses.
Health problems linked to uncollected trash are “more common than we anticipate,” said Amber Mehmood, an associate professor of public health at the University of South Florida who focuses on global health and disaster management. Debris and waste, she said, can become a “breeding ground for mosquitoes that can carry malaria and Zika virus.”
“There are plenty of reasons to be worried,” Mehmood added.
Leslye Solis Mireles, 31, a firefighter and paramedic leading a team of more than 50 firefighters from another Mexican state, said her crew in Acapulco had helped treat people with various illnesses that she believes stem from the accumulating garbage.
“It is literally a source of infection,” she said, adding that she and many of her own firefighters were now suffering stomach infections and skin rashes.
(Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Emiliano Rodríguez Mega, NEW YORK TIMES)
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The likelihood that a volcanic eruption will engulf the fishing town of Grindavik, Iceland, is decreasing by the day, officials said Friday, even as they continued to warn that an eruption could still occur.
Grindavik, with more than 3,000 people, was evacuated this month after it was determined that a 9-mile-long underground river of magma was moving beneath the town to the ocean.
Residents are now allowed to go home during the day to check on their properties and belongings, but until scientists give the all-clear, people cannot permanently return, said Jon Thor Viglundsson, a spokesperson for Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.
Since late last month, tens of thousands of earthquakes have been reported in the Reykjanes Peninsula in the southwestern part of Iceland, sometimes more than 1,000 in a 24-hour period. That activity led scientists to conclude that an eruption might be imminent, putting Iceland in a holding pattern.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Authorities on Friday identified those missing or killed in a southeast Alaska landslide this week as five family members and their neighbor, a commercial fisherman who made a long-shot bid for the state’s lone seat in the U.S. House last year.
Timothy Heller, 44, and Beth Heller, 36 — plus their children Mara, 16; Derek, 12; and Kara, 11 — were at home Monday night when the landslide struck near the island community of Wrangell. Search crews found the bodies of the parents and the oldest child late Monday or early Tuesday; the younger children remain missing, as does neighbor Otto Florschutz, 65, the Alaska Department of Public Safety said in an email.
Florschutz’s wife survived.
Florschutz, a Republican who previously served on Wrangell’s Port Commission, was one of 48 candidates who entered the race to fill the congressional seat vacated when longtime U.S. Rep. Don Young died last year. He received 193 votes out of nearly 162,000 cast.
Beth Heller served on the Wrangell School Board from 2019 to 2020 after several years on the district’s parent advisory committee.
The Hellers ran a construction company called Heller High Water, said Tyla Nelson, who described herself as Beth Heller’s best friend since high school.
Wrangell School District Superintendent Bill Burr said in an email Friday that counseling would be available for students and staff Monday when school resumes after the Thanksgiving break.
The slide tore down a swath of evergreen trees from the top of the mountain above the community to the ocean, striking three homes and burying a highway near Wrangell, about 155 miles south of Juneau. One of the homes was unoccupied.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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NAIROBI, Kenya - Heavy rains and floods have killed scores of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others across eastern Africa in recent weeks, governments and the United Nations said, underscoring the intensifying climatic hazards in a politically and economically tumultuous region.
At least 179 people have been killed in countries including Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, according to the U.N. and government agencies, and some regional authorities believe the figures are most likely higher.
The torrential rains, which have devastated other nations including Burundi, Sudan, South Sudan and Uganda, have affected more than 3 million people in a region that was already reeling from its worst drought in four decades.
Since 2020, the drought conditions, aggravated by climate change, have decimated crops and livestock and left millions of people hungry and malnourished, and hundreds of children dead.
The United Nations has attributed the heavier-than-usual rains to two climatic events: the El Niño phenomenon, which originates in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and whose conditions release additional heat into the atmosphere, and a similar phenomenon known as the Indian Ocean Dipole.
The floods have damaged homes, bridges and schools, according to aid agencies, who have warned of an uptick in disease outbreaks, including cholera and malaria.
In Somalia, where the floods have affected 1.7 million people, the government declared a state of emergency in October. The U.N. said the country was facing “once-in-a-century flooding.”
In Kenya, the heavy downpours have killed more than 60 people, according to the U.N.
Similar devastation has unfolded in neighboring countries including Ethiopia, where the rain has submerged large portions of land underwater, according to the U.N.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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WRANGELL, AK - Searchers looking for three people who remain missing after a massive landslide that killed three others and injured a fourth have changed their strategy from holding an active search to a reactive search that will involve methodically clearing the highway, officials said Thursday.
“During active search periods we have searchers in the field meticulously looking for missing persons,” Austin McDaniel, a spokesperson with the Alaska Department of Public Safety, told The Associated Press. “During reactive searches, search teams are not actively in the field but will react to new information and then actively search that area supported by the new information.”
Since Monday night’s slide, officials have inspected the site by air with drones, helicopters and planes while teams using detection dogs and sonar covered the ground and water, but the three people — one adult and two juveniles — remain missing, McDaniel said.
The slide churned up the earth from near the top of the mountain down to the ocean, tearing down a wide swath of evergreen trees and burying a highway in the island community of Wrangell, about 155 miles south of Juneau. Rescue crews found the body of a girl in an initial search Monday night and the bodies of two adults late Tuesday.
Around 54 homes are cut off from town by the landslide, and roughly 35 to 45 people have chosen to stay in that area, interim borough manager Mason Villarma said. Boats are being used to provide supplies, including food, fuel and water, and prescription medications to those residents. Given the geography of the island — with the town at the northern point and houses along a 13-mile stretch of paved road — currently “the ocean is our only access to those residences,” he said.
Wrangell usually celebrates Thanksgiving with a tree lighting and downtown shopping events but could replace that with a vigil, Villarma said.
The state transportation department said on social media Wednesday that the process of clearing the highway would only begin once search and rescue efforts were completed. There was no immediate timeline for when that portion of the highway would reopen.
The slide — estimated to be 450 feet wide — occurred during rain and a windstorm.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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JUNEAU, AK - A landslide that ripped down a sopping, heavily forested mountainside in southeast Alaska killed three people, injured a woman and left three other people missing as it smashed into three homes in a remote fishing community, authorities said Tuesday.
Rescue crews found the body of a girl in an initial search and late Tuesday the bodies of two adults were found by a drone operator. Crews resorted to a cadaver-sniffing dog and heat-sensing drones to search for two children and one adult who remained unaccounted for hours after the disaster, while the Coast Guard and other vessels looked along the oceanfront, which was littered with debris from the landslide. The ages of the children were not released.
The slide — estimated to be about 450 feet wide — occurred at about 9 p.m. Monday during a significant rain- and windstorm near Wrangell, an island community of 2,000 residents some 155 miles south of Juneau.
Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel said at a news briefing that three adults and two children were missing and that a girl was found dead during a quick search Monday night. Authorities said they did not immediately know the girl’s age.
The slide scoured the mountainside, leaving a scar of barren earth from near the top of the peak down to the ocean, wiping out large evergreen trees and leaving what appeared to be remnants of homes in its wake. One of the three homes that was struck was unoccupied, McDaniel said.
A geologist from the state transportation department was flown in from Juneau, the state capital, and conducted a preliminary assessment, clearing some areas of the debris field for ground searches to begin.
The landslide buried a highway and cut off access and power to approximately 75 homes. Boats evacuated residents from the cut-off area to the unaffected part of town, according to the state emergency management office.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy issued a disaster declaration for Wrangell, saying he and his wife were praying for all those affected.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The number of people killed when an illegal gold mine collapsed in Suriname rose to 14 on Tuesday, with seven others missing in what is considered the South American country’s worst mining accident.
Rescue crews combed through mounds of earth in hopes of finding survivors as the government launched an investigation into the deadly incident that occurred Monday in the country’s remote southern region.
President Chandrikapersad Santokhi said the incident occurred in an area where a gold vein was previously discovered, attracting large groups of illegal miners.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department on Monday unveiled its first night-flying firefighting helicopter.
The delivery of the $15.7 million aircraft marks a huge leap forward. As of now, only the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department flies firefighting helicopters at night.
At Gillespie Field in El Cajon, authorities on Monday unveiled that helicopter and a second, smaller $5.5 million copter to be used for patrol.
The addition of the Bell 412EPX, a twin-engine aircraft, will boost firefighting and rescue resources. With two engines, it meets the safety requirements to be flown on night missions to drop water on fires.
The Sheriff’s Department flight crew, which teams with a Cal Fire crew, must undergo several months of intense training — it takes a lot more than donning night-vision goggles to handle water drops after dark.
The county bought three firefighting helicopters after the deadly 2003 Cedar fire swept through the region — a disaster that led officials to prioritize getting more firefighting air assets in the region.
Aside from the need to fly at night, it was simply just time for the department to get a new helicopter with firefighting capability, Sheriff Kelly Martinez said in a phone call Monday. All three Bell 205s in the current fleet were more than 50 years old. Finding replacement parts had become so tough, crew members in search of spare parts only half-jokingly talked about calling museums.
Once the Sheriff’s Department pilots are trained on the new firefighting helicopter, they hope to retire one Bell 205 from flying. But even then, it’s not going anywhere. It’s got all those parts.
The department also welcomed a new patrol helicopter, a Bell 407GXi. It will be used to track suspects or go on search and rescue missions.
“We’ve got a full complement now of patrol helicopters, and that should last us a long time,” Martinez said. “It’s a great investment in the future.”
Martinez thanked county Supervisor Joel Anderson, whose district covers the backcountry where wildfire threat looms, with pushing to get the new helicopters in the Sheriff’s Department fleet.
Speaking of law enforcement helicopters, for those who hear the Sheriff’s Department helicopters issuing announcements that are hard to decipher, there is an easy way to find out what they are saying. Call or text “hello” to (858) 866-4356. The messages will go straight to your phone.
(Teri Figueroa, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The world’s nations are taking more concrete steps to tackle climate change than ever before, but they are still very far from making the sweeping changes needed to keep global temperatures at relatively safe levels, according to a United Nations report issued Monday.
The annual assessment, known as the Emissions Gap Report, tracks the gulf between national ambitions to fight global warming and what scientists say is needed to stave off catastrophe. That gulf has shrunk slightly over the past year, but it remains large.
At least 149 countries have updated their pledges under the 2015 Paris climate agreement to curb their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, the report found. Nine countries did so this year, including Egypt, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay.
If every country were to follow through on its stated plans (a big if), then global greenhouse gas emissions would be 2 percent to 9 percent lower at the end of the decade than they are today.
But that would put Earth on track to heat up roughly 2.5 to 2.9 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels by the century’s end, the report found. With every fraction of a degree of warming, the risks from deadly heat waves, wildfires, droughts, storms and species extinctions increase significantly, scientists have said.
Under the Paris Agreement, world leaders vowed to hold global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in order to limit the risks from climate catastrophes. The planet has already warmed roughly 1.2 degrees Celsius.
Current policies don’t come close to meeting those goals, the report found. To stay below 2 degrees Celsius, global emissions would need to fall roughly 29 percent between now and 2030. To stay at 1.5 degrees, global emissions would need to fall about 43 percent.
The report comes as global temperatures are set to reach the highest levels in recorded history this year. Earth will keep getting hotter and temperature records will keep getting shattered, scientists say, until countries reduce their emissions down to nearly zero.
Next week, representatives from nearly 200 countries will converge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as part of a U.N. climate summit known as COP28.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Iceland is fortifying a power plant that supplies electricity and hot water to about 30,000 people and is continuing to allow the residents of the evacuated town most at risk to go in one by one and gather personal belongings as the country waits for a possible volcanic eruption.
The work on the power plant is a preventive measure to protect Iceland’s infrastructure and people are working on it 24 hours a day, said Jon Phor Viglundsson, a spokesperson for Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management.
To fortify the entire plant would take about 30 days, Viglundsson said. It’s unclear how much of the plant has been protected already, but “it is progressing,” he added.
The plant is a “massive infrastructure that we need to protect at all cost,” Viglundsson said.
If and when a volcanic eruption may happen is unclear and hard to predict.
Since late October, tens of thousands of earthquakes have been reported in the Reykjanes Peninsula, in the southwestern part of the country. At one point there were as many as 1,400 in a single 24-hour period, and many hundreds more over the last few days. A 9-mile-long underground river of magma is moving under Grindavik, the evacuated town, and out to the ocean.
This week, officials said the intensity of the seismic activity had decreased a bit, but they have continued to warn of a possible eruption. The seismic activity along the underground magma has continued.
As of Friday, the website of the Icelandic Met Office, the country’s weather service, continued to warn that there was a “significant likelihood of a volcanic eruption in the coming days,” as it has done for multiple days.
“We have to wait,” Viglundsson said. “There’s nothing else we can do.”
While the eruption could be big, it is a highly localized event, officials say. Last Saturday, officials evacuated the more than 3,000 residents of Grindavik, a small fishing town about 30 miles south of Reykjavik. Since then, residents have slowly been allowed back to gather some of their personal possessions with help from emergency workers accompanying them.
“It’s a precarious area to be in,” Viglundsson said.
No other towns have been evacuated, and the area around Grindavik doesn’t have any farms or smaller villages. But the popular geothermal spa the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik has closed its doors until the end of the month as a precaution for a possible eruption and because of the disruption caused by the many earthquakes.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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A powerful undersea earthquake shook the southern Philippines on Friday, causing ceilings in shopping malls to plunge to the ground as shoppers screamed.
The Office of Civil Defense said it was investigating a report of one death.
The magnitude 6.7 quake was located 16 miles from Burias at the southern tip of the Philippines, the United States Geological Survey said. It was centered at a depth of 48 miles, it said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The United States and China, the world’s two largest climate polluters, have agreed to jointly tackle global warming by ramping up wind, solar and other renewable energy with the goal of displacing fossil fuels.
The announcement came as President Joe Biden prepared to meet Wednesday with President Xi Jinping of China for their first face-to-face discussion in a year.
The statements of cooperation released separately by the United States and China on Tuesday do not include a promise by China to phase out its heavy use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, or to stop permitting and building new coal plants. That has been a sticking point for the United States in months of discussions with Beijing on climate change.
But both countries agreed to “pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030.” That growth should reach levels high enough “so as to accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation,” the agreement says. Both countries anticipate “meaningful absolute power sector emission reduction” in this decade, it says. That appears to be the first time China has agreed to specific emissions targets in any part of its economy.
The agreement comes two weeks before representatives from nearly 200 countries converge in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, as part of the United Nations climate talks known as COP28. The United States and China have an outsize role to play there as nations debate whether to phase out fossil fuels.
“This lays the foundation for the negotiations in Dubai,” said David Sandalow, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations who is now a fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. “It sends a strong signal to other countries that this language works, and more broadly that differences can be overcome.”
This month, John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, met with his Chinese counterpart, Xie Zhenhua, at the Sunnylands estate in California to lay the groundwork for the agreement announced late Tuesday.
“The United States and China recognize that the climate crisis has increasingly affected countries around the world,” the Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis says.
“Both countries stress the importance of COP28 in responding meaningfully to the climate crisis during this critical decade and beyond” and pledge in the statement “to rise up to one of the greatest challenges of our time for present and future generations of humankind.”
As part of the deal, China agreed to set reduction targets for all greenhouse gas emissions. That is significant because the current Chinese climate goal addresses only carbon dioxide, leaving out methane, nitrous oxide and other gases that are acting as a blanket around the planet.
Methane spews from oil and gas operations as well as coal mining and can be 80 times as potent as a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide in the short term. Greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide account for one-fifth of China’s emissions. Methane makes up about half of that, and other gases like hydrofluorocarbons used in refrigeration and nitrous oxide account for the rest.
The Chinese government released a long-awaited blueprint last week for addressing methane, but analysts dismissed it as toothless because it lacked targets for emissions reductions.
The Sunnylands agreement also lacks targets but says the two countries will work together to set them.
China has refused to join the Global Methane Pledge, an agreement among more than 150 nations, led by the United States and Europe, that promises to collectively reduce emissions 30 percent by 2030.
The United States and China also agreed that in the next set of climate pledges — which nations are supposed to put forward in 2025 — China will set emissions reduction targets across its economy. Its current pledge calls for carbon dioxide emissions to peak before 2030 but does not specify how high they might go before the curve begins to bend or specify by how much it might slash emissions.
Xi has also pledged that China will become carbon neutral by 2060, meaning it will produce no more carbon emissions than it can offset.
Manish Bapna, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, praised the U.S.-China agreement and called it “a foundation of ambition” before the U.N. climate summit in Dubai.
“This sends a powerful message of cooperation on the existential challenge of our time,” Bapna said. “What’s important now is that both countries make good on today’s pledge.”
When it comes to climate change, no relationship is as important as the one between the United States and China.
The United States, the biggest climate polluter in history, and China, the current largest polluter, together account for 38 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases.
That means the willingness of the two countries to urgently slash emissions will essentially determine whether nations can limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
That’s the threshold beyond which scientists say increasingly severe wildfires, floods, heat and drought will outpace humanity’s ability to adapt. The planet has already warmed 1.2 degrees.
But neither the United States nor China will act rapidly unless the other does. Both nations are taking steps to tackle emissions, but hard-liners in each country argue the other is not doing enough, and each country has cast the other’s climate promises as insincere.
While the United States has reduced its emissions, Chinese officials have said the American goal of cutting its pollution at least 50 percent from 2005 levels by the end of this decade is inadequate, and some officials have questioned whether the United States can even meet it.
(Lisa Friedman, NEW YORK TIMES)
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Despite the clear human and environmental toll of global warming, countries are taking only “baby steps” to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, a senior U.N. official said, summarizing a new U.N. report card on the promises made by governments so far.
The U.N. findings, published Tuesday, are the latest of several assessments that paint a dire picture in which the countries aren’t doing nearly enough to keep global warming within relatively safe levels.
“Today’s report shows that governments combined are taking baby steps to avert the climate crisis,” said Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the U.N. climate change agency. “And it shows why governments must make bold strides forward.”
Notably, a separate study from researchers in Saudi Arabia found that the country could face an “existential crisis” — threatening food and water supplies, along with the health of religious pilgrims during the Hajj — if global average temperatures rise by 3 degrees Celsius, or 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with preindustrial times. That’s roughly the level of warming that is projected if every country meets its climate goals.
Saudi Arabia is of course one of the world’s biggest oil producers, and it is the burning of oil and other fossil fuels that’s warming the planet by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“In this critical juncture,” the October report said, “Saudi Arabia faces a momentous choice: To adapt and innovate in the face of climate adversity, or suffer the severe and potentially irrevocable consequences of inaction.”
The 133-page study was written by researchers at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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LUCKNOW, India - Millions of Indians celebrated Diwali on Sunday with a Guinness World Record number of bright earthen oil lamps as concerns about air pollution soared in the South Asian country.
Across the country, dazzling multicolored lights decked homes and streets as devotees celebrated the annual Hindu festival of light symbolizing the victory of light over darkness.
But the spectacular and much-awaited massive lighting of the oil lamps took place — as usual —at Saryu River, in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state, the birthplace of their most revered deity, the god Ram.
At dusk on Saturday, devotees lit over 2.22 million lamps and kept them burning for 45 minutes as Hindu religious hymns filled the air at the banks of the river, setting a world record. Last year, over 1.5 million earthen lamps were lit.
After counting the lamps, Guinness Book of World Records representatives presented a record certificate to the state’s top elected official, Yogi Adityanath.
Over 24,000 volunteers, mostly college students, helped prepare for the record, said Pratibha Goyal, vice chancellor of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, in Ayodhya.
Diwali, a national holiday across India, is celebrated by socializing and exchanging gifts with family and friends. Many light earthen oil lamps or candles, and fireworks are set off as part of the celebrations. In the evening, a special prayer is dedicated to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who is believed to bring luck and prosperity.
Over the weekend, authorities ran extra trains to accommodate the huge numbers trying to reach their hometowns to join family celebrations.
The festival came as worries about air quality in India rose. A “hazardous” 400-500 level was recorded on the air quality index last week, more than 10 times the global safety threshold, which can cause acute and chronic bronchitis and asthma attacks. But on Saturday, unexpected rain and a strong wind improved the levels to 220, according to the government-run Central Pollution Control Board.
The air pollution level were expected to soar again after the celebrations ended Sunday night because of the fireworks used.
Last week, officials in New Delhi shut down primary schools and banned polluting vehicles and construction work in an attempt to reduce the worst haze and smog of the season, which has posed respiratory problems for people and enveloped monuments and high-rise buildings in and around India’s capital.
Authorities deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the haze, and many people used masks to escape the air pollution.
New Delhi tops the list almost every year among the many Indian cities with poor air quality. Some Indian states have banned the sale of fireworks and imposed other restrictions to stem the pollution.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MOGADISHU, Somalia - Floods caused by torrential rainfall have killed at least 31 people in various parts of Somalia, authorities said Sunday.
Since October, floods have displaced nearly half a million people and disrupted the lives of over 1.2 million people, Minister of Information Daud Aweis told reporters in the capital Mogadishu. They have also caused extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, notably in the Gedo region of southern Somalia, he said.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, which has given $25 million to help mitigate the impact of flooding, warned in a statement Thursday of “a flood event of a magnitude statistically likely only once in 100 years, with significant anticipated humanitarian impacts.”
The lives of some 1.6 million people in Somalia could be disrupted by floods during the rainy season that lasts until December, with 1.5 million hectares of farmland potentially being destroyed, OCHA said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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HONOLULU, HI - A wildfire burning in a remote Hawaii rainforest is underscoring a new reality for the normally lush island state just a few months after a devastating blaze on a neighboring island leveled an entire town and killed at least 99 people.
No one was injured and no homes burned in the latest fire, which scorched mountain ridges on Oahu, but the flames wiped out irreplaceable native forestland that’s home to nearly two dozen fragile species. And overall, the ingredients are the same as they were in Maui’s historic town of Lahaina: severe drought fueled by climate change is creating fire in Hawaii where it has almost never been before.
“It was really beautiful native forest,” said JC Watson, the manager of the Koolau Mountains Watershed Partnership, which helps take care of the land. He recalled it had uluhe fern, which often dominate Hawaii rainforests, and koa trees whose wood has traditionally been used to make canoes, surfboards and ukuleles.
“It’s not a full-on clean burn, but it is pretty moonscape-looking out there,” Watson said.
The fact that this fire was on Oahu’s wetter, windward side is a “red flag to all of us that there is change afoot,” said Sam ’Ohu Gon III, senior scientist and cultural adviser at The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii.
The fire mostly burned inside the Oahu Forest National Wildlife Refuge, which is home to 22 species listed as endangered or threatened by the U.S. government. They include iiwi and elepaio birds, a tree snail called pupu kani oe and the Hawaiian hoary bat, also known as opeapea. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages the refuge, does not know yet what plants or wildlife may have been damaged or harmed by the fire, spokesperson Kristen Oleyte-Velasco said.
The fire incinerated 2.5 square miles since first being spotted on Oct. 30 and was 90 percent contained as of Friday. Officials were investigating the cause of the blaze roughly 20 miles north of Honolulu.
The flames left gaping, dark bald spots amid a blanket of thick green where the fire did not burn. The skeletons of blackened trees poked from the charred landscape.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A 5.0 magnitude earthquake struck the northwest Dominican Republic on Friday near the border with Haiti.
The temblor occurred at a depth of 12 miles just west-northwest of Las Matas de Santa Cruz, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Officials in the Dominican Republic said the quake was felt in the border town of Montecristi all the way south to the capital of Santo Domingo.
It was the strongest earthquake to hit the country this year, Dominican geologist Osiris de León said.
Jenrry Castro, mayor of the northwest town of Villa Vazquez, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that minor damage was reported in two schools. Products also fell off supermarket shelves in the area, he said, adding that crews were inspecting all schools and municipal buildings in the town.
The quake occurred in an area that has become a flashpoint in an ongoing border dispute between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
No immediate damage or injuries were reported in Haiti.
The island of Hispaniola shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic sits atop the Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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An undersea volcano erupted off Japan three weeks ago, providing a rare view of the birth of a tiny new island, but experts say it may not last very long.
The unnamed undersea volcano, located about half a mile off the southern coast of Iwo Jima, which Japan calls Ioto, started its latest series of eruptions on Oct. 21.
Within 10 days, volcanic ash and rocks piled up on the shallow seabed, its tip rising above the sea surface. By early November, it became a new island about 328 feet in diameter and as high as 66 feet above the sea, according to Yuji Usui, an analyst in the Japan Meteorological Agency's volcanic division.
Volcanic activity at the site has since subsided, and the newly formed island has somewhat shrunk because its “crumbly” formation is easily washed away by waves, Usui said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Toxic gray smog has sickened tens of thousands of people in Pakistan’s cultural capital of Lahore, forcing authorities to shut schools, markets and parks for four days, officials said Thursday.
The decision came after the country's second-largest city, with a population of 11 million, was repeatedly ranked the world’s most polluted city. Doctors advised people to wear face masks and stay at home. Residents said many people were coughing and having breathing problems.
On Thursday, the concentration of PM 2.5, or tiny particulate matter, in the air approached 450, considered hazardous. Experts say the burning of crop residue at the start of the winter wheat-planting season is a key cause of the pollution.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Wildfires caused by drought, warmer-than-normal temperatures and, in a few cases, possibly arson have been ablaze for days in several Southern states. The threat has led officials to enact burn bans and to stop issuing safe-burn permits.
November is the peak month of the fire season across the country, but certain areas, including parts of the Southeast, are expected to be at an “above-normal” risk, said the National Interagency Fire Center.
While the fires in Mississippi have largely been contained, firefighters in Virginia and elsewhere are still working to put out the flames over large chunks of their territories.
Virginia
Extremely dry conditions and high winds were feeding the wildfires in Virginia, spurring Gov. Glenn Youngkin to issue a state of emergency that went into effect Monday and was to remain active for 30 days.
Youngkin said officials were concerned about two fires in particular: the Quaker Run fire in Madison County and the Tuggles Gap fire in Patrick County.
The Quaker Run fire had burned about 2,800 acres of private, state and federal lands by Tuesday morning, according to the National Park Service. Around 670 of those acres were in Shenandoah National Park, where officials imposed a fire ban, effective Tuesday.
North Carolina
Two homes and an outbuilding were destroyed by the Poplar Drive fire in Henderson County, which has spread to more than 400 acres from 175 acres since Saturday. Just 5 percent of the fire had been contained by Monday, and officials were still investigating the cause.
Two other fires remained active in the state, officials said: the Collett Ridge fire in Cherokee County and the East Fork fire in Jackson County.
Officials have banned open burning in North Carolina and canceled burning permits in 14 counties because of the threat of wildfires stemming from severe drought.
Kentucky
There were 61 active fires in Kentucky on Tuesday, burning through an estimated 8,800 acres, said John Mura, a spokesperson for the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.
Many of the fires had been burning for days, but they escalated over the weekend, Mura said. The fires have been concentrated in the eastern and southeastern parts of the state.
(Lola Fadulu, NEW YORK TIMES)
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Paradise, CA - On the day Paradise burned, Gwen Nordgren stopped her car just long enough to rescue a young woman escaping by foot.
By that time on Nov. 8, 2018, the sky was black even though the sun had been up for hours. Both sides of the street were on fire as Nordgren grabbed the woman’s hand.
“Have you lived a good life?” she asked. The woman said she had.
“So have I,” said Nordgren, the president of the Paradise Lutheran Church council. “We’re going to say the ‘Our Father’ and we’re going to drive like hell.”
Nordgren has told that story countless times in the five years since the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history nearly erased a quiet community in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
Five years later, some — like Nordgren — are returning to Paradise to help make something new. Others, like Shari Bernacette, are still haunted by their memories — including witnessing the flames consume a couple fleeing, one pushing the other in a wheelchair.
“We still can’t sleep well. We toss and turn all night,” said Bernacette, who moved with her husband to Yuma, Ariz., to escape the risk of future wildfires. The couple lives in a used RV purchased with their insurance money. “We will never live amongst the trees again.”
Today, Paradise has a population of just under 10,000, or less than half of the 26,000 people who lived there before the blaze. The Camp fire destroyed 11,000 homes, which amounted to 90 percent of the town’s structures. So far 2,500 homes have been rebuilt.
Paradise Mayor Greg Bolin says that by 2025 all of the town’s overhead power lines will be buried underground. By 2026, he says all public roads will be repaved.
“I can see what it’s going to look like. I know how nice it is going to be when it’s done,” said Bolin, who also owns Trilogy Construction Inc., one of the town’s main construction companies.
Wildfires have always been a part of life in California, but they are getting more severe as climate change has caused hotter, drier summers. Seven of the state’s top 10 most destructive fires happened in the past decade. Before the Camp fire killed 85 people, the state’s deadliest was a 1933 blaze that killed 29.
But the Camp fire, the official name of the Paradise fire, marked a turning point.
Now, utility companies routinely shut off power during wind storms to prevent fires from starting. Major property insurance companies have raised homeowners’ rates, dropped coverage for many in wildfire-prone areas, or stopped writing new policies. Pacific Gas & Electric pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter and filed for bankruptcy.
Just when it seemed safe to think that what happened in Paradise was a once-in-a-lifetime fire, it happened again in Maui, Hawaii. April Kelly, who grew up in Paradise and lived in Maui for 16 years, lost both of her hometowns.
“I can’t believe I’m going through this a second time,” she said.
Many people haven’t returned to Paradise, either due to fear of another wildfire or for financial reasons. Donna Hooton and her husband lived in one of the mobile home parks destroyed by the fire. The Hootons live off of Social Security and said they can’t afford to move back to Paradise. They now live an hour away, in a small mobile home.
“We wish we could go home but home is not there anymore,” Hooton said.
That means if the town is to grow, it needs new people. But newcomers face a daunting question: How do you assimilate into a community defined by a shared tragedy?
Adam Thompson, who moved to the Paradise area in 2021, said his family was quickly accepted. His kids are enrolled in school. They play Little League baseball and perform in the theater.
“There’s a humility and a resilience here that I don’t think would be in a town like this had they not gone through the fire,” he said.
Before the fire, Paradise was viewed as a retirement community. But that’s changing. The Paradise Little League has had so much interest it’s warned parents that kids may be turned away next year.
The town’s rebirth has amazed Don Criswell, a Paradise native who moved back to the area in 1998. Wildfires burned his property in 2008 and again in 2018. Both times he stayed to fight the fires himself.
The Paradise of his memory has been erased. Personal landmarks — the house he grew up in, his elementary school — are gone. Most of his childhood friends and neighbors have since moved away.
But he hasn’t gone anywhere. Instead, he has planted trees and a garden. He donates vegetables to a free community lunch put on by his church. He even plays the piano for people who come to eat.
“I’m so sorry that it (the fire) happened. There’s nothing I can do about that,” he said. “I can try to make it a good, fun and beautiful place to live again. I think we’re doing that.”
(Adam Beam & Olga R. Rodriguez, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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At least 400,000 customers in Brazil’s biggest city still had no electricity Monday, three days after a violent storm plunged millions into darkness around Sao Paulo, the power distribution company Enel said.
The powerful storm, with winds of up to 60 mph, caused at least seven deaths, authorities said, and uprooted many large trees, some of which fell on power lines, blacking out entire neighborhoods.
At one point on Friday, 4.2 million residents had no power, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo reported.
In some apartment buildings, condo associations delivered bottles of drinking water to older residents.
José Eraudo Júnior, who is the administrator of a 15-floor building in Sao Paulo’s Butanta neighborhood that did not get its power back until Monday evening, said electricity went out for all 430 apartments on Friday night.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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KATMANDU, Nepal - Survivors of an earthquake that flattened villages in Nepal’s northwest mountains searched through the debris of their collapsed homes for any salvageable belongings Monday as aid trickled into the remote area.
The relatively shallow 5.6 temblor Friday killed 157 people, injured scores and left thousands homeless when it struck just before midnight, unleashing landslides and collapsing homes in an area of steep slopes centered around the district of Jajarkot.
“It felt like the world had collapsed and I was not sure if anyone had even survived and would be able to help,” said Mina Bika, who was sleeping with her family when the ceiling of their home fell and buried them.
Her husband was badly injured and taken to a hospital in Surkhet while she and the couple’s two sons were only slightly hurt.
Authorities pressed forward Monday with efforts to bring food, tents, medicine and other supplies to the remote villages, many reachable only by foot. Roads also were blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake. Soldiers could be seen trying to clear blocked roads.
Later in the afternoon, the ground shook again with a magnitude 5.3 aftershock that sent people scrambling for safety.
Rescue and search teams said the first part of their mission — to rescue survivors, get the injured to treatment and search for bodies — was over.
“Now we are working on the second phase of our work to distribute relief material, get aid to the villagers, and at the same time we are collecting details about the damages,” government official Harish Chandra Sharma said Monday.
Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Center in Kathmandu said that along with the 157 killed, at least 256 people were injured and 3,891 houses were damaged.
In Chepare, villagers were going through piles of rocks and logs that used to be their homes Monday, looking for anything they could salvage.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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KATMANDU, Nepal -
Officials in Nepal were still assessing the extent of the damage on Sunday from the earthquake that struck the country’s west two nights earlier, leaving at least 150 people dead and thousands either homeless or afraid to sleep indoors.
But scientists were already renewing clear warnings that this Himalayan nation, which sits on the fault lines of two major tectonic plates, must do far more to survive such shocks and prepare for the gathering risk of a much bigger quake.
An earthquake in Nepal’s east in 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people, and the toll of Friday’s temblor, which was categorized as medium in intensity, suggested the country is a long way behind in its preparations.
“You cannot move the population; the entire country is seismic, the entire Nepal is seismic,” said Amod Mani Dixit, the director of the National Society for Earthquake Technology in Kathmandu, the capital. “But can we improve the building stock? The answer is yes we can, and we have demonstrated in many parts of the world, including in Nepal, that we can.”
Nepal, a poor nation of about 30 million people, is also suffering significantly from the effects of climate change, with melting glaciers causing flooding and affecting the availability of water for agriculture.
The earthquake on Friday, which the U.S. Geological Survey measured at magnitude 5.6 and Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center at 6.4, struck remote, hilly areas in Nepal’s west that scientists had identified as particularly vulnerable. The region had accumulated intense strain seismically since previous quakes, they said, and had not matched the safety measures put in place in the east since 2015.
On Sunday, as efforts shifted from search and rescue to relief and delivery of aid, officials estimated that at least 5,000 homes had been destroyed or damaged.
In villages across two of the worst-hit districts, Jajarkot and Rukum West, residents spent a second night under the open sky because their homes had been flattened or so badly affected that they feared an aftershock could trap them beneath rubble.
In Bheri Municipality, in Jajarkot, most of the mud and brick homes had collapsed, said Krishna Jung Shah, a resident. Electricity poles were destroyed, and the darkness made rescues difficult. Many residents moved to the site of the local revenue office, where dozens of tents were set up.
Shah, whose own family had slept outside with sheets borrowed from a neighbor, said villagers had known they were at risk: Earlier, smaller quakes in the area had caused cracks in older buildings. But they felt they had no options.
“We have nowhere to move to,” he said.
Residents complained that aid was reaching them slowly. Many of the affected areas are far-flung or have difficult terrain, and Nepal has insisted that aid organizations coordinate all their efforts with the government in advance, seeking to avoid duplication at the risk of additional delay.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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U.S. regulators say they will review the use of a chemical found in almost every tire after a petition from West Coast Native American tribes that want it banned because it kills salmon as they return from the ocean to their natal streams to spawn.
The Yurok tribe in California and the Port Gamble S’Klallam and Puyallup tribes in Washington asked the Environmental Protection Agency to prohibit the rubber preservative 6PPD earlier this year, saying it kills fish — especially coho salmon — when rains wash it from roadways into rivers. Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut also wrote the EPA, citing the chemical’s “unreasonable threat” to their waters and fisheries.
The agency’s decision to grant the petition last week is the start of a long regulatory process that could see the chemical banned. Tire manufacturers are already looking for an alternative that still meets federal safety requirements.
“We could not sit idle while 6PPD kills the fish that sustain us,” Joseph L. James, chairperson of the Yurok Tribe, told The Associated Press. “This lethal toxin has no business in any salmon-bearing watershed.”
6PPD has been used as a rubber preservative in tires for 60 years. It is also found in footwear, synthetic turf and playground equipment.
As tires wear, tiny particles of rubber are left behind on roads and parking lots. The chemical breaks down into a byproduct, 6PPD-quinone, that is deadly to salmon, steelhead trout and other aquatic wildlife. Coho appear to be especially sensitive; it can kill them within hours, the tribes argued.
The salmon are important to the diet and culture of Pacific Northwest and California tribes, which have fought for decades to protect the dwindling fish from climate change, pollution, development and dams that block their way to spawning grounds.
The chemical’s effect on coho was noted in 2020 by scientists in Washington state, who were studying why coho populations that had been restored in the Puget Sound years earlier were struggling.
“This is a significant first step in regulating what has been a devastating chemical in the environment for decades,” said Elizabeth Forsyth, an attorney for Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that represents the tribes.
She called it “one of the biggest environmental issues that the world hasn’t known about.”
The U.S. Tire Manufacturers Association said in a statement that an analysis is under way to identify alternatives to 6PPD that can meet federal safety standards, though none has yet been found.
“Any premature prohibition on the use of 6PPD in tires would be detrimental to public safety and the national economy,” the statement said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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NEW DELHI, India - New Delhi’s government shut primary schools and banned polluting vehicles and construction work in an attempt to reduce the worst haze and smog of the season, which has posed respiratory problems for people and enveloped monuments and high-rise buildings in and around India’s capital.
Authorities deployed water sprinklers and anti-smog guns to control the haze, and many people used masks to escape the air pollution. The city government announced a fine of 20,000 rupees ($240) for drivers found using gasoline and diesel cars, buses and trucks that create smog, typically models at least 10 to 15 years old.
The air quality index exceeded the 400 mark for tiny particulate matter, a level considered “severe” and more than 10 times the global safety threshold, according to the state-run Central Pollution Control Board. It can cause acute and chronic bronchitis and asthma attacks.
Rajneesh Kapoor, a lung specialist, advised people to wear masks and avoid morning walks and jogging. “This is a trigger for all types of respiratory infections and flu. It can cause uncontrollable blood pressure and diabetic problems,” he said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MILAN, Italy - Record-breaking rain produced floods in a vast swath of Italy’s Tuscany region as Storm Ciarán pushed into the country overnight, trapping residents in their homes, inundating hospitals and overturning cars. At least six people in Italy and one person in Albania were killed on Friday, bringing the storm’s death toll to 14 across Europe this week.
Throughout the day, the storm brought more death and destruction as it moved eastward across the continent. In Albania, police said a motorist died when he lost control while driving a car, which slid and hit barriers. Many roads in the country were flooded, including in the capital, Tirana.
Huge waves pummeled the Adriatic shores of the Balkans, and strong winds uprooted trees and ripped off roofs. Ferries connecting Croatia’s islands with the coastline were halted.
Italian Civil Protection authorities said that nearly 8 inches of rain fell in a three-hour period, from the coastal city of Livorno to the inland valley of Mugello, and caused riverbanks to overflow. Video showed at least a dozen cars getting swept away down a flooded road.
Tuscany Gov. Eugenio Giani said that six people died in the storm, which dumped an amount of rainfall not recorded in the last 100 years.
“There was a wave of water bombs without precedence,” Giani told Italian news channel Sky TG24.
Climate scientists say human-induced climate change has led to heavier rainfall during storms like Ciarán, often resulting in more severe damage.
“If the conditions are different than 20 years ago, it is obvious to everyone,” Nello Musumeci, the government’s minister for civil protection, told Sky TG24, noting that weather systems in Italy have become more tropical in nature.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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KATHMANDU, Nepal - Helicopters and ground troops rushed to help people hurt in a strong earthquake that shook northwestern Nepal districts just before midnight Friday, killing at least 128 people and injuring hundreds more, officials said today.
Authorities said the death toll was expected to rise, noting that communications were cut off with many places.
As day broke, rescue helicopters flew into the region to help out and security forces on the ground were digging out the injured and dead from the rubble, Nepal police spokesperson Kuber Kadayat said. Troops were also clearing roads and mountain trails that were blocked by landslides triggered by the earthquake. Helicopters flew in medical workers and medicines to the hospitals there.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal also flew in on a helicopter with a team of doctors.
Security officials worked with villagers throughout the night in the darkness to pull the dead and injured from fallen houses.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake, which was centered in the Jajarkot district, had a preliminary magnitude of 5.6. The quake hit when many people already were asleep in their homes, and was felt in India’s capital, New Delhi, more than 500 miles away.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Global warming may be happening more quickly than previously thought, according to a new study by a group of researchers including former NASA scientist James Hansen, whose testimony before Congress 35 years ago helped raise broad awareness of climate change.
The study warns that the planet could exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, of warming this decade, compared with the average temperature in preindustrial days, and that the world will warm by 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. When countries signed the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015 to collectively fight climate change, they agreed to try to limit global warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and aim for 1.5 degrees.
“The 1.5-degree limit is deader than a doornail,” said Hansen, now the director of the Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions Program at Columbia University, during a news conference on Thursday. The 2 degrees goal could still be met, he said, but only with concerted action to stop using fossil fuels and at a pace far quicker than current plans.
The world has warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius so far and is already experiencing worsening heat waves, wildfires, storms, biodiversity loss and other consequences of climate change.
Past the Paris Agreement temperature goals, which reflect the results of international diplomacy rather than exact scientific bench marks, the effects will get significantly worse and veer into territory with greater extremes and unknowns.
Experts generally don’t quibble over the finding that the planet will soon pass 1.5 degrees of warming. A separate study published Monday by British and Austrian scientists similarly found that at our current rate of burning fossil fuels, the world is likely to pass 1.5 degrees of warming within six years.
“I think everyone agrees that 1.5 degrees is in the rear-view mirror at this point,” said Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist and senior fellow at the Breakthrough Institute in California.
What Hausfather and others disagree with is the Hansen team’s estimate of just how sensitive the Earth’s climate is to greenhouse gases, and accordingly, how soon the world might pass 2 degrees of warming.
The new study analyzed reconstructed temperatures and carbon dioxide levels over the past 66 million years, using evidence from other recent papers, to calculate a numerical relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature. Global warming is being driven by the burning of fossil fuels, which releases greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, where it traps the sun’s heat, warming the planet.
The researchers found that if the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is doubled, the planet will warm by somewhere between 3.6 and 5 degrees Celsius.
“That is very much on the high end of the range of estimates that are in the academic literature today,” Hausfather said.
Most experts agree that while the 1.5 degree goal has already been missed, 2 degrees is still salvageable — but not without much more action than countries are currently taking.
“We’re also going to pass 2 degrees. That’s clear, unless we take action to reduce the energy imbalance,” Hansen said. “The first thing we must do is reduce emissions as fast as possible.”
(Delger Erdenesanaa, NEW YORK TIMES)
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PARIS, France - Record-breaking winds in France and across much of western Europe left at least seven people dead and injured others as Storm Ciarán swept through the continent Thursday. The storm devastated homes, caused travel mayhem and cut power to a vast number of people.
Winds of more than 118 mph slammed the northern tip of France’s Atlantic coast, uprooting trees and blowing out windows. Huge waves slammed into French ports and shorelines, as wind flattened street signs and ripped off roofing. Felled trees blocked roads around western France.
A truck driver was killed when his vehicle was hit by a tree in northern France’s inland Aisne region, Transport Minister Clement Beaune said. Meanwhile, a 70-year-old man in the port city of Le Havre, Normandy, died in a fall from his balcony. Local media outlet FranceBleu quoted a prosecutor as saying it appeared the man was closing his shutters against the wind when he fell. At least 16 people were injured in France, seven of them emergency workers.
About 1.2 million French households lost power, electrical utility Enedis said in a statement. That includes about half of the homes in Brittany, the Atlantic peninsula hardest hit by Ciarán. Enedis said it would deploy 3,000 workers to restore power when conditions allowed.
The wind reached up to around nearly 100 mph on the Normandy coast and up to around 90 mph inland. Fishing crews put their livelihoods on hold and stayed ashore.
Local authorities closed forests, parks and beachfronts in some regions.
Much of Spain was battered by heavy rains and gale-force winds, city parks were closed, and several trains and flights were canceled. Emergency services in Madrid said a woman died after a tree fell on her. Three other people were slightly injured in the incident on a city center street.
A storm warning was issued for the North Sea coast in Germany, and a warning of high winds was issued for part of the Baltic Sea coast. Weather alerts were also issued for much of Slovenia as the storm advanced, and the Adriatic port of Koper was closed to traffic.
Thousands were also without power in the United Kingdom. Sharp gusts blew roofs off buildings and toppled trees. Some had to evacuate their homes as Ciarán pummeled the south of England.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Huge ash columns erupted from Eurasia’s tallest active volcano Wednesday, forcing authorities to close schools in two towns on Russia’s sparsely populated Kamchatka Peninsula.
The eruptions from the Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano sent ash as high as 8 miles above sea level, officials said.
There were no reports of injuries, but officials ordered schools in Ust-Kamchatsk and Klyuchy closed as a precaution. Each town has a population of about 5,000.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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HONOLULU, HI - An officer sprinted from house to house in the historic town of Lahaina, Hawaii, alerting people to the approaching inferno. Another coughed and swore as he drove through thick smoke past burning buildings with people he rescued crammed in the back seat. With no ambulance available, one officer offered to bring a severely burned man to a hospital.
While police frantically tried to save people from what would be the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, they also faced another challenge: keeping people from heading back toward the flames, newly released video from body cameras shows.
“No more waiting! Too much people have died already!” one frustrated officer shouted at a line of stopped cars. “Turn around and get out of Lahaina! Stop being stubborn and get out of Lahaina now!”
The roughly 20 hours of video depict the actions of Maui police officers on Aug. 8, when strong winds from a hurricane passing far to the south drove flames that quickly leveled Lahaina and killed at least 99 people. Authorities initially released 16 minutes of clips during a news conference Monday, before providing the rest to The Associated Press in response to a public records request.
The video helps provide a fuller picture of how the disaster unfolded and officers’ efforts to respond.
It includes chaotic footage of officers north and south of town trying to block people — residents desperate to learn the fates of their homes or relatives, or tourists just looking for a place to sleep — from entering the burning area.
A man on a motorcycle tried to skirt police cars blocking the road into town. Stuck in traffic, a dozen people got out to ask what they should do or if they could abandon their vehicles and walk into town. “Absolutely not,” an officer responded.
One officer sat in a patrol vehicle and watched as his own home burned.
Another clip showed an officer’s arrival at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf shop at a supermarket on Front Street, an area that was devastated by the fire. He found 15 people inside.
“Come out! Come out!” he shouted. “Come with me!”
Some got in their own cars, while others climbed into the back of his patrol vehicle. Saying “Get in, uncle!” — a term of respect in Hawaii — he shoved one last person inside before driving off toward refuge at the Lahaina Civic Center.
Another officer found a badly burned man at a shopping center and put him in the back seat of his patrol car. “I’ll just take you straight to the hospital. That sound good?” the officer asked.
“Yeah,” the man responded.
People who made it to safety have recounted running into barricades and roads that were blocked by flames and downed utility poles. One video showed an officer tying a tow strap to a metal gate blocking a dirt road escape route, while residents used a saw to cut it open so cars could get through.
At times officers appeared flummoxed by traffic backups. One patrol vehicle pulled through thick smoke, past a burning vehicle and onto Lahainaluna Road, only to encounter a long line of stopped cars.
“We have got to get all these cars down Lahainaluna Road. The fire is right next to the cars. We can’t see,” one of the two officers in the car told dispatchers, later repeatedly wondering aloud, “Why are these cars not moving?”
The videos also reflect confusion among residents about where they were supposed to go, even after most of the damage had been done.
One man, a resident of an apartment building downtown, spoke with an officer in a parking lot where his truck had run out of gas.
The officer suggested he stay put because he’d be safe there, but the man had no food and asked if he could walk to town or to the shelter at the civic center.
“It’s dangerous man,” the officer said. “There’s power lines everywhere, poles, debris. It’s not safe in there.”
“I don’t even know where to go from here,” the man responded.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico - The Mexican navy said Tuesday that four more boats have been located on the bottom of Acapulco’s bay, bringing to 33 the number of vessels that apparently sank when Hurricane Otis slammed into the resort city last week.
The boats are believed to have been one of the key sources of hurricane deaths, because many crews are missing and apparently stayed aboard their craft when the Category 5 storm hit. So far, 47 people have been confirmed killed, including three foreign residents.
Navy Secretary José Rafael Ojeda said a ship with a crane had arrived, and that search teams hope to start lifting the boats to the surface soon to check for victims.
“We have located 33 vessels, and we are going to start trying to lift them,” Ojeda said.
However, with just one crane working, lifting the boats to the surface could take weeks, raising the prospect of a long, agonizing wait for relatives.
On Monday, a handful of relatives demonstrated on Acapulco’s mud-clogged main boulevard to demand authorities speed up the search, holding up hand-lettered signs saying “I’m looking for my husband.”
Abigail Andrade Rodríguez was one of four crew members aboard the rental boat Litos, a 94-foot, twin-motor yacht based in Puerto Marques, just south of Acapulco’s main bay, on the night the hurricane hit.
“None of them has been found,” said Susy Andrade, her aunt.
“She spoke with her family (Oct. 24) and she said the sea was very choppy, and that they were going to leave Puerto Marques and head for the (Acapulco) marina to see if they would be safer there,” Andrade said. “It appears they didn’t arrive.”
Acapulco is known for both its abundance of expensive yachts and its cheap tour boats that carry tourists around the bay.
In previous hurricanes in Acapulco, most of the dead were swept away by flooding on land. But with Otis, a significant number appear to have died at sea. Residents have said that some crews had either chosen or been ordered to stay aboard to guard their craft.
A local business chamber leader put the number of missing or dead at sea as high as 120, but there has been no official confirmation of that.
Roberto Arroyo, Guerrero state’s civil defense secretary, said late Monday that the death toll stood at 47, with 54 people listed as missing.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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AGUANGA, CA - Hundreds of firefighters aided by aircraft on Tuesday battled a wind-driven wildfire that damaged or destroyed at least nine buildings in rural Riverside County and prompted authorities to order 4,000 residents to evacuate.
Gusty Santa Ana winds spread the Highland fire over about 4 square miles of brushy hills near Aguanga after it broke out Monday afternoon.
Three structures were confirmed destroyed and six others were damaged, Riverside County Fire Department spokesperson Jeff LaRusso said.
By nighttime the fire was 10 percent contained but still threatened nearly 2,400 homes and other buildings, according to an update from fire authorities.
One firefighter was injured, but the statement didn’t provide details.
Luis Quinonez was away when a house he owned burned to the ground. He was trying to keep his spirits up.
“It’s not for sale anymore,” Quinonez, covered in soot, joked in an interview.
He also lost 13 vehicles he had collected to sell. A second house he owns across the street was untouched. No one was hurt, he added, and his dogs, cats, chickens and roosters were also OK.
The terrain, streaked with pink from aerial retardant drops, was marked with signs of other firefighting successes. Scorched earth stopped at a white picket fence around a large horse stable. A nearby olive oil company also survived.
While the fire showed only minimal growth Tuesday, winds were forecast to remain in the area through Thursday evening and could spread the blaze west and southwest, the Riverside County Fire Department said.
“Extremely steep and rugged terrain remains a challenge,” the update said. “Current and expected weather of steady winds with low relative humidity may increase the risk of erratic fire behavior.”
The cause of the blaze was under investigation.
The Highland fire erupted as Southern California was experiencing its first significant Santa Ana wind conditions of the season. The witheringly dry winds typically form as air flows from the the interior of the West and descends to the Pacific Coast during the fall, often stoking destructive wildfires.
The fire was reported at about 12:45 p.m. Monday, and about 1,300 homes and 4,000 residents were put under evacuation orders. The region is sparsely populated, but there are horse ranches and a large mobile home site.
Power utility Southern California Edison was considering cutting electricity to nearly 55,000 customers in four counties to prevent fires in the event wind damages equipment. Only a few dozen customers were affected by public safety power shutoffs as of Tuesday night.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A 5.4 magnitude earthquake hit Jamaica on Monday, prompting people to flee buildings amid heavy shaking that knocked out power in some areas but appeared to cause no serious damage.
Food, wine bottles and other items tumbled off the shelves in grocery stores and some minor damage to buildings was reported.
The epicenter was 2 miles west-northwest of Hope Bay in northeastern Jamaica, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It occurred at a shallow depth of 6 miles.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said no deaths, injuries or severe damage had been reported.
“Damage has been minor, but nevertheless, we are taking all precautions,” he said in a brief message posted online. “I want to say to all Jamaicans, remain calm.”
He asked that people stay in a safe place in case of aftershocks, adding that the earthquake temporarily left certain areas without electricity and phone service.
“We give God thanks for sparing us the worst,” he said.
Jamaica’s Constabulary Force said in a statement that the earthquake knocked traffic lights offline and that police were being dispatched to intersections.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ACAPULCO, Mexico - At least 48 people died when Category 5 Hurricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, most of them in Acapulco, Mexican authorities said Sunday as the death toll continued to climb and families buried loved ones.
Mexico’s civil defense agency said in a statement that 43 of the dead were in the resort city of Acapulco and five in nearby Coyuca de Benitez. Guerrero state’s governor had earlier raised the number of missing to 36 from 10 a day earlier. The death toll increased after authorities had raised it to 39 on Saturday.
In Acapulco, families held funerals for the dead on Sunday and continued the search for essentials while government workers and volunteers cleared streets clogged with debris from the Category 5 hurricane.
Kathy Barrera, 30, said Sunday that her aunt’s family was buried under a landslide when tons of mud and rock tumbled down onto their home. Her aunt’s body was found with the remains of their three children ranging in age from 2 to 21. Her uncle was still missing. Separately, Barrera’s own mother and brother also remained missing.
“The water came in with the rocks, the mud and totally buried them,” Barrera, who was standing outside a local morgue, said of her aunt’s family.
On Sunday, authorities released the bodies of her aunt and the two youngest children to relatives. Bodies in white bags were loaded into open caskets in the back of hearses. The eldest daughter had already been buried the day before.
As she prepared to lay her relatives to rest, Barrera — who had hardly even had a chance to search for her own mother and brother — expressed desperation and frustration at the aid and personnel she had begun seeing in tourist areas of the city — but not in their neighborhood high on a mountainside hit by landslides.
“There are many, many people here at the (morgue) that are entire families, families of six, families of four, even eight people,” she said. “I want to ask authorities not to lie … there are a lot of people who are arriving dead.”
During a short time outside the morgue Sunday morning, at least a half-dozen families arrived, some looking for relatives; other identifying bodies and still others giving statements to authorities.
The convoys of hearses and relatives crossed much of battered Acapulco en route to the cemetery, passing ransacked stores, streets strewn with debris and soldiers cutting away fallen trees.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ACAPULCO, Mexico - Desperate families made missing posters Friday and joined online groups to look for loved ones out of touch since Hurricane Otis devastated the Mexican Pacific coast city of Acapulco.
Officials said they were moving in supplies and evacuating people from the devastated metropolis of 1 million people.
As cellphone service returned to some parts of the city, many residents had help from friends and relatives living in other parts of Mexico and in the United States.
Residents joined together by neighborhood using online messaging platforms. On Thursday there were some 1,000 people in 40 chats, which grew in number through the day. Late Thursday, Guerrero state Gov. Evelyn Salgado followed their lead, urging people to send messages to government WhatsApp accounts about the missing.
Norma Manzano spent a day debating whether to make a digital missing poster, like so many people have done, for her two brothers, whom she had not heard from since shortly after Otis made landfall early Wednesday.
Manzano’s brothers drove to Acapulco from Mexico City last weekend with three co-workers to build an installation for an international mining conference in a big hotel. The brothers — 31-year-old Victor Manuel Manzano López and 38-year-old Alejandro Manzano López — are hard-working jokesters, their sister said.
They were staying in an AirbnB rental in Acapulco’s Diamond Point district, a seaside area hit hard by the storm and flooding.
“I feel so powerless not being able to do anything,” she said.
So she started joining groups on WhatsApp and Facebook. She scours lists shared by others of people inside shelters.
So far, nothing.
Entire walls of beachside high rises were ripped off. Hundreds of thousands of homes remained without electricity. People lacking even the most basic resources were emptying stores out of everything from food to toilet paper. Miguel Angel Fong, president of the Mexican Hotel Association, told The Associated Press that 80 percent of the city’s hotels were damaged.
Defense Secretary Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced Friday that the official number of 27 dead and four missing had not changed, but some in Mexico were skeptical of official tolls because the city remains largely cut off. Some local media have reported there were bodies in the city that had not yet been recovered.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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SAN DIEGO, CA - Sporadic Santa Ana winds will gust through parts of San Diego County from late tonight to early Wednesday, increasing the risk of wildfires while lifting temperatures to 80 degrees at the coast, the National Weather Service said.
The winds also could kick up dust storms in some areas, notably along Interstate 8 east of Alpine, and possibly in Ramona. A high wind watch will be in effect for the eastern half of the county from 2 a.m. Monday to 5 p.m. Wednesday.
The county’s unusually wet winter and the rain it received in August from Tropical Storm Hilary tamped down the wildfire threat. But that advantage has begun to fade in recent weeks with the arrival of the Santa Anas.
Wildfire conditions could reach critical levels this weekend due to the combination of wind, low relative humidity and high temperatures.
Forecasters said the Santa Anas will begin blowing late tonight and last well into Sunday, with the fastest gusts reaching 40 mph to 60 mph in some inland areas, with isolated gusts to 70 mph.
Initially, the winds will hit Orange County and the Inland Empire hardest. But the winds will shift Sunday into Monday, taking a more direct route through the San Diego County mountains.
The daytime high in San Diego is expected to reach 77 on Sunday, 80 on Monday and 82 on Tuesday. The seasonal high is 74.
So far, San Diego Gas & Electric, which has 222 weather stations throughout San Diego County and southern Orange County, hasn’t indicated that it might need to temporarily turn off power in some areas to reduce the risk of wildfires.
The dicey weather comes during a week in which the county is observing the 20th anniversary of the Cedar fire, which erupted in the Cleveland National Forest and eventually killed 15 people, destroyed more than 2,200 homes and burned more than 273,000 acres.
UC San Diego subsequently built ALERTCalifornia, a network of live cameras that were placed in fire-prone areas locally and around the state. On Tuesday, Time magazine named the system one of the best inventions of 2023.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico - More than two dozen people were killed and three were missing after the most powerful hurricane to hit the Pacific coast of Mexico turned a popular tourist destination into a scene of mass devastation, shocking forecasters and government officials with its intensity.
The extent of the tragedy began coming into clear view Thursday morning as thousands of military officers, medical teams and government officials confronted a devastated Guerrero state, much of which effectively was cut off from the world after Hurricane Otis made landfall in the early hours Wednesday.
“We are very sorry for the loss of 27 human beings,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday in Mexico City after making a brief visit to the disaster area. “That is what hurts the most, because the material can be taken care of, and we are going to do it with great responsibility.”
The scope of the hurricane’s toll was still difficult to ascertain because access to the region was limited and communication was still largely cut off. The hurricane struck with little warning after it grew with astonishing speed from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane packing sustained winds of 165 mph when it made landfall.
Authorities were particularly concerned about Acapulco, a port city of more than 852,000 people on the Pacific Coast that was in the direct path of Otis. Acapulco, the largest city in Guerrero state, was hosting an international mining industry convention when the storm hit. In addition, many hotels were packed with tourists.
Photographs and videos showed ravaged hotel rooms, doors ripped from hinges and furniture scattered throughout city streets.
Roughly 80 percent of hotels in Acapulco had been damaged by the storm, according to Evelyn Salgado Pineda, governor of Guerrero.
Winds ripped trees and utility poles from the ground, López Obrador said, adding that Acapulco remained without power, communication and water. Beaches that once brought visitors from all over the world were now covered in piles of debris. Many streets turned into rivers of mud. More than 200 patients had to be moved out of damaged hospitals, said Rosa Icela Rodriguez, national secretary of security and citizen protection.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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KYBURZ, CA - On a mountainside where walls of flames torched the forest on their way toward Lake Tahoe in 2021, blackened trees stand against a gray sky.
“If you can find a live tree, point to it,” Hugh Safford, an environmental science and policy researcher at the University of California Davis, said touring damage from the Caldor fire, one of the past decade’s many massive blazes.
Dead conifers stretch as far as the eye can see. Fire burned so hot that soil was still barren. Granite boulders were charred. Indentations marked fallen logs that vanished in smoke.
Damage in this area of Eldorado National Forest could be permanent — part of a troubling pattern that threatens a defining characteristic of the Sierra Nevada range John Muir once called a “waving sea of evergreens.”
Forest like this is disappearing as increasingly intense fires alter landscapes worldwide, threatening wildlife, jeopardizing efforts to capture climate-warming carbon and harming water supplies, studies say.
In the U.S. West, a century of fire suppression, logging of large fire-resistant trees, and other practices allowed undergrowth to choke forests. Drought has killed millions of conifers or made them susceptible to disease and pests. And a changing climate has brought more intense fires.
“What’s it’s coming down to is jungles of fuels in forest lands,” Safford said. “You get a big head of steam going behind the fire there, it can burn forever and ever and ever.”
Despite mild wildfire seasons last year and this year, California saw 12 of its largest 20 wildfires in the previous five years. Record rain and snowfall this year that mostly ended a three-year drought could lead to explosive growth of fire fuels.
California has lost more than 1,760 square miles — nearly 7 percent — of its tree cover since 1985, a recent study found.
A study of the southern Sierra Nevada — home to Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks — found nearly a third of conifer forest had transitioned to other vegetation because of fire, drought or bark beetles in the past decade.
“We’re losing them at a rate ... we can’t sustain,” said Brandon Collins, co-author of that report and adjunct forestry professor at the University of California Berkeley.
Not everyone believes forest is disappearing. Some environmentalists, like Chad Hanson of the John Muir Project sponsored by the nonprofit Earth Island Institute, believe there’s a “myth of catastrophic wildfire” to support logging efforts.
Seedlings are rising from ashes in high-severity patches of fire and dead wood provides wildlife habitat, Hanson said.
“If everything people are hearing was true, there would be a lot more reason for concern,” he said.
Others are concerned failure to properly manage forests can result in intense fire that could harm habitat, the ability to store climate-warming carbon in trees and the quality of snowmelt for farms and cities.
“Areas where mixed conifer burned at high severity, those are all areas that are vulnerable to total forest loss,” said Christy Brigham, chief of resources management and science at Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks.
After wildfires in 2020 and 2021 wiped out up to about a fifth of all giant sequoias — once considered almost fireproof — the National Park Service last week embarked on a controversial project to help the mighty trees recover with its largest planting of seedlings in a single grove.
Before the mid-1800s, fires from lightning or set by Indigenous people kept undergrowth in check. But after settlers drove out Native Americans and logged forests, fighting fires became the mission to protect the valuable trees and homes.
That has allowed forests to become four to seven times more dense than they once were, Safford said.
“John Muir would not recognize any of this,” he said, gesturing at tightly packed dead trees.
The Caldor fire, which destroyed 1,000 structures, torched forest for the first time in a century, Safford said. Years of drought had made it a tinderbox.
Swaths of Eldorado National Forest burned at such intensity that mature pines went up in flames, their seeds killed. Manzanita and mountain whitethorn — chaparral typical at lower elevations — took root.
A March study of 334 Western wildfires found increasing fire severity made conifer species less likely to regenerate — a problem apt to worsen with climate change.
Along U.S. Highway 50, where the Caldor fire had burned out of control, Safford pointed out a barren slope where forest from a previous fire had been replaced with chaparral and trees were now unlikely to grow.
To reduce wildfire danger, the federal government, which owns nearly 60 percent of California’s vast forest, agreed with the state in 2020 to reduce fuels on 1,560 square miles a year by 2025.
Fire scientists advocate clearing vegetation by setting fires in ideal conditions and allowing lower-severity fires to burn.
But the Forest Service has historically been risk averse, said Safford, the agency’s regional ecologist for two decades before retiring in 2021. Rather than chance that a fire could blow up, officials have generally snuffed lower-intensity flames that could deliver benefits.
With more than $4 billion from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Forest Service plans to ramp up thinning where communities are most vulnerable to wildfire.
Susan Britting, executive director of Sierra Forest Legacy, acknowledged any cutting triggers skepticism among conservationists because loggers historically took the largest trees.
“In my experience, things like logging, tree removal, even reforestation, those things happen,” Britting said. “The prescribed fire that needs to happen ... just gets delayed and punted and not prioritized.”
The chance of a burn escaping its perimeter remains a big challenge to the strategy. And thinning often faces court challenges.
Safford — now chief scientist at Vibrant Planet, an environmental public benefits corporation — acknowledged larger trees have been logged in the past but said that’s not now envisioned in thinning projects.
Two-thirds of the rugged Sierra is inaccessible or off-limits to logging, so fire will have to do much of the work, he said. But homeowners are concerned that prescribed fires will jump perimeters and destroy houses.
“It’s the classic wicked problem where any solution you derive has huge implications for other sides of society and the way people want things to be,” Safford said.
(Brian Melley, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A near-Earth asteroid discovered less than a decade ago might be ejecta from the moon, rather than a space rock that arose in the well-established asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, UC San Diego researchers say in the latest issue of the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment.
The scientists suspect that a meteorite strike on the moon threw off lots of material, including the asteroid, which researchers named Kamo`oalewa. The rock comes comparatively close to Earth and the moon as it orbits the sun.
“Elements from this space body can give us information about the formation of the Earth’s moon and improve our knowledge of near-Earth asteroids,” UCSD researcher Aaron Rosengren told a campus publication. He is a senior author on the new paper.
China has said that it will send a spacecraft to sample Kamo`oalewa in the next year or two.
(GARY ROBBINS, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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ACAPULCO, Mexico - Hurricane Otis tore across Mexico’s southern Pacific coast as a powerful and dangerous Category 5 hurricane Wednesday, unleashing massive flooding in the resort city of Acapulco, sending sheets of earth down steep mountainsides, and cutting power and cell service in large swaths of the state of Guerrero.
While little is known about possible deaths or the full extent of the damage — Acapulco was still mostly inaccessible by road as of late Wednesday — experts are calling Otis the strongest storm in history to make landfall along the Eastern Pacific Coast.
The storm had dissipated over the mountains by Wednesday afternoon, but appeared to have left a fair amount of devastation in its wake.
Acapulco’s Diamond Zone, an oceanfront area replete with hotels, restaurants and other tourist attractions, appeared to be mostly underwater in drone footage that Foro TV posted online Wednesday afternoon, with boulevards and bridges completely hidden by an enormous lake of brown water.
Large buildings had their walls and roofs partially or completely ripped off. People wandered up to their waists in water in some areas, while on other less-flooded streets soldiers shoveled rubble and fallen palm fronds from the pavement.
On Tuesday, Otis took many by surprise when it rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a powerful Category 5 as it tore along the coast. Researchers tracking the storm told The Associated Press that the storm broke records for how quickly it intensified.
Acapulco, Tecpan and other towns along the Costa Grande in Guerrero were hit hard, said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. He said conditions were so bad that communication with the area had been “completely lost.”
On the outskirts of Acapulco on Wednesday, highway workers looked on helplessly without the heavy machinery needed to clear debris from the roadway. They warned the road could give way at any time because of the rain-softened ground beneath.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Hundreds of protesters on Tuesday took to the streets of a city near the epicenter of a devastating earthquake that hit Morocco last month to express anger and frustration after weeks of waiting for emergency assistance.
Flanked by honking cars and motorcycles, demonstrators in the High Atlas town of Amizmiz chanted against the government as law enforcement tried to contain the crowds. The protest followed a worker’s strike and torrential weekend storms that exacerbated hardship for residents living in tents near the remains of their former homes.
“Amizmiz is down!,” men yelled in Tachelhit, Morocco’s most widely spoken Indigenous language.
Entire neighborhoods were leveled by the Sept. 8 quake, forcing thousands to relocate to shelters.
The Amizmiz protest over delays in aid comes after Morocco faced criticism for accepting limited aid from only four foreign governments several days after the earthquake killed a reported 2,901 people.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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At the bottom of the world, the floating edges of one of the enormous ice sheets covering Antarctica are facing an invisible threat, one that could add to rising sea levels around the globe. They are melting from below.
As the planet warms, larger volumes of warm water are bathing the undersides of West Antarctica’s ice shelves, the giant tongues of ice at the ends of glaciers. The sheer mass of these shelves stops the ice on land from flowing more quickly into the open sea. So as the shelves melt and thin, more of the land ice moves toward the ocean, eventually contributing to sea level rise. Curbing fossil fuel emissions might help slow this melting, but scientists haven’t been sure by how much.
Now, researchers in Britain have run the numbers and come to a sobering conclusion: A certain amount of accelerated melting is essentially locked in. Even if nations limited global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 Fahrenheit, it wouldn’t do much to halt the thinning. Staying below 1.5 Celsius is the most ambitious aim of the Paris Agreement, and it is unlikely to be achieved.
“It appears that we may have lost control of the West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the 21st century,” one of the researchers, Kaitlin Naughten, an ocean scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, said at a news briefing. “That very likely means some amount of sea level rise that we cannot avoid.”
The findings by Naughten and her colleagues, which were published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, add to a litany of gloomy prognostications for the ice on the western side of the frozen continent.
Two of the region’s fastest-moving glaciers, Thwaites and Pine Island, have been losing vast amounts of ice to the ocean for decades. Scientists are trying to determine when greenhouse-gas emissions might push the West Antarctic ice sheet past a “tipping point” beyond which its collapse becomes rapid and hard to reverse, imperiling coastlines worldwide in the coming centuries.
Even so, cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases could still stop even greater amounts of Antarctic ice from being shed into the seas. The East Antarctic ice sheet contains about 10 times as much ice as the West Antarctic one, and past studies suggest that it is less vulnerable to global warming, even if some recent research has challenged that view.
“We can still save the rest of the Antarctic ice sheet,” said Alberto Naveira Garabato, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton who wasn’t involved in the new research, “if we learn from our past inaction and start reducing greenhouse gas emissions now.”
Naughten and her colleagues focused on the interplay between the ice shelves and the water in the Amundsen Sea, which is the part of the Southern Ocean that washes up against Thwaites and Pine Island glaciers.
The researchers first used computer simulations to estimate changes in ocean temperature and the resulting ice-shelf melting that took place there in the 20th century. They then compared this with potential changes under several pathways for global warming in the 21st century, from highly optimistic to unrealistically pessimistic.
They found that the water at 200 to 700 meters, or 650 to 2,300 feet, beneath the surface of the Amundsen Sea could warm at more than three times the rate in the coming decades compared with the last century, pretty much regardless of what happens with emissions.
If global warming were limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial conditions, temperatures in the Amundsen would flatten out somewhat after about 2060. In the most calamitous emissions trajectory, by contrast, ocean warming would accelerate even more after 2045.
The reason the differences aren’t bigger is that water temperatures in this part of the Southern Ocean are influenced not just by human-driven warming of the atmosphere, but also by natural climate cycles such as El Niño, Naughten said. The differences under the various emissions trajectories, she said, are small by comparison.
When mathematical representations of reality are the best option available, scientists prefer to test their hypotheses using multiple ones to make sure their findings aren’t the product of a given model’s quirks. Naughten and her colleagues used only a single model of the interactions between ice and ocean.
Still, their study’s methods are in line with past findings, said Tiago Segabinazzi Dotto, a scientist with the National Oceanography Centre in Britain who wasn’t involved in the new research.
(Raymond Zhong, NEW YORK TIMES)
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NEW ORLEANS, LA - At least seven people were killed Monday morning after a “superfog” of smoke from south Louisiana marsh fires and dense fog caused multiple massive car crashes involving 158 vehicles, authorities said.
Twenty-five people were injured, and the number of fatalities may increase as first responders worked into the night clearing the scenes and searching for victims, Louisiana State Police said in a statement Monday evening.
Videos of apocalyptic type scenes from the aftermath of the wrecks showed a long stretch of mangled and scorched cars on Interstate 55 near New Orleans. Vehicles were crushed, rammed under one another and some engulfed by flames. Many people initially stood on the side of the road or on the roof of their vehicle looking in disbelief at the disaster, while others cried out for help.
Piles of disformed cars, heaped on top of one another as firefighters trudged through the debris, remained on the interstate as the sun set. Hours after the crashes, the smell of burnt wreckage still wafted in the area.
Christopher Coll, 41, was among the drivers in one of the pileups.
“I was already on the brakes, slowing down when an F-250 drove up on top of my work trailer and took me for a ride,” Coll told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.
Coll could smell smoke as he heard the sounds of crashing cars and popping tires. He was able to kick open his passenger door to escape and then helped others — pulling out one person through a car window.
Clarencia Patterson Reed was also in the wave of wrecked cars as she drove to Manchac with her wife and niece. Reed told the newspaper that she could see people waving their hands for her to stop, but when she did, her car was hit from behind and on the side by two other vehicles.
“It was ‘Boom. Boom.’ All you kept hearing was crashing for at least 30 minutes,” Reed said. She was able to scramble out of her car, but her wife was pinned inside and injured her leg and side.
While 25 people were transported to the hospital, with injuries ranging from minor to critical, many others sought medical aid on their own, authorities said.
Gov. John Bel Edwards asked for prayers “for those hurt and killed” on Monday and issued a call for blood donors to replenish dwindling supplies.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Gale-force winds and floods struck several countries in northern Europe as the region endured more heavy rain on Friday that forecasters say will continue into the weekend. Three deaths in the U.K. were blamed on the bad weather.
The winds are expected to hit hardest in the eastern part of Denmark’s Jutland peninsula and the Danish islands in the Baltic Sea. But the northern part of the British Isles, southern Sweden and Norway, and northern Germany are also in the path of the storm, named Babet by the U.K.’s weather forecaster, the Met Office.
Eastern Scotland continued to bear the brunt of the stormy weather. On Friday, the Met Office issued a new “red” warning, its highest, for parts of the region through today.
“This is not usual autumn weather,” said Andy Page, the Met’s chief meteorologist. “This is an exceptional event, and we are likely to continue to see significant impacts with the potential for further flooding and damage to properties.”
On Friday, police reported that a man in his 60s died after getting caught in fast-flowing floodwaters in the central England county of Shropshire.
In Scotland, a 57-year-old woman died Thursday after being swept into a river in the region of Angus, where hundreds of homes were also evacuated. Also on Thursday, a 56-year-old man died after his van hit a falling tree in the same area.
Though forecasters said the worst of the heavy rain in Scotland had passed, they warned that conditions will remain difficult, with river levels still on the rise and flood defenses breached. Some parts of the town of Brechin were only accessible by boat after its flood defenses were overwhelmed by the heavy rainfall, raising concerns about further loss of life.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LAHAINA, HI - The death toll for the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century has increased by one, to 99, after Maui County police found additional remains.
The remains were recovered on Oct. 12 in Lahaina, police spokesperson Alana Pico said in an email Friday. An autopsy and forensic examination verified that they were not from a previously recovered individual.
So far police have identified the remains of 97 people from the Aug. 8 fire that wiped out much of Lahaina, a historic town on Maui’s west coast. The remains of two people have yet to be identified. Seven people are still missing.
The wildfire started in a grassy area in Lahaina’s hills. Powerful winds related to a hurricane passing to Hawaii’s south carried embers from house to house and hampered firefighting efforts.
More than 2,000 buildings were destroyed, and some 8,000 people were forced to move to hotels and other temporary shelter.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Hundreds of people were being evacuated from their homes and schools closed in parts of Scotland on Thursday, as much of northern Europe braced for heavy rain and gale-force winds.
The U.K.’s weather forecaster, the Met Office, issued a rare red alert — the highest level of weather warning — for parts of Scotland, predicting “exceptional rainfall” Thursday and today that is expected to cause extensive flooding and “danger to life from fast-flowing or deep floodwater.” The last red alert in the U.K. was issued in 2020.
Forecasters say the storm could bring more than a month’s worth of rain in the worst-affected regions in Scotland.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Some West Coast residents were jolted awake Thursday when they received an earthquake alert test that was sent to their cellphones at 3:19 a.m. because of a time zone mix-up, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
The noisy alerts were sent to people who use MyShake, an early-warning app for earthquakes, said Robert-Michael de Groot, a spokesperson for ShakeAlert, the U.S. Geological Survey system that powers the app.
De Groot did not know how many users had received the alert, but he said that the app had been downloaded 1.4 million times and that the alarm could have reached more than 1 million people. The app is intended for people in California, Oregon and Washington, but alerts can also be sent to other users, he said.
MyShake had planned to send a test alert Thursday to its users in California, Oregon and Washington for a fictitious earthquake in San Francisco at 10:19 a.m. Pacific time, according to its website. Instead, app users received the warning at 3:19 a.m. Pacific time, which is the same as 10:19 a.m. Coordinated Universal Time. The warning text said the alert had been sent at 10:19 a.m. UTC.
Some people who received the alert were awakened by a recorded voice saying, “This is a test,” according to posts on social media.
MyShake was developed by the University of California Berkeley.
Angie Lux, a project scientist for earthquake early warning at the Berkeley Seismology Lab, said that the error would not affect MyShake’s real-time alert system and was an accidental reminder that earthquakes can strike at any time.
“We acknowledge that it was not fun to be woken up at 3 o’clock in the morning, and we apologize for that,” Lux said.
Later Thursday, another test alert was sent at 10:19 a.m., as had been planned.
The ShakeAlert warnings are meant to give users a few seconds’ notice to take cover and to give organizations extra time to take steps to protect people and critical equipment, by slowing down trains or issuing public announcements, for example.
To prepare for possible earthquakes, a national earthquake drill, The Great ShakeOut, is held each year, this year on Thursday. Families, schools, businesses and other organizations were encouraged to practice what to do during an earthquake.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Tropical Storm Norma could briefly grow into a major hurricane before hitting Mexican resorts at Los Cabos, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday.
Norma continued to strengthen Wednesday off Mexico’s western Pacific coast, and is forecast to reach Los Cabos by Monday.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The Negro River, the Amazon’s second largest tributary, on Monday reached its lowest level since official measurements began near Manaus 121 years ago. The record confirms that this part of the world’s largest rainforest is suffering its worst drought, just a little over two years after its most significant flooding.
In the morning, the water level in the city’s port went as low as 44 feet, down from 98 feet registered in June 2021 — its highest level on record. The Negro River drains about 10 percent of the Amazon basin.
Madeira River, another main tributary of the Amazon, has also recorded historically low levels, causing the halt of the Santo Antonio hydroelectric dam.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - A powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck western Afghanistan on Sunday, just over a week after strong quakes and aftershocks killed thousands of people and flattened entire villages in the same province.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the latest quake’s epicenter was about 21 miles outside Herat, the provincial capital, and 5 miles below the surface.
Save the Children said four people have died and that Herat Regional Hospital has received 153 injured. Everything in the Baloch area of Rabat Sangi district has collapsed. Several villages have been destroyed, according to the aid group. Authorities have given lower casualty numbers.
Sayed Kazim Rafiqi, 42, a Herat city resident, said he had never seen such devastation before with the majority of houses damaged and “people terrified.”
The earthquakes on Oct. 7 flattened whole villages in Herat, in one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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California’s extraordinarily wet year brought the state vast quantities of water that have soaked into the ground and given a substantial boost to the state’s groundwater supplies, but not nearly enough to reverse long-term losses from over-pumping in many areas, according to a new state report.
Officials with the Department of Water Resources examined water-level measurements in thousands of wells statewide and found that from spring 2022 to spring 2023, water levels rose significantly in 34 percent of wells, and declined in 9 percent. Others saw little change.
The rise in aquifer levels in many areas represents an improvement from the rapid and widespread declines that occurred during the last three years of extreme drought. Still, state officials cautioned that California’s groundwater remains depleted by decades of overuse.
“This year, groundwater levels began to recover from the prior drought years, but only partially,” officials wrote in the semiannual report. “Above average precipitation across the state alone can’t undo the damage from years of drought. Groundwater levels, while recovering, are still lower than the period after the 2012-2016 drought.”
The report’s authors said it will still require “several more wet years, in addition to more focused efforts to increase recharge and reduce pumping, to recover from the most recent drought and the cumulative depletion of groundwater aquifers that occurred over the years.”
The report includes data through August, and water managers said it will take more time to see the full effects of water that percolates through soil and sediment to aquifers.
“Water moves very slowly within groundwater basins, and that infiltration of surface water into the groundwater system, it does take time,” said Steven Springhorn, a supervising engineering geologist who worked on the department’s report.
The data show more recovery has occurred in shallow layers of aquifers. In areas where much of the pumping draws on deeper aquifers, which are often tapped by agricultural wells, there has been less of a rise, Springhorn said.
The groundwater measurements also show how conditions vary widely from one part of the state to another. Some of the largest declines in recent years have been driven by heavy agricultural pumping in the San Joaquin Valley, which has left many residents with dry wells.
The state report said that some of the largest recent extractions of groundwater have occurred in the Tulare Lake hydrologic region, in Kings and Kern counties, and that water levels declined more than 5 feet in nearly a third of the area’s monitoring wells this year, a larger proportion than in any other hydrologic region. Since 2018, more than 70 percent of the wells in the region have declined significantly.
In contrast, more than 50 percent of monitoring wells increased during the same five-year period in the heavily urban South Coast region.
In farming areas of the Central Valley, water levels have been helped in some areas by a combination of natural recharge and state-supported recharge efforts. With more water available from canals, growers and agricultural districts have also been able to reduce groundwater pumping, which has helped to lessen the pressures in some areas.
Over decades, heavy pumping has drained aquifers to a point that clay layers collapse, causing portions of the valley floor to sink, and permanently reducing aquifer storage capacity. In some areas, the ground has sunk more than 30 feet. The phenomenon of land subsidence has caused damage to canals, roads and other infrastructure.
State officials said the abundance of water during the recently-ended water year — which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 — has slowed the rate of subsidence for now. And in one part of the western San Joaquin Valley where water levels rose significantly, the ground surface also rose slightly.
In this farming area, located along the 5 Freeway in the Westlands Water District, rising water levels have caused this small “rebound,” Springhorn said. According to state data, he said, the ground level rose nearly an inch within a year after sinking about 3 inches over the last decade — an uplift that scientists describe as a recoverable “elastic” deformation of the land surface.
The long-term trend in the San Joaquin Valley, however, has been continuing subsidence across large stretches of farming areas.
State water regulators have told six local agencies in the San Joaquin Valley that their groundwater plans are inadequate, a step that clears the way for potential state intervention to force stronger measures to curb over-pumping.
The State Water Resources Control Board announced this week that the agency’s staff has recommended placing the Tulare Lake basin on probationary status, because the area’s local plan doesn’t include adequate measures to stop declines in water levels, degradation of water quality and rapid land subsidence.
Tulare Lake was drained generations ago and transformed into cotton and tomato fields, but this year, the lake reappeared on thousands of acres of farmland.
State officials pointed out that parts of Tulare Lake have sunk up to 6 feet since 2015, which has sent floodwaters into areas that emerged unscathed in previous floods. To deal with the subsidence and reduce risks, local flood control districts have had to raise the levees that protect the city of Corcoran.
“We recognize that we should start where problems are most urgent and solutions appear to be further away,” said Natalie Stork, supervising engineering geologist for the State Water Board. “We are very concerned about potential impacts … that could occur due to continued lowering of water levels, subsidence, water quality degradation.”
The State Water Board’s staff analyzed local agencies’ groundwater plan and found it would allow declines in water levels that could leave 700 household wells dry.
Stork said the reappearance of Tulare Lake doesn’t fix groundwater issues in the area.
“The lake bed contains clays that prevent water from moving into aquifers below the ground, and the water quality is not ideal for uses like drinking water,” Stork said.
The board scheduled an April 16 hearing to consider whether to place the basin and its five local groundwater management agencies on probationary status. If the board decides to put the area on probation, most well owners would be required to start reporting their water usage and start paying pumping fees, among other requirements.
Despite this year’s historic snowpack and record rainfall in parts of the state, California has received much less precipitation since 2000 than the 20th century average.
State water officials describe this as the “accumulated precipitation deficit,” reflecting repeated droughts alongside the effects of climate change.
“As California transitions to a warmer and drier climate, this scenario of persistent groundwater depletion becomes increasingly likely, further emphasizing the importance of sustainable groundwater management,” state officials wrote in the report.
In wet years, groundwater typically accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of the state’s water use, but in dry years, that often grows to about 60 percent of water usage.
(Ian James, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The moon will briefly blot out much of the sun Saturday morning as seen from San Diego County as the region experiences a rare partial solar eclipse.
Scientists say the eclipse will begin at 8:09 a.m. when the moon starts to pass between the sun and Earth. The resulting shade will look like the moon is eating the upper left area of the sun.
The eclipse will reach its peak at 9:26 a.m., when the moon will cover about 70 percent of the sun. At that moment, the sun will resemble a left-facing crescent.
The eclipse will end locally at 10:17 a.m.
There will be a thin marine layer early Saturday, but it might burn off in time for people to see the eclipse.
This phenomenon will look different from how it will in other areas of the country, including parts of the Pacific Northwest and Southwest. During totality, people there will see a ring of sunlight — or ring of fire, as many call it — glow around the entire edge of the moon.
It’s an optical illusion that “happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, but when it is at or near its farthest point from Earth,” NASA says in a tutorial.
“Because the moon is farther away from Earth, it appears smaller than the sun and does not completely cover the sun.”
NASA added, “Partial or annular solar eclipses are different from total solar eclipses — there is no period of totality when the Moon completely blocks the Sun’s bright face.
“Therefore, it is never safe to look directly at the eclipse without proper eye protection.”
Sunglasses, binoculars and telescopes are not appropriate. Only verified safe sun solar filters and viewers should be used, NASA said. They can be ordered online and possibly be found in some camera stores.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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CHAHAK, Afghanistan - Another strong earthquake shook western Afghanistan on Wednesday morning after an earlier one killed more than 2,000 people and flattened whole villages in Herat province in what was one of the most destructive quakes in the country’s recent history.
The magnitude 6.3 earthquake on Wednesday was about 17 miles outside Herat, the provincial capital, and 6 miles deep, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It triggered a landslide that blocked the main Herat-Torghondi highway, Information Ministry spokesperson Abdul Wahid Rayan said.
Janan Sayiq, a spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban government’s national disaster authority said Wednesday’s earthquake killed at least one person and injured around 120 others.
The aid group Doctors Without Borders said Herat Regional Hospital received 117 who were injured in Wednesday’s temblor. The group, also known by its French acronym MSF, said it sent additional medical supplies to the hospital and was setting up four more medical tents at the facility.
“Our teams are assisting in triaging emergency cases and managing stabilized patients admitted in the medical tents,” MSF said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Wednesday’s quake also flattened all 700 homes in Chahak village, which was untouched by the temblors of previous days. Now there are mounds of soil where dwellings used to be. But no deaths have been reported so far in Chahak because people have taken shelter in tents this week, fearing for their lives as earthquakes continue to rock Herat.
Villagers are distraught over the loss of their homes and livestock, often their only possessions, and worry about the coming harsh winter months. Some said they had never seen an earthquake before and wondered when the shaking of the ground would stop.
Many said they have no peace of mind inside the tents for fear the “ground will open and swallow us at any moment.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Lidia dissipated Wednesday after hitting land as a Category 4 hurricane near the resort of Puerto Vallarta. One person was killed by a falling tree, another drowned in a swollen river and two others were injured after the hurricane made landfall.
The hurricane knocked over trees and blew roofs off houses with winds as high as 140 mph before moving inland. The hurricane remained powerful even after moving over land, with some highways briefly blocked in the region.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Wednesday that Lidia’s winds were down to 35 mph as it dissipated about 145 miles north-northeast of the city of Guadalajara, Mexico’s second-largest city and the capital of the western state of Jalisco.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MEXICO CITY, Mexico - Lidia Hurricane Lidia made landfall as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm Tuesday evening with winds of 140 mph near Mexico’s Pacific coast resort of Puerto Vallarta.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Lidia’s eye appeared to have reached land near Las Penitas in the western state of Jalisco. The area is a sparsely populated peninsula.
The storm was moving south of Puerto Vallarta, which could cushion the blow on the resort.
Jalisco Gov. Enrique Alfaro said via the platform X an hour and a half after Lidia made landfall that the storm had generated “extraordinary rain and high surf” in various places, but that so far there were no reports of injuries or deaths.
The state had 23 shelters open, he said.
In 2015, Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 hurricane, also made landfall on the same sparsely populated stretch of coastline between the resort of Puerto Vallarta and major port of Manzanillo.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ZINDA JAN, Afghanistan - People dug through the rubble of the quake in western Afghanistan for their few possessions but the material losses seemed unimportant.
Saturday’s 6.3 magnitude quake killed and injured thousands when it leveled an untold number of homes in Herat province. Picking through the rubble on Monday, Asadullah Khan paused to think about a future marred by grief.
Khan lost three daughters, his mother and his sister-in-law. Five members of his uncle’s family have died. His neighbors are grief-stricken, too.
“We have lost 23 people in this village,” Khan said.
Mounds of rubble flank the road winding through Zinda Jan district. Some door frames remain standing. There were few people in sight on Monday.
The Taliban-appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Abdul Ghani Baradar, and his team visited the quake-affected region Monday to deliver “immediate relief assistance” and ensure “equitable and accurate distribution of aid,” authorities said.
Top U.N officials also went to Zinda Jan to assess the extent of the damage. And in neighboring Pakistan, the government held a special session to review aid for Afghanistan, including relief teams, food, medicine, tents and blankets.
The Taliban’s supreme leader has made no public comments about the quake.
Afghanistan has few reliable statistics but a spokesman for Afghanistan’s national disaster authority, Janan Sayiq, told reporters in Kabul that around 4,000 people were killed or injured by the disaster. He did not provide a breakdown, but the U.N. estimates that 1,023 people were killed and 1,663 people injured in 11 villages in Zinda Jan alone.
Nearly 2,000 houses in 20 villages were destroyed, the Taliban has said. The area hit by the quake has just one government-run hospital.
Saturday’s epicenter was northwest of Herat, the provincial capital, and it was followed by three strong aftershocks and some smaller shocks, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Residents of the city rushed out of their homes again on Monday after another aftershock that the USGS said measured magnitude 4.9. There was a second, slightly stronger aftershock later in the day.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tropical Storm Lidia is anticipated to strengthen to a hurricane and make landfall on the west coast of Mexico by Tuesday, bringing heavy rains that may trigger flooding and mudslides.
The storm was about 410 miles south-southwest of Baja California and had sustained winds of 70 mph, with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center. Once a storm’s winds exceed 74 mph, it is considered a hurricane.
Lidia is expected to strengthen today and make landfall as a hurricane Tuesday.
It’s unclear where on Mexico’s west coast Lidia will make landfall, but it is projected to approach land at the Islas Marías, off the coast of Nayarit, Mexico, and the coast of west-central Mexico on Tuesday, the hurricane center said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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ISLAMABAD, Afghanistan - Men dug through rubble with their bare hands and shovels in western Afghanistan Sunday in desperate attempts to pull victims from the wreckage left by powerful earthquakes that killed at least 2,000 people.
Entire villages were flattened, bodies were trapped under collapsed houses and locals waited for help without even shovels to dig people out.
Living and dead, victims were trapped under rubble, their faces grey with dust. A government spokesman said Sunday that hundreds were still trapped, more than 1,000 hurt and more than 1,300 homes destroyed.
“Most people were shocked ... some couldn’t even talk. But there were others who couldn’t stop crying and shouting,” photographer Omid Haqjoo, who visited four villages Sunday, told The Associated Press by phone from Afghanistan’s fourth largest city, Herat.
Saturday’s magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit a densely populated area near Herat. It was followed by strong aftershocks.
A Taliban government spokesman on Sunday provided the toll that, if confirmed, would make it one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades.
An earthquake that hit eastern Afghanistan in June 2022, striking a rugged, mountainous region, wiped out stone and mud-brick homes and killed at least 1,000 people.
People in Herat freed a baby girl from a collapsed building after she was buried up to her neck in debris. A hand cradled the baby’s torso as rescuers eased the child out of the ground. Rescuers said it was the baby’s mother. It was not clear if the mother survived. The video was shared online and verified by The Associated Press.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s epicenter was about 25 miles northwest of Herat. It was followed by three very strong aftershocks, measuring magnitude 6.3, 5.9 and 5.5, as well as lesser shocks.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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HONOLULU, HI - The area around the Maui town largely destroyed by wildfire two months ago began welcoming back travelers on Sunday after the mayor and Hawaii’s governor pushed ahead to restart tourism to boost the economy despite opposition from some Lahaina residents.
Five hotels in West Maui were accepting reservations again, according to their websites and the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association. In addition, eight timeshare properties were opening across the region early this month, including some a few miles from the devastation.
The reopening fell on the two-month anniversary of the wildfire that killed at least 98 people and destroyed more than 2,000 structures, many of them homes and apartments.
Many local residents have objected to resuming tourism in West Maui, which includes Lahaina town and a stretch of coastline to the north. Opponents said they don’t want travelers asking them about their traumatic experiences while they are grieving the loss of their loved ones and processing the destruction of their homes.
More than 3,500 Lahaina-area residents signed a petition asking Hawaii Gov. Josh Green to delay the restart. Green said restarting would help Maui’s tourism-driven economy get on a path to recovery.
It’s not clear how many travelers were staying at hotels and timeshares. Lisa Paulson, executive director of the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association, said her organization’s surveys indicated the number will be “low.” She predicted “a very slow ramp up to visitors coming back.”
Maui County on Saturday released a video message from Mayor Richard Bissen acknowledging the difficulties of the situation.
“I know we are still grieving, and it feels too soon. But the reality is there are those in our community who are ready to get back to work. Bills need to be paid, keiki have needs and our kupuna face continued medical care,” Bissen said, using the Hawaiian words for children and elders, respectively.
Another video message prepared by the county urged visitors to show respect by staying away from the burn zone, not taking and posting “inappropriate images” on social media, and following signs and instructions.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Bangladesh’s most severe dengue outbreak on record has killed more than 1,000 people since the beginning of the year, a grim milestone in the surge of the mosquito-borne illness.
At least 1,030 people have died, and more than 210,000 have been infected in Bangladesh since Jan. 1, according to government data published Tuesday, putting a strain on the South Asian nation’s fragile medical system and sending officials scrambling to mitigate the spread. Among the dead are more than 100 children younger than 16. The country recorded just 281 dengue deaths for all of last year.
Globally, recorded dengue cases have increased eightfold from 2000 to 2022, according to the World Health Organization.
Raman Velayudhan, who leads the WHO’s program for the control of neglected tropical diseases, said in July that about half of the world’s population is now at risk of the infection.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Last weekend was so chilly that people dug sweaters out of their closets. The latter half of this week will be so hot they’ll be reaching for swimsuits and sunscreen.
A large high-pressure system developing over the eastern Pacific will progressively raise daytime high temperatures across San Diego County starting today, the National Weather Service said.
San Diego’s daytime high will be 75 today, 81 on Wednesday, 85 on Thursday and Friday and 83 on Saturday. The seasonal high is 76.
Ramona’s daytime high will be 80 today, 89 on Wednesday, 92 on Thursday, 93 on Friday and 92 on Saturday. Winds will be light, so the heat could feel even more intense.
Forecasters originally thought that the first Santa Ana winds of fall would coincide with and deepen the heat wave. But that idea has been dropped from the forecast.
Sea surface temperatures will be in the range of 67 to 69 degrees for the next few days, and surf will be 1 to 3 feet high.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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More than 100 dolphins have died in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest in the past week as the region grapples with a severe drought, and many more could die soon if water temperatures remain high, experts say.
The Mamiraua Institute, a research group of Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, said two more dead dolphins were found Monday in the region around Tefe Lake, which is key for mammals and fish in the area. Video provided by the institute showed vultures picking at the dolphin carcasses beached on the lakeside. Thousands of fish have also died, local media reported.
Experts believe high water temperatures are the most likely cause of the deaths in the lakes in the region. Temperatures since last week have exceeded 100 degrees in the Tefe Lake region.
The Brazilian government’s Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, which manages conservation areas, said last week it had sent teams of veterinarians and aquatic mammal experts to investigate the deaths.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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SAN DIEGO, CA - From the backcountry of Campo to the back roads of Ramona, firefighters were ready to roll last fall at even the hint of wildfire.
Two years of below-average rain and high temperatures had left the landscape parched. Something as small as heat from a car muffler could be enough to ignite grass. Firefighters described the region as primed to burn.
The unexpected followed.
The rainy season that ended on Saturday night was the wettest in nearly 20 years and featured a social media sensation in the form of Hilary, the first tropical storm to make a direct hit on San Diego in more than 80 years.
The 500-mile-wide system methodically moved up the Pacific coast of Mexico and surged into San Diego County on Aug. 20, where it dropped more than 7 inches of rain on Mount Laguna, and 1.82 inches on San Diego International Airport, which averages 0.01 inches for the month.
Boulders tumbled onto Interstate 8 near In-Ko-Pah. Swiftwater rescue crews aided about a dozen people at a homeless camp on the San Diego River near Morena. DoorDash suspended food deliveries. And the Navy felt relief that officials had sent many of its warships out to sea so they wouldn’t get battered at their piers in San Diego Harbor.
Part of the blustery storm then chugged into greater Los Angeles, producing a ring of floodwater around Dodger Stadium that amused Padres fans. Another piece curled east and flooded the Las Vegas Strip.
Hilary contributed to what turned out to be a very impressive amount of precipitation during the so-called rainy season, which lasts from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30 of each year. It’s also referred to as the water year.
The San Diego airport recorded 15.72 inches of rain, which is 5.96 inches above average. The last time San Diego received more precipitation was during the 2004-05 season, when the airport received 22.60 inches, the weather service said.
Oceanside Harbor received 23.47 inches, which is 13.20 inches above average. Escondido logged 29.77 inches, which is 15.25 inches above average. And Ramona got 25.63 inches, which is 10.98 inches above average.
The heaviest rainfall hit Palomar Mountain, which recorded 69.26 inches, which is 38.85 inches above average, the weather service added.
Forecasters said that San Diego County got drenched because comparatively few strong high pressure systems appeared and lingered off the Gulf of Alaska and Pacific Northwest, allowing storms to sink into Southern California. The opposite happened during the previous two seasons.
The county also experienced a wet winter because numerous atmospheric rivers developed in the Pacific. The term refers to large plumes of moisture that form in the subtropics and sometimes get drawn into California by North Pacific storms. Their moisture increases the power of many storms.
More than 30 “ARs” developed during this rainy season, according to UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Many of the plumes affected San Diego County, especially in January, when San Diego got 5.14 inches of rain, more than twice its average rainfall.
The rainy season also was notable for its snowfall. The San Bernardino Mountains northeast of San Diego County got more than 100 inches of snow is less than a week in early March. Far smaller amounts fell in the San Diego mountains. But white-out conditions hit some elevated areas, and the combination of snow and fierce winds made travel on I-8 in eastern San Diego County treacherous and, at times, impassable.
Then there was the cold.
Beginning in November, San Diego experienced eight consecutive months of below-average temperatures, something that had not happened since the early 1960s.
And from June 1 through Aug. 31, the city’s daytime high temperature did not rise above 84 degrees.
“That’s unusual,” said Liz Adams, a weather service forecaster. “It usually gets into the 90s. That didn’t happen this year.”
The robust rain and cool temperatures have reduced the risk of wildfires. But Adams’ colleague, Alex Tardy, said this is not a moment for complacency.
“If we got a couple of weeks of strong Santa Ana winds it could really dry out the vegetation across the county,” Tardy said. “We’d lose much of the advantage we’ve had.”
There’s a reason to feel edgy about it. The near-term forecast calls for potentially strong Santa Anas. They’re expected to start blowing on Wednesday.
A lot of people are listening particularly closely to Tardy. He’s the forecaster who correctly predicted, five days in advance, that Hilary would blow directly through San Diego.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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NEW YORK, NY - Heavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding region Friday, bringing flash floods, shutting down entire subway lines, turning major roadways into lakes and sending children to the upper floors of flooding schoolhouses. Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency, urging New Yorkers to stay home and singling out those who live in basements to brace for the worst.
State and city leaders implored residents not to underestimate a storm that flipped from falling rain to fire-hose torrents in minutes. Hochul called it a “life-threatening rainfall event,” and Mayor Eric Adams called the storm “something that we cannot take lightly and we are not taking lightly.” The city’s residents, while largely caught by surprise, took heed, and many stayed home and off the roads.
Citywide cellphone pings pushed alerts from the National Weather Service throughout the day, repeatedly extending a “considerable” flash-flood warning, a level reserved for extreme and rare rainfall events.
Cascading waterfalls shut down subway lines across much of the city, with service being halted even at major hubs like Barclays Center. Trains were rerouted with little warning.
“I have no idea what’s happening,” one subway conductor said as her Q train moved onto the E line. “I don’t know where we’re going.”
Commuters turned and ventured back home on foot through scenes of chaos and upheaval.
Water gushed into brownstone basements in Park Slope. In Prospect Park, the landscape was altered by new creeks. In Queens, the storm was generational, making Friday the wettest day at Kennedy International Airport since modern record-keeping began.
The streets in Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, a neighborhood built on the slant of a hill, were engulfed in minutes in currents dotted with whitecaps, just as schools were opening their doors. Boys and girls slogged through deep water on 11th Avenue to reach their elementary school classes while neighbors with rakes tried to clear storm drains of dense fallen leaves.
Scenes both placid and fraught played out in the city, depending on how hard the rain was falling. Central Park became a miniature Venice, with waist-high rivers beneath its iconic arched bridges. A man in a drenched business suit leaned on a fence by the Great Lawn, and removed his boots one at a time to empty them of water.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Lawmakers probing the cause of last month’s deadly Maui wildfire did not get many answers during Thursday’s congressional hearing on the role the electrical grid played in the disaster.
Still, the president of Hawaiian Electric — Maui’s sole electricity provider — promised to gather and provide more details about exactly what happened Aug. 8, including when the power stopped flowing through downed power lines in Lahaina and exactly when the decision was made to trigger a procedure designed to ensure broken lines were not re-energized.
The fire in the historic town of Lahaina killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, mostly homes. It first erupted at 6:30 a.m. when strong winds appeared to cause a Hawaiian Electric power line to fall, igniting dry brush and grass near a large subdivision. The fire was initially declared contained, but it flared up again around 3 p.m. and spread through the town.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that aerial and satellite imagery shows the gully where the fire reignited that afternoon has long been choked with plants and trash, which a severe summer drought turned into tinder-dry fuel for fires. Photos taken after the blaze show charred foliage in the utility’s right-of-way still more than 10 feet high, and a resident who lives next to the gully said it had not been mowed in the 20 years he’s lived there.
Asked about the issue Thursday during the U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, Shelee Kimura, president of Hawaiian Electric, reiterated the company’s position that it is only responsible for trimming trees that are tall enough to contact electric lines.
Lawmakers questioned Kimura and other utility officials about how the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century began — and whether the electrical grid in Lahaina was safe and properly maintained.
There is still much to sort out about the fire, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said. Among questions that need to be answered are how the fires spread and what efforts to reduce fire risk have been made in recent years.
“It is extremely important that we ... ask the hard questions,” he said.
The factors that led to the fire are complex and involve several organizations, Kimura said. “There’s a system here that was in play for all of these conditions to happen all at one time that resulted in the devastation in Lahaina,” she said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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HONOLULU, HI - From just outside the burn zone in Lahaina, Jes Claydon can see the ruins of the rental home where she lived for 13 years and raised three children. Little remains recognizable beyond the jars of sea glass that stood outside the front door.
Officials will begin lifting restrictions today on entry to the area, and Claydon hopes to collect those jars and any other mementos she might find.
“I want the freedom to just be there and absorb what happened,” Claydon said. “Whatever I might find, even if it’s just those jars of sea glass, I’m looking forward to taking it. ... It’s a piece of home.”
Authorities will begin allowing the first residents and property owners to return to their properties in the burn zone, many for the first time since it was demolished nearly seven weeks ago, on Aug. 8, by the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
The prospect of returning has stirred strong emotions in residents who fled in vehicles or on foot as the wind-whipped flames raced across Lahaina, the historic capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom, and overcame people stuck in traffic trying to escape. Some survivors jumped over a sea wall and sheltered in the waves as hot black smoke blotted out the sun. The wildfire killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, most of them homes.
Claydon’s home was a single-story cinderblock house painted a reddish-tan, similar to the red dirt in Lahaina. She can see the property from a National Guard blockade that has kept unauthorized people out of the burn zone. A few of the walls are still standing, she said.
Authorities have divided the burned area into 17 zones and dozens of sub-zones. Residents or property owners of the first to be cleared for reentry — known as Zone 1C — will be allowed to return on supervised visits today and Tuesday.
Darryl Oliveira of the Maui Emergency Management Agency said officials also want to ensure that they have the space and privacy to reflect or grieve as they see fit.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Nearly a day after being downgraded from a tropical storm, Ophelia still threatened parts of the Northeast on Sunday with coastal flooding, life-threatening waves and heavy rain from Washington to New York City, the National Hurricane Center said.
As Ophelia weakened, a new tropical storm named Philippe brewed in the Atlantic.
Even though Ophelia was downgraded Saturday night, meteorologists warned that swells generated by the storm would affect the East Coast for the rest of the weekend, likely causing dangerous surf conditions and rip currents. Ophelia was also expected to drop 1 to 3 inches of additional rain over parts of the Mid-Atlantic and New England. Isolated river flooding was also possible.
Ophelia was expected to move over Washington and continue northeast before turning east and then weakening more over the next two days, according to the hurricane center. Meanwhile, Philippe was 1,175 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands, which are off the west coast of Africa. That storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph.
The National Weather Service said numerous New Jersey communities reported coastal flooding, including Sea Isle City and Brielle. Thousands of people in the state remained without power Sunday.
Flooding and road closures were also reported in coastal Delaware.
The storm came ashore Saturday near Emerald Isle, NC, with near-hurricane-strength winds of 70 mph, but the winds weakened as the system traveled north, the hurricane center said.
Videos from social media showed significant flooding in the state's riverfront communities such as New Bern, Belhaven and Washington.
Even before making landfall, Ophelia proved treacherous enough that five people, including three children, had to be rescued Friday night by the Coast Guard. They were aboard a 38-foot catamaran stuck in choppy water and strong winds while anchored off Cape Lookout, NC.
In other developments, high winds forced New York City officials to suspend ferry service to Rockaway.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A weather system that was brewing along the East Coast became Tropical Storm Ophelia on Friday and was forecast to soak portions of the Carolinas and the mid-Atlantic region with up to 7 inches of rain over the weekend.
Tropical storm conditions were already spreading toward the coast of North Carolina on Friday morning. More than 7 million people from the Carolinas to Delaware were under tropical storm warnings, according to the National Weather Service.
As of 5 p.m. Friday, the National Hurricane Center estimated that Ophelia’s sustained winds had increased to about 70 mph and that the storm was about 165 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras, N.C.
Some “additional strengthening cannot be ruled out” as Ophelia crosses the warm waters of the Gulf Stream as it approaches North Carolina, the hurricane center said. After it makes landfall, the storm is expected to quickly weaken.
“We are starting to see some of the impacts,” Will Ray, North Carolina’s emergency management director, said in an interview Friday, shortly after the storm reached tropical storm strength.
Residents were advised to stock up on supplies and take other precautions, including securing outdoor furniture, monitoring official alerts and preparing an emergency plan.
“There is a lot of public messaging going on,” Ray added.
Rainfall totals across the area will vary and could lead to some flooding. Portions of North Carolina and Virginia could receive up to 7 inches while points northward could get up to 4 inches. Forecasters also warned that the system could spawn tornadoes through today.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin declared a state of emergency Friday in Virginia, where residents were told to prepare for heavy rain, flooding, wind damage, tornadoes and other storm-related forces through Sunday.
A hurricane watch was in effect north of Surf City to Ocracoke Inlet, N.C. Tropical storm warnings were in effect Friday evening from Cape Fear, N.C., north to Fenwick Island, Del.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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On the heels of a record-setting wet and warm August, forecasters are warning that El Niño is gaining strength and will almost certainly persist into 2024.
El Niño, the warm phase of the El Niño-La Niña Southern Oscillation pattern, is a major driver of weather worldwide and is often associated with hotter global temperatures and wetter conditions in California.
The system arrived in June and has been steadily gaining strength, with a 95 percent chance that it will persist into at least the first three months of 2024, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The odds of the system becoming a “strong” El Niño have increased to 71 percent.
That could result in a soggy January, February and March in Central and Southern California, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with UCLA.
“Right now, if you had to put money on it, the good money would probably be on a significantly wetter-than-average second half to winter in particular,” Swain said during a briefing Thursday, noting that those months are already the wettest time of year in Central and Southern California.
However, the odds of that occurring currently range from 40 percent to 60 percent, he said, so it is far from a guarantee.
NOAA officials shared a similarly inconclusive outlook for the Golden State. The strong El Niño will be meeting with long-term drying trends and anomalously warm ocean temperatures driven by climate change, making its outcome increasingly difficult to predict.
Forecasts currently show equal chances of wetter- or drier-than-normal conditions between October and December in most of California, said Scott Handel, a meteorologist with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.
Adding to the uncertainty is characteristic variation among El Niño events, with no two playing out the same way.
“It is never a guarantee,” said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services. “The best case study is last year with a La Niña, and all the models calling for below-normal precipitation. That was not what happened.”
This La Niña winter was among the wettest in recent memory, with more than 30 atmospheric rivers pummeling California, causing devastating levee breaches, fatal flooding and the resurgence of Tulare Lake.
Null said data from previous El Niño events also demonstrate its unpredictability. A strong El Niño in 1957-58 resulted in above-average precipitation across California, as did very strong El Niños in 1982-83 and 1997-98.
But the most recent very strong El Niño in 2015-16 was relatively dry in California, resulting in just 86 percent of normal precipitation in the southern coastal region, Null said.
“I would not put any money on a long-range forecast — there are too many other things that could change the outcome,” he said.
That includes lesser-known patterns that can also affect weather behavior, such as the Madden-Julian Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation.
Null said most of the models he has reviewed point to a “dry-ish” December, a “normal-ish” January, and a February and March that are above normal for precipitation.
“All of this is overlaid with the fact that the oceans and the atmosphere are warmer,” he added. “Every weather event has some climate change DNA in it these days.”
Indeed, the outlook comes as NOAA officials affirm that August was Earth’s hottest month on record. The three-month period of June through August, known as meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere, saw record warmth as well.
Ocean temperatures also soared to new highs, including some parts of the Pacific and Atlantic basins that are as much as 10 degrees above normal, Swain said. The ocean temperatures are so anomalously high that it is hard to be certain how El Niño will interact with them.
“El Niño, right now, is not the only game in town,” Swain said. “What we’ve never seen before is a strong El Niño event of this magnitude combined with record-breaking ocean temperatures in so many other places concurrently. That is a pretty different situation.”
Though the unique conditions have left forecasters in “a little bit of limbo,” Swain said it would still be wise to prepare for another wet winter in Central and Southern California, as the odds are tilted toward that outcome.
“The implications of having another (wet winter) consecutively are greater,” Swain said. “Right now we’re not so worried about water scarcity in California, but we’re probably more concerned about the potential for faster and more intense runoff from winter storms because things never fully dried out from last year.”
The soaking storms that started the year were later followed by Tropical Storm Hilary, which dropped considerable rain when it barreled through the state in August.
Some California regions received roughly 5 inches of rainfall over a two-day period from Hilary, said Brett Whitin, service coordination hydrologist with the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
Some desert areas saw rainfall totals of 150 percent of their entire annual average during the storm, Whitin said.
The extreme precipitation events that have marked 2023, he added, are a good demonstration of “the wild ride we’ve had in California this year.”
(Hayley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Temperature records continue to topple. Last month was the planet’s warmest August in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 174-year record, agency officials said Thursday. The global surface temperature for the month was 2.25 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.25 degrees Celsius, above the 20th-century average.
“We certainly are setting records that are significantly larger,” said Karin Gleason, a climatologist at NOAA.
June and July were also the warmest on record globally, meaning the Northern Hemisphere saw its warmest summer on record and the Southern Hemisphere its warmest winter.
Global surface sea temperatures hit a record high for the fifth month in a row.
August saw the formation of 19 named storms across the globe, with eight reaching tropical cyclone strength. Six of these storms, including two hurricanes, happened in the Atlantic Ocean — more than usual for the region.
The effect of climate change on hurricanes is not straightforward. As wind patterns change, there may be slightly fewer tropical storms. But when storms do form, they will gather more energy from the hotter ocean and become stronger, sometimes over a single day or just a few hours. More hurricanes are likely to reach Category 3 or higher, as Idalia did.
This year will almost certainly be either the warmest or second-warmest year on human record after 2016, NOAA scientists said. El Niño conditions, which release additional heat into the atmosphere and are associated with warmer years on average, are expected to last at least through the northern hemisphere winter.
“We expect the heat to continue for the rest of 2023,” Gleason said.
Depending on how long El Niño persists, on top of the steady global warming from climate change, “It’s possible that 2024 could be even warmer than 2023,” she said.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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A growing number of Americans are finding it difficult to afford insurance on their homes, a problem only expected to worsen because insurers and lawmakers have underestimated the impact of climate change, a new report says.
A report from First Street Foundation released Wednesday says states such as California, Florida and Louisiana, which are prone to wildfires and damaging storms and flooding, are likely to see the most dramatic increases in premiums. But the fire that destroyed the Hawaiian community of Lahaina on Aug. 8, as well as the historic flooding that happened in Vermont and Maine in July, are examples of events that could drive up insurance costs for homeowners in other states.
“If you’re not worried, you’re not paying attention,” said California Sen. Bill Dodd, whose district includes the wine-country counties devastated by the LNU Complex fires in 2020.
First Street estimates, factoring climate models into the financial risk of properties in its report, that roughly 39 million properties — roughly a quarter of all homes in the country — are being underpriced for the climate risk to insure those properties.
“Some places may be impacted very minimally, but other places could see massive increases in insurance premiums in the coming years,” said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications at First Street and a co-author of the report.
First Street, a New York-based nonprofit, has been a go-to researcher on the financial implications of climate change for years. Their research is used by Fannie Mae, Bank of America, the Treasury Department and others for understanding the potential risks to properties.
There are several signs that climate change is taking its toll on the insurance industry. The U.S. homeowner’s insurance industry has had three straight years of underwriting losses, according to credit rating agency AM Best. Losses for the first half of 2023 totaled $24.5 billion, which is roughly what was lost in all of 2022.
“(Climate change) is a problem that is already here,” said Todd Bevington, a managing director at the insurance broker VIU by HUB. In his 30 years of doing insurance, he said “I’ve never seen the market turn this quickly or significantly.”
Skyrocketing insurance costs are a serious concern for the small town of Paradise in Northern California, which was nearly wiped out by a deadly 2018 wildfire that killed 85 people.
Jen Goodlin moved back to her hometown from Colorado with her family in 2020, determined to help in the town’s recovery. They began building on a lot they had purchased, and moved into their new house in October 2022.
In July, she was shocked to receive notice that the family’s homeowner insurance premium would be $11,245 — up from $2,500.
“Our insurance agent said, ‘Just be thankful we didn’t drop you,’ and I said, ‘You did, you just dropped me,’” she said.
Goodlin, a former dental hygienist who is now executive director of the nonprofit Rebuild Paradise Foundation, said hundreds, if not thousands, of people are being hit by these rate hikes in a town being built with updated fire-safe building codes and little if any fuel to burn. She knows a homeowner whose premium is now $21,000 for a newly constructed home.
Record numbers of Americans are now insured through state-affiliated “insurers of last resort” like California’s FAIR Plan, or Louisiana or Florida’s Citizens property insurance companies. These programs were designed to insure properties where private insurance companies have refused to insure or the price for private insurance is too expensive.
Goodlin will soon be one of those homeowners. She said she’s in the process of transitioning to the FAIR Plan.
The number of homeowners covered by California’s FAIR Plan was 268,321 in 2021, almost double what it was five years before. That figure has almost certainly increased in the last two years, experts say. In Florida, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. now has 1.4 million homeowners’ policies in effect, nearly triple in five years.
In some cases, policymakers have bound the hands of insurance companies, leading to an underpricing of risk. For example, the most a California insurance company can raise a homeowner’s premium by law each year is 7 percent without involving a public hearing, a process that most insurers want to avoid. Those policies, along with the increased chance of catastrophic events, have led insurers like State Farm and Allstate to either pull out of the California market or pause underwriting new policies.
As a result, California’s FAIR plan, which was created 50 years ago as a temporary stopgap measure for those impacted by riots and brush fires in the 1960s, is now the only option available to homeowners in some ZIP codes.
“We’ve got to find a way to get insurers ... back into the market, to take people out of the FAIR Plan so that we can reduce the risk there,” Dodd said.
Dodd was one of the key lawmakers trying to negotiate a bill in the final weeks of the state’s legislative session to address the issue. But all sides failed to reach an agreement.
There are likely to be more insurance market failures in the future, Porter said, as more insurers simply refuse to underwrite policies in certain communities or go property by property. Comparisons to the National Flood Insurance Program, which is now $22.5 billion in debt, have become common.
Even the backstop programs are buckling under tremendous losses. Louisiana’s insurer of last resort, Citizens, raised its rates for 2023 by 63.1 percent statewide to cover higher costs.
This summer, reinsurance companies such as Swiss Re and Munich Re raised their property catastrophe reinsurance premiums in the U.S. by an average of 20 percent to 50 percent. Reinsurance brokerage firm Guy Carpenter & Co. said it was the highest increase for reinsurance rates since the year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
“It’s a global problem. Virtually every geography is seeing a repricing of risk,” said Lara Mowery, global head of distribution at Guy Carpenter, in an interview.
Reinsurers step in to help cover losses resulting from a catastrophe, so regular insurance companies do not take on all of the risk. In one example of a typical reinsurance contract, a $20 million contract could require the insurance company to cover the first $10 million in claims and the reinsurer to pick up the other $10 million.
Mowery added that many reinsurance firms now have resources dedicated to studying the impact of climate change on how to price catastrophes.
There have been other factors impacting the insurance industry as well. Inflation has made the cost of repairing homes pricier and home prices remain near record levels. A labor shortage means getting damaged homes repaired may take longer, requiring insurers to pay for temporary housing for policyholders longer.
In short, an industry whose business model is calculating risk based on what happened in the past is increasingly unable to do so.
“You can no longer rely on 100 years of wildfire data to price risk when the unprecedented has happened,” Mowery said.
While the intensity of wildfires, floods and storms can vary from year to year, the trend lines in these models point to more wildfire activity as well as more intense storms, all likely to result in more catastrophic amounts of damage that insurance companies will have to cover.
Factoring in climate models and acres estimated to be burned, First Street estimates that by 2050, roughly 34,000 homes will burn down because of wildfires every year. That’s roughly the equivalent of losing the city of Asheville, N.C., every year.
Going forward, it may become more necessary for potential homebuyers to look at the cost of insuring the property they are looking at before locking in a mortgage rate, due to the potential for significant rate hikes in the future.
“It used to be homeowner’s insurance was an afterthought when you are looking at buying a property. Now you’ll really need to do your research into what risks there may be in that property in the coming years,” Bevington said.
(Ken Sweet, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LONDON, UK - After years of claiming leadership in the international fight against climate change, Britain’s government on Wednesday gambled on an abrupt change of course, weakening key environmental pledges and promising lower costs for Britons.
Brushing aside criticism from business leaders, environmentalists and some of his own Conservative lawmakers, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he would stick to Britain’s overall goals for achieving net zero by 2050 but would do so in what he described as a more “sensible” way.
“It cannot be right for Westminster to impose such significant costs on working people,” said Sunak, referring to Britain’s government. He added, “If we continue down this path we risk losing the consent of the British people.”
Sunak said that he would delay by five years a ban on the sale of gas and diesel cars, lower targets for replacing gas boilers and would propose no new measures to discourage passengers from taking airplanes or to encourage carpooling.
Analysts said the shift was designed to set a dividing line between the government and the opposition Labour Party before a general election that Sunak must call by January 2025. Labour, led by Keir Starmer, has maintained a double-digit lead in the polls for months, and Sunak’s own ratings have fallen since he became prime minister last October.
Tom Burke, the chair of E3G, an environmental research group, said that Sunak was seeking to send a political signal that his party supports car owners and those in economically stressed parts of the country.
“The point of this is to put Starmer in a trap of having to choose between the left-behind voters who he needs to win back, and the young green urbanites who are his natural supporters,” said Burke. He added, however, that Sunak’s shift was a “strategic error” that had revealed “the split inside the Tory Party” over climate action.
Several lawmakers on the right of Sunak’s party, and Britain’s influential right-wing newspapers, praised the new approach and noted that the new, delayed, target of 2035 for the ban on sale of new gas and diesel cars is the same as that of the European Union.
But prominent critics included former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said that “business must have certainty about our net zero commitments.”
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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KINSHASA, Congo - Torrential rain in northwestern Congo caused a landslide that killed at least 17 people overnight, authorities said Sunday, warning the toll could rise as rescuers sift through rubble beneath collapsed homes.
The disaster took place along the Congo River in the town of Lisal in northwestern Mongala province, according to Matthieu Mole, president of the civil society organization Forces Vives. The victims lived in homes that were built at the foot of a mountain.
“A torrential downpour caused a lot of damage, including a landslide that swallowed up several houses,” he said. “The toll is still provisional as bodies are still under the rubble.”
Gov. Cesar Limbaya Mbangisa said machinery was desperately needed to help clear away the debris and try to save any survivors. The governor also offered his condolences to the victims’ families and decreed three days of mourning throughout the province.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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BAR HARBOR, ME - Atlantic storm Lee made landfall at near-hurricane strength Saturday in Nova Scotia, Canada, after bringing destructive winds, rough surf and torrential rains to a large swath of New England and Maritime Canada that toppled trees, swamped coastlines and cut power to tens of thousands. One person was killed in Maine when a tree limb fell on his vehicle.
With sustained winds of 70 mph, the center of the post-tropical cyclone came ashore about 135 miles west of Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. That’s about 50 miles southeast of Eastport, Maine.
The storm was expected to weaken as it moved into New Brunswick and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In the United States, a tropical storm warning remained in effect from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, north to the U.S.-Canada border. That included Bar Harbor, the touristy gateway to Acadia National Park, where a whale watch vessel broke free of its mooring and crashed ashore. Authorities worked to offload 1,800 gallons of diesel fuel to prevent it from spilling into the ocean.
Lee flooded coastal roads in Nova Scotia and took ferries out of service as it fanned anxiety in a region still reeling from wildfires and severe flooding this summer. The province’s largest airport, Halifax Stanfield International, canceled all flights.
“People are exhausted. ... It’s so much in such a small time period,” said Pam Lovelace, a councilor in Halifax.
Hurricane-force winds extended as far as 140 miles from Lee’s center, with tropical storm-force winds extending as far as 390 miles — enough to cover all of Maine and much of Maritime Canada.
The storm was so big that it caused power outages several hundred miles from its center. At midday Saturday, 11 percent of electricity customers in Maine lacked power, along with 27 percent of Nova Scotia, 8 percent of New Brunswick and 3 percent of Prince Edward Island.
Storm surge of up to 3 feet was expected along coastal areas, accompanied by large and destructive waves, the hurricane center said. Lee could drop as much as 4 inches of rain on parts of Maine, Massachusetts, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick through Saturday night, with the potential for local flooding.
A 51-year-old motorist in Searsport, Maine, died after a large tree limb fell on his vehicle Saturday on U.S. Highway 1 during a period of high winds, the first fatality attributed to the storm.
The tree limb brought down live power lines, and utility workers had to cut power before the man could be removed, said Police Chief Brian Lunt. The unidentified man died later at a hospital, Lunt said.
The storm skirted some of the most waterlogged areas of Massachusetts that experienced severe flash flooding days earlier, when fast water washed out roads, caused sinkholes, damaged homes and flooded vehicles.
In eastern Maine, winds died down enough by late afternoon for utility workers to begin using their bucket trucks to make repairs. Both Central Maine Power and Versant Power had hundreds of workers, including out-of-state crews, to assist in the effort.
“At this point, the storm is resembling a nor’easter,” said Sarah Thunberg, a National Weather Service meteorologist, referring to the fall and winter storms that often plague the region and are so named because their winds blow from the northeast. They typically have a much wider wind field than tropical systems, whose winds stay closer to a storm’s center.
But the entire region has experienced an especially wet summer — it ranked second in the number of rainy days in Portland, Maine — and Lee’s high winds toppled trees stressed by the rain-soaked ground in Maine, the nation’s most heavily wooded state.
Forecasters urged residents to stay home, but many ventured out anyway.
Betsy Follansbee and her husband, Fred, jogged to Higgins Beach in Scarborough, Maine, to watch surfers — some wearing helmets — paddling out to catch waves reaching 12 feet. They were the biggest waves Follansbee has seen in her 10 years living there, she said.
“We’re impressed that they’re bold enough to try,” Follansbee said.
(Robert F. Bukaty & David Sharp, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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WAILUKU, HI - Authorities in Hawaii have adjusted the number of deaths from the deadly Maui wildfires down to at least 97 people.
Previously officials said they believed at least 115 people had died in the fires, but further testing showed they had multiple DNA samples from some of those who died. The number of those who were missing also fell from 41 to 31, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said.
John Byrd, laboratory director with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, said during a news conference Friday afternoon that the current number of dead should be considered a minimum, because it’s possible that toll could rise.
Determining the death toll from the Aug. 8 wildfires in Lahaina has been especially complicated because of the damage caused by the fire and the chaos as people tried to escape, officials said. In some cases, animal remains were inadvertently collected along with human remains.
So far, 74 of the deceased have been positively identified, Pelletier said.
The Lahaina fire is the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century. Caught in a hellscape, some residents died in their cars, while others jumped into the ocean or tried to run for safety. The Aug. 8 blaze reduced much of the historic town to ash.
Byrd said the initial death tally was too high for several reasons, adding that the lower tally now was the “normal and natural” progression of the long-term forensics investigation.
“We look at body bags that come in and we do an initial inventory and we assess how many people are represented there," he said. “When you do the first tally of all those that have come in, the number tends to be too high because as you begin to do more analysis and examination you realize that actually you’ve got two bags that were the same person or you have two bags that were the same two people but you didn’t realize that.”
“The numbers start a little too high on the morgue side and eventually settles until at some point it’s going to be a final accurate number. I would say we’re not quite there yet,” Byrd said.
Only people who have had a missing person report filed for them with the Maui Police Department are on the verified missing list, Pelletier said. If a missing person report hasn’t been filed for someone more than five weeks after the fire, then that person probably isn’t actually missing, the chief said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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DERNA, Libya - Libyan authorities curbed access to much of the northeastern city of Derna on Friday, as health officials and relief crews struggled to handle thousands of victims of the floods that have devastated the region.
Only emergency medical workers will be allowed to enter the city, after streams of people arrived with no direction or coordination, hampering search-and-rescue efforts, said Osama Ali, a spokesperson for an ambulance center in the country’s east.
Ordinary Libyans desperately seeking loved ones missing or killed in the flood, and volunteers eager to help and show solidarity with their fellow citizens, are among those making their way to the city.
Authorities “are still looking for people in collapsed buildings, but the chance of finding survivors is diminishing by the hour,” said Rick Brennan, who directs the World Health Organization’s emergency response for the Eastern Mediterranean. “We expect, unfortunately, that most of the missing will not be found alive,” he added.
The catastrophe has prompted an outpouring of international support, with the United States and several European countries vowing to send aid. But Libya is split into two rival governments — one in the west, based in Tripoli; and one in the east — and its terrain has been torn up by the path of the flood, further complicating relief efforts. Key parts of Derna’s infrastructure, including bridges that once crossed the city’s river basin, were erased by the torrential water.
Rains shattered two dams near Derna, on Libya’s northeastern coast, last weekend, destroying much of the city and washing entire neighborhoods into the Mediterranean Sea. Authorities say the death toll exceeds 11,000, with an additional 10,000 people missing.
By Friday morning, electricity and running water had returned to some parts of Derna, relief workers said, and people were trickling in from outside the city to identify loved ones before they were buried. Some of the bodies had been laid out, wrapped in blankets, in the streets, they said. Hundreds were hastily buried in mass graves outside the city, health officials said, in part due to fears that they might spread disease.
“The sea is full of corpses. There are bodies under the rubble. We’re still pulling them out,” said Hawwa el-Bannani, a Benghazi, Libya-based doctor who traveled to the city on an aid mission.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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BAR HARBOR, ME - Fishermen removed lobster traps from the water and residents hauled hundreds of boats ashore — leaving some harbors looking like ghost towns — while utility workers from as far away as Tennessee began taking up positions Friday ahead of Hurricane Lee’s heavy winds, high seas and rain that are expected to span hundreds of miles of land and sea.
The storm is projected to be more than 400 miles wide with tropical-storm-force winds when it reaches land, creating worries of power outages in Maine, the nation’s most heavily forested state, where the ground is saturated and trees are weakened from heavy summer rains.
Lee remained a hurricane with 80 mph winds at night as it headed toward New England and eastern Canada with 20-foot ocean swells, strong winds and rain. Forecasters said there would be winds topping 40 mph across the region, with peak winds reaching upward of 65 mph, ahead of landfall expected this afternoon.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey joined Maine in declaring a state of emergency and asking the Federal Emergency Management Agency to issue a pre-disaster emergency declaration. She also activated up to 50 National Guard members to help with storm preparations, including operating high-water vehicles to respond to flooded areas.
While landfall was projected for nearby Nova Scotia, the Category 1 system was big enough to cause concerns over a wide area even if it weakens to a tropical storm. Parts of coastal Maine could see waves up to 15 feet high crashing down, causing erosion and damage, and the strong gusts will cause power outages, said Louise Fode, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Maine. As much as 5 inches of rain was forecast for eastern Maine, where a flash flood watch was in effect.
In Canada, Ian Hubbard, a meteorologist for Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Hurricane Centre, said Lee won’t be anywhere near the severity of the remnants of Hurricane Fiona, which washed houses into the ocean, knocked out power to most of two provinces and swept a woman into the sea a year ago.
But it is still a dangerous storm. Kyle Leavitt, director of the New Brunswick Emergency Management Organization, urged residents to stay home.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Amid a backdrop of extreme weather events and devastating wildfires, federal and international officials this week issued dire warnings about record-setting temperatures and the worsening effects of climate change.
Last month was the planet’s warmest August on record, and the Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest meteorological summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.
“Global marine heat waves and a growing El Niño are driving additional warming this year, but as long as emissions continue driving a steady march of background warming, we expect further records to be broken in the years to come,” read a statement from NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick.
The warning comes on the heels of a study published this week in the journal Science Advances, which found that the planet has transgressed 6 out of 9 boundaries for processes deemed critical for maintaining the stability and resilience of the Earth system as a whole.
The boundaries include biosphere integrity, freshwater changes and climate change. Two boundaries — air pollution and ocean acidification — are close to being breached, while only one, atmospheric ozone, has slightly recovered.
“Earth is now well outside of the safe operating space for humanity,” the study said.
On Friday, tens of thousands of climate activists — from Europe to Africa to southeast Asia — launched protests to call for an end to the burning of planet-warming fossil fuels amid the globe’s dramatic weather extremes and record-breaking heat, with plans to continue through the weekend.
The protests — driven by several mostly youth-led, local and global climate groups and organizations, including Greta Thunberg's Fridays for Future movement — were taking place in dozens of countries and hundreds of cities worldwide.
According to NOAA researchers, global surface temperatures last month were 2.25 degrees above the 20th-century average of 60.1 degrees, surpassing the previous record, from August 2016, by more than half a degree.
“That to me is a really huge jump from one record to the next,” said Ellen Bartow-Gillies, a physical scientist with NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. She noted that graphs of temperature records dating to the 1850s show a steady climb — accelerating during the industrial era — but that August 2023 was “on a point of its own, essentially.”
In addition to being the warmest August in NOAA’s 174 years of records, the month saw the third-highest temperature anomaly of any month on record, meaning the third-highest from its average.
The hot month continued a trend that began weeks earlier, with June and July both setting monthly temperature records.
Collectively, June through August — a period defined as meteorological summer in the Northern Hemisphere and meteorological winter in the Southern Hemisphere — was the warmest on record. During that period, the Northern Hemisphere was 2.59 degrees above average.
What’s more, the last 10 June-through-August periods are the 10 warmest such periods on record. The year-to-date global surface temperature — January through August — ranked as the second warmest on record.
The report confirmed what millions of people experienced in recent months, including record-shattering heat waves that touched nearly every corner of the planet. Asia, Africa, North America and South America had their warmest August on record, as did the Arctic. Europe and Oceania — a region that includes Australia — had their second-warmest August on record, the report said.
It wasn’t just the land the boiled: August set a record for the highest monthly sea surface temperature anomaly — 1.85 degrees above average. The warming oceans contributed to shrinking sea ice, with Antarctica experiencing its fourth consecutive month with the lowest sea ice extent on record. Globally, sea ice extent in August was about 550,000 square miles less than the previous record low, set in August 2019.
“We’ve seen unprecedented warmth in the global ocean, and that’s definitely alarming because it has ramifications beyond just the scope of the ocean,” Bartow-Gillies said. “Not only are you disturbing marine habitats, but you’re affecting storm creation, you’re creating more instability in some areas, you’re creating flooding events in other areas. There’s a whole host of issues that come along with these warmer ocean surface temperatures that we’re seeing.”
Indeed, the report comes amid a series of brutal, globe-spanning natural disasters.
This week, a Mediterranean storm caused catastrophic flooding in Libya, killing more than 11,000 people. In Canada, wildfires burned through more than 42 million acres of boreal forests this summer, and several are still burning. On Maui, Hawaii, last month, a fast-moving wildfire killed at least 115 people, with hundreds more still missing.
In the U.S. alone, NOAA researchers confirmed 23 weather and climate events that each cost $1 billion or more this year — the all-time highest number of billion-dollar disasters on record.
Though global warming was not the singular cause of any of these disasters, heating of the Earth continues to increase the likelihood of extreme weather events and wildfire worldwide.
“We know that pushing the climate into this state of extreme heat causes a lot of instability across the climate, and causes more inconsistent weather,” Bartow-Gillies said.
In reviewing the dizzying data through August, officials said there is now a 95 percent chance that 2023 will rank among the two warmest years on record.
“The scientific evidence is overwhelming — we will continue to see more climate records and more intense and frequent extreme weather events impacting society and ecosystems, until we stop emitting greenhouse gases,” read a statement from Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, which also determined that this summer was the hottest on record.
Bartow-Gillies said that it’s difficult to quantify how much of the recent warming is due to El Niño — a climate pattern in the tropical Pacific associated with warmer global temperatures — and how much is due to climate change, but that both are playing a part.
“These El Niño conditions that we’re seeing starting to develop and intensify, combined with the general trend of climate change, have sort of laid the groundwork for this extreme heat that we’ve seen over the last few months,” she said. “It becomes like a positive feedback loop, where everything is encouraging one another to reach peak intensity.”
According to the latest forecast from the NOAA, El Niño will stick around through at least early 2024.
(Haley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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DERNA, Libya - The death toll in Libya’s coastal city of Derna has soared to 11,300 as search efforts continue following a massive flood fed by the breaching of two dams in heavy rains, the Libyan Red Crescent said Thursday.
Marie el-Drese, the aid group’s secretary-general, told The Associated Press by phone that a further 10,100 people are reported missing in the Mediterranean city. Health authorities previously put the death toll in Derna at 5,500. The storm also killed about 170 people elsewhere in the country.
The flooding amid an unusually strong Mediterranean storm swept away entire families in Derna on Sunday night and exposed vulnerabilities in the oil-rich country that has been mired in conflict since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
As the storm pounded the coast Sunday night, residents said they heard loud explosions when two dams outside the city collapsed. Floodwaters gushed down Wadi Derna, a valley that cuts through the city, crashing through buildings and washing people out to sea.
A U.N. official said Thursday that most casualties could have been avoided.
“If there would have been a normal operating meteorological service, they could have issued the warnings,” World Meteorological Organization head Petteri Taalas told reporters in Geneva. “The emergency management authorities would have been able to carry out the evacuation.”
The WMO said earlier this week that the National Meteorological Center issued warnings 72 hours before the flooding, notifying all governmental authorities by email and through media.
Officials in eastern Libya warned the public about the coming storm, and on Saturday, they ordered residents to evacuate coastal areas, fearing a surge from the sea. But there was no warning about the dams collapsing.
The two dams that collapsed outside Derna were built in the 1970s. A report by a state-run audit agency in 2021 said the dams had not been maintained despite the allocation of more than 2 million euros for that purpose in 2012 and 2013.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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DERNA, Libya - Search teams combed streets, wrecked buildings and even the sea Wednesday to look for bodies in a coastal Libyan city where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed at least 5,100 people.
The Mediterranean city of Derna has struggled to get help after Sunday night’s deluge washed away most access roads. Aid workers who managed to reach the city described devastation in its center, with thousands still missing and tens of thousands left homeless.
“Bodies are everywhere, inside houses, in the streets, at sea. Wherever you go, you find dead men, women, and children,” Emad al-Falah, an aid worker from Benghazi, said over the phone from Derna. “Entire families were lost.”
Mediterranean storm Daniel caused deadly flooding Sunday in many towns of eastern Libya, but the worst hit was Derna. Two dams in the mountains above the city collapsed, sending floodwaters roaring down the Wadi Derna river and through the city center, sweeping away entire city blocks.
As much as a quarter of the city has disappeared, emergency officials said.
Waves rose as high as 23 feet, Yann Fridez, head of the delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Libya, told broadcaster France24.
Ossama Ali, a spokesman for an ambulance center in eastern Libya, said at least 5,100 deaths were recorded in Derna. More than 7,000 people in the city were injured.
Neighboring Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, as well as Turkey, Italy and the United Arab Emirates, have sent rescue teams and aid. The U.K. and German governments sent assistance too, including blankets, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tents, water filters and generators.
President Joe Biden also said the United States would send money to relief organizations and coordinate with Libyan authorities and the United Nations to provide additional support.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LEOMINSTER, MA - Hurricane Lee barreled north toward New England on Wednesday and threatened to unleash violent storms on the region just as communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island dealt with tornado warnings and a second-straight day of heavy rain that opened up sinkholes and brought devastating flooding to several communities.
Late Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for portions of Maine. A tropical storm watch also was issued for a large area of coastal New England from parts of Rhode Island to Stonington, Maine, including Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket.
The National Weather Service said Wednesday it’s looking into reports of strong winds that toppled trees and knocked down power lines in Rhode Island and Connecticut but is unable to say whether they were the result of tornadoes. Rob Megnia, a meteorologist with the weather service, said they have received reports of about 20 trees down in Killingly, Connecticut, and trees and power lines down in Foster, R.I.
Emergency sirens could be heard late Wednesday afternoon in parts of Providence, R.I., as cellphones pinged with a tornado warning. By early evening, the weather service said a severe thunderstorm capable of producing tornadoes was moving quickly east toward the Massachusetts border, from Cumberland, R.I. The weather service also issued a flash flood warning for parts of Connecticut until 9:45 p.m.
In North Attleborough, which was hit by heavy flooding Monday night, Sean Pope was watching the forecast with unease.
Heavy rains had turned his swimming pool into a mud pit and filled his basement with 3 feet of water. He was able to get the power back on in the first and second floor of the home he shares with his wife and three children, but he worried about more flooding.
“I am hanging on, hoping and watching the forecast and looking for hot spots where it may rain and where there are breaks,” he said. “It’s raining really hard again so we have to make sure the pumps are working.”
Late Tuesday, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued a state of emergency following the “catastrophic flash flooding and property damage” in two counties and other communities. The 10 inches of rain over six hours earlier in the week was a “200-year event,” said Matthew Belk, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Boston.
Healey said Wednesday that while there aren’t plans to call up the National Guard, the state’s emergency management agency is keeping a close eye on the weather and is prepared to offer assistance.
She said the state is monitoring the conditions of dams in many communities and urged residents to take seriously any flood warnings and to stay off the roads when ordered.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Sewage from Tijuana will continue to foul South County beaches unchecked for at least a year before repairs can be made to an aging federal wastewater treatment plant at the U.S.-Mexico border, officials with the binational agency that operates the facility said Wednesday.
And the cost to complete full repairs and expand the entire system has ballooned from $600 million to $900 million, the International Boundary and Water Commission told members of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.
A representative with the International Boundary and Water Commission, or IBWC, said it has an “aggressive program” to come into compliance with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which regulates discharges to the waters of the country and is authorized by the Clean Water Act.
Maria-Elena Giner, an IBWC commissioner, told the water board that the plan for the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant, based in San Ysidro, involves:
Since October 2020, the IBWC has reported about 360 violations of its NPDES permit, most for exceeding the limit of 25 million gallons per day of flow from Mexico that should enter the plant. The water board, which said it learned of violations as reported by the IBWC during routine monitoring reports, issued a notice of violation in February 2021.
In May 2021, it ordered IBWC to complete some repairs, including those Giner announced Wednesday, immediately and others through February of this year. Most of those conditions were met. The water board said Wednesday it will take additional enforcement actions in the coming months. It did not specify what those options were. The plant in San Ysidro provides a backstop for Tijuana by routinely taking more wastewater than it can handle. It discharges treated water through the South Bay Ocean Outfall, which stretches more than 3 miles off the coast of Imperial Beach.
Giner said the repairs to the South Bay plant are expected to cost about $10 million, which the agency has already budgeted, and be completed sometime within the next nine to 12 months.
In November, Mexico is expected to replace a wastewater line at its San Antonio de los Buenos treatment plant, which discharges about 35 million gallons a day of raw sewage into the Pacific Ocean, and that will also help reduce excess flows to the San Diego plant, she added.
This fall, Giner said the IBWC will also solicit bids to hire design and construction firms for the expansion of the plant to eventually double its capacity to 50 million gallons per day. Officials declined to specify when and how they planned to cover costs, citing procurement restrictions.
But with only a $50 million budget to cover all the agency’s construction projects, funding is its biggest challenge.
Elected leaders and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had secured $300 million for a wide-ranging $630 million plan to expand the plant. However, the unspent funds will fall short because of deferred maintenance, which officials estimated to cost about $150 million.
The cost to repair and expand the plant has now ballooned to $900 million because of previous underestimates and changes in the costs of materials, said Giner. She underscored the need for additional funding, which San Diego’s congressional and legislative delegation is pushing for via supplemental appropriation bills.
Water board members agreed.
“I ask everybody in this room, anybody who has a relationship with congressional or senate staff or the individuals themselves, it’s the money that we need,” said water board Chairperson Celeste Cantú. “Obviously, the commitment is there. The expertise is there, the money is not there.”
She also called Giner’s announcements a “glimmer of hope on the horizon” toward fixing cross-border pollution, a sentiment that was not shared by several people who spoke during public comment.
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and others representing environmental groups demanded the water board practice its full range of regulatory authority over IBWC and take a larger role in securing resources to address the sewage crisis.
“The baseline expectations for progress here and for IBWC’s role is a bit unnerving to watch,” said Laura Walsh, policy manager of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation. “It sounds like it’ll be about a year until the IBWC just catches these systems up to where they were supposed to be 10 years ago.”
Aguirre said there must be greater preparation for future rainstorms, which gravely affect transboundary flows.
Last month, Tropical storm Hilary exacerbated the plant’s vulnerabilities. On Aug. 20, flows exceeded the capacity of the plant by 100 percent for six hours, or 50 million gallons per day, and reached 80 million gallons per day on Aug 21. Damages, including pump and electrical issues, will cost the agency about $8 million. IBWC plans to start repairs within 30 days.
Meanwhile, South County residents continue to voice concerns ongoing beach closures, headaches, nausea and losing sleep because the foul smell of sewage wakes them in the middle of the night.
“It’s the worst it’s ever been,” said Aguirre, adding that she will continue calls for the state and federal governments to declare the sewage issue an emergency and “suspend statute and prevent delay caused by the bidding and procurement process.”
On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously continued a state of emergency they declared in June due to the cross-border pollution.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden have not publicly commented on whether they would declare one.
Last month, Newsom urged the president to immediately free up $300 million to make urgent repairs to the plant, but he stopped short of proclaiming an emergency.
(Tammy Murga, S.D. UNION TIBUNE)
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The San Diego City Council approved $9 million Tuesday for short-term repairs to two city dams found to have cracks and other structural problems during state-ordered assessments in 2019.
The repairs will be completed by Orion Construction on the Morena Dam, which is 63 miles east of the city near Campo and the Laguna Mountains, and El Capitan Dam, which is 7 miles east of Lakeside.
While the dams are outside city limits, they are part of San Diego’s vast water network that includes nine reservoirs and dams located across the county.
The state ordered evaluations of many dams across California after the 2017 failure of the Oroville Dam near Sacramento. The dams in San Diego’s network deemed most similar to Oroville are Morena, El Capitan, Hodges and Lower Otay.
San Diego officials say they plan to present a comprehensive long-term repair plan for the city’s dams to the City Council’s infrastructure committee this fall. But they said it was necessary to approve these $9 million in repairs before that.
The repairs will keep the two dams functional while city and state officials come up with design plans and funding for more comprehensive repairs -- or replacement dams.
The city has taken a similar approach on Lake Hodges Dam. It was recently reopened after a year of renovations focused on short-term repairs. City officials plan to spend $275 million building a new dam 100 feet south of the existing dam by 2034.
The work on Morena Dam will include vegetation and debris removal from the spillway chute, filling holes, sealing joints and cracks and putting concrete patches on exposed defective areas. It was built between 1895 and 1912, with remedial improvements in 1917, 1923, 1930 and 1946.
The work on the El Capitan Dam will be similar. It will include concrete repair and non-native vegetation trimming. The concrete work will consist of filling holes, sealing joints and cracks and patching breaks. It was built from from 1932 to 1934.
No timetable for completion of the repairs was provided by city officials.
City efforts on its dams are being overseen by the state’s Division of Safety of Dams, which approved the repair plans for Morena and El Capitan.
The city’s other dams are Murray, Barrett, San Vicente, Sutherland and Miramar.
(David Garrick, S.D. UNION TIBUNE)
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CAIRO, Egypt - Emergency workers uncovered more than 1,500 bodies in the wreckage of Libya’s eastern city of Derna on Tuesday, and it was feared the toll could surpass 5,000 after floodwaters smashed through dams and washed away entire neighborhoods of the city.
The startling death and devastation wreaked by Mediterranean storm Daniel pointed to the storm’s intensity, but also the vulnerability of a nation torn apart by chaos for more than a decade. The country is divided by rival governments, one in the east, the other in the west, and the result has been neglect of infrastructure in many areas.
Outside help was only just starting to reach Derna on Tuesday, more than 36 hours after the disaster struck. The floods damaged or destroyed many access roads to the coastal city of some 89,000.
Footage showed dozens of bodies covered by blankets in the yard of one hospital. Another image showed a mass grave piled with bodies. More than 1,500 corpses were collected, and half of them had been buried as of Tuesday evening, the health minister for eastern Libya said.
At least one official put the death toll at more than 5,000. The state-run news agency quoted Mohammed Abu-Lamousha, a spokesman for the east Libya interior ministry, as saying that more than 5,300 people had died in Derna alone. Derna’s ambulance authority said earlier Tuesday that 2,300 had died.
But the toll is likely to be higher, said Tamer Ramadan, Libya envoy for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. He told a U.N. briefing in Geneva via videoconference from Tunisia that at least 10,000 people were still missing. He said later Tuesday that more than 40,000 people have been displaced.
The destruction came to Derna and other parts of eastern Libya on Sunday night. As the storm pounded the coast, Derna residents said they heard explosions and realized that dams outside the city had collapsed. Floods were unleashed down Wadi Derna, a river running from the mountains through the city and into the sea.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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OUIRGANE, Morocco - Hopes were fading of finding survivors in the rubble of a powerful earthquake that struck Morocco, as rescue efforts stretched into a fourth day Tuesday with the death toll surpassing 2,900.
The quake Friday night with a magnitude of at least 6.8 was centered in the High Atlas Mountains, not far from the major city of Marrakech. It was the most powerful to strike that area in at least a century, flattening fragile mud brick houses in the poor, rural villages that were the hardest hit.
Morocco’s government has drawn some criticism for what has been seen as a sluggish response and a seeming reluctance to accept a deluge of offers to send in expert international teams and aid. But a government spokesperson pushed back against that criticism late Sunday, saying authorities “were working to intervene quickly, effectively and successfully.”
King Mohammad VI, who makes decisions on all of the most important matters of state in Morocco, and other authorities have released little information since the earthquake struck, updating casualty figures infrequently and making few public statements.
Ordinary Moroccans, many of them frustrated at the government’s response, have begun their own makeshift relief efforts to send donated aid. On Tuesday morning, the roads winding through the Atlas Mountains remained largely empty of rescue crews, but civilian vehicles loaded with water, food and blankets sped toward the devastation.
In another stricken area of southern Morocco around the city of Taroudant, cars and trucks packed with supplies prepared to begin the ascent into the mountains from a gas station. The impromptu aid convoy has been going nonstop since Saturday, residents said.
“People from all over Morocco have come to help,” said Said Boukhlik, a local resident.
Farther north, the roads outside of Marrakech are now dotted with hastily built tent cities housing people displaced by the quake.
In Marrakech itself, many still are sleeping in parking lots next to their cars or on the grass along the roadside, either because their homes were damaged or because they were afraid of aftershocks.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Torrential downpours sparked dangerous flash floods in central Massachusetts Monday evening, prompting officials in two cities to declare states of emergency.
Between 6 and 9 inches of rain fell Monday in northeastern Worcester County, where a flash flood warning was in effect until Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
A flash flood emergency was declared for Leominster, about 40 miles northwest of Boston, where forecasters urged residents to quickly seek higher ground. Forecasters also said surrounding towns, including Fitchburg, Lunenberg and Sterling, could experience flash flooding as well.
“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the weather service said in an advisory. “Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order.”
By Monday night, conditions in Leominster and North Attleborough had grown so severe that the city declared a state of emergency.
“Due to flooding and potential damage to facilities, schools will be closed Tuesday,” a bulletin on Leominster’s city website said, adding that one elementary school was being used as a shelter. The flooding also caused commuter rail lines to be rerouted.
At least one town, Hubbardston, sent a fire engine to Leominster to help rescue people who were trapped.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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DOUAR TNIRT, Morocco - Government rescue workers began to reach some devastated mountain villages in Morocco on Monday, but many more settlements were waiting desperately for help, three days after the country was hit by the strongest earthquake in the area in more than a century.
In the town of Amizmiz at the foot of the High Atlas Mountains in the province of Al Haouz, more ambulances and uniformed emergency personnel were on the streets than Sunday, and more survivors appeared to be sheltering in disaster relief tents rather than in makeshift structures.
But some roads in the Atlas Mountains near Marrakech remained blocked by landslides caused by Friday’s earthquake, which killed at least 2,682 people and injured at least 2,562, according to the latest figures released by the Interior Ministry on Monday.
Many survivors were without power and phone service, fueling criticism on social media about the government’s response. In some villages where homes are made of mud bricks, as many as half of the houses were flattened. With official aid slow to arrive, many Moroccan citizens have stepped in to fill in the gaps.
In one remote Atlas Mountains village, Douar Tnirt, residents aided by a volunteer group dug through rubble to try and find a 9-year-old girl believed to be buried under her collapsed house. Among those digging was her father, Mohammed Abarada, who had survived the quake with his other daughter, a baby, in his arms.
When a team of Moroccan emergency personnel and Spanish aid workers arrived at the home Monday, some residents greeted them with anger.
“Ninety-six hours!” one man screamed after an officer told the crowd to keep back. “People came from all over. We buried people. We rescued people.”
A lack of ambulances and other transportation from Douar Tnirt meant that some people who had been pulled alive from the rubble over the weekend died before they could be taken to Marrakech for treatment, residents said. Others waited for hours before being driven there by private transport.
Some Moroccans expressed frustration with the pace of aid efforts.
“Help was extremely late,” said Fouad Abdelmoumni, a Moroccan economist. “The overwhelming majority of victims have had nothing to eat, and some nothing to drink, for 48 hours or more, including in areas accessible by roads that are still in good condition.”
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Deadly floods swept through northeastern Libya over the weekend, with the top official in the region warning that the toll could exceed 2,000 dead as rescue teams searched for survivors.
Later, a spokesperson for authorities in that region cautioned that it was difficult to give an exact figure for fatalities because rescue efforts were still under way, although officials in the east believe more than 2,000 are dead or missing. Authorities have confirmed only 27 deaths so far.
It was not immediately clear what the head of the divided country’s eastern region, Osama Hamad, and the spokesperson were basing their numbers on. But the flooding was centered in the region under Hamad’s administration.
The internationally recognized government in western Libya, in Tripoli, had not put out figures.
“Entire neighborhoods have been swept away by the sea, and entire neighborhoods have disappeared with their inhabitants,” Hamad said in a phone interview with Libyan television channel al-Masar on Monday from the port city of Derna, in eastern Libya.
Heavy rainfall over the weekend in the country’s northeast swelled waters past riverbanks, and officials said the force of the floodwaters swept away hundreds of homes and washed away roads. Stranded residents posted accounts of being trapped inside homes and cars, according to footage on social media.
Derna was one of the worst-hit areas. Local officials have declared a disaster zone, and large parts of the city were submerged.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The deadly firestorm in Hawaii and Hurricane Idalia’s watery storm surge helped push the United States to a record for the number of weather disasters that cost $1 billion or more. And there’s still four months to go on what’s looking more like a calendar of calamities.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday that there have been 23 weather extreme events in America that cost at least $1 billion this year through August, eclipsing the yearlong record total of 22 set in 2020. So far, this year’s disasters have cost more than $57.6 billion and claimed at least 253 lives.
And NOAA’s count doesn’t yet include Tropical Storm Hilary’s damages in hitting California and a deep drought that has struck the South and Midwest because those costs are still to be totaled, said Adam Smith, the NOAA applied climatologist and economist who tracks the billion-dollar disasters.
“We’re seeing the fingerprints of climate change all over our nation,” Smith said in an interview Monday. “I would not expect things to slow down anytime soon.”
NOAA has been tracking billion-dollar weather disasters in the United States since 1980 and adjusts damage costs for inflation. What’s happening reflects a rise in the number of disasters and more areas being built in risk-prone locations, Smith said.
“Exposure plus vulnerability plus climate change is supercharging more of these into billion-dollar disasters,” Smith said.
NOAA added eight new billion-dollar disasters to the list since its last update a month ago.
In addition to Idalia and the Hawaiian firestorm that killed at least 115 people, NOAA newly listed an Aug. 11 Minnesota hailstorm; severe storms in the Northeast in early August; severe storms in Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin in late July; mid-July hail and severe storms in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Tennessee and Georgia; deadly flooding in the Northeast and Pennsylvania in the second week of July; and a late June outbreak of severe storms in Missouri, Illinois and Indiana.
“This year a lot of the action has been across the center states, north central, south and southeastern states,” Smith said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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HONOLULU, HI - The alert level on Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, was downgraded Monday with no infrastructure threatened and no threat of significant ash emission into the atmosphere outside a limited area within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
The downgrade came one day after the volcano began erupting again, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
In June, Kilauea erupted for several weeks, displaying fountains of red lava without threatening any communities or structures. Crowds flocked to the Big Island’s Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which offered safe views of the lava.
The current eruption was confined to Kilauea caldera within the park. The observatory said it “does not see any indication of activity migrating elsewhere on Kilauea volcano and expects the eruption to remain confined to the summit region.”
Mike Zoeller, a geologist with the observatory, said by email Monday that the eruption “represents a continuation of longer-term unrest at the Kilauea summit that dates back to late 2020, but it does not herald any heightened unrest beyond the levels that have prevailed since then.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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AMIZMIZ, Morocco - People in Morocco slept in the streets of Marrakech for a third straight night as soldiers and international aid teams in trucks and helicopters began to fan into remote mountain towns hit hardest by a historic earthquake.
The disaster killed more than 2,100 people — a number that is expected to rise — and the United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by Friday night’s magnitude 6.8 quake.
Amid offers from several countries, including the United States and France, Moroccan officials said Sunday that they are accepting international aid from just four countries: Spain, Qatar, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.
“The Moroccan authorities have carefully assessed the needs on the ground, bearing in mind that a lack of coordination in such cases would be counterproductive,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement.
While some foreign search-and-rescue teams arrived on Sunday as an aftershock rattled Moroccans already in mourning and shock, other aid teams poised to deploy grew frustrated waiting for the government to officially request assistance.
“We know there is a great urgency to save people and dig under the remains of buildings,” said Arnaud Fraisse, founder of Rescuers Without Borders, who had a team stuck in Paris waiting for the green light. “There are people dying under the rubble, and we cannot do anything to save them.”
Help was slow to arrive in Amizmiz, where a whole chunk of the town of orange and red sandstone brick homes carved into a mountainside appeared to be missing. A mosque’s minaret had collapsed.
“It’s a catastrophe,” said villager Salah Ancheu, 28. “We don’t know what the future is. The aid remains insufficient.”
Those left homeless — or fearing more aftershocks — slept outside Saturday, in the streets of the ancient city of Marrakech or under makeshift canopies in hard-hit Atlas Mountain towns like Moulay Brahim. Both there and in Amizmiz, residents worried most about the damage in hard-to-reach communities. The worst destruction was in rural communities that rely on unpaved roads that snake up the mountainous terrain covered by fallen rocks.
Those areas were shaken anew Sunday by a magnitude 3.9 aftershock, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It wasn’t immediately clear if it caused more damage or casualties, but it was likely strong enough to rattle nerves in areas where damage has left buildings unstable and residents feared aftershocks.
In a region where many build bricks out of mud, Friday’s earthquake toppled buildings not strong enough to withstand such a mighty temblor, trapping people in the rubble and sending others fleeing in terror. A total of 2,122 people were confirmed dead and at least 2,421 others were injured — 1,404 of them critically, the Interior Ministry reported.
Most of the dead — 1,351 — were in the Al Haouz district in the High Atlas Mountains, the ministry said.
Flags were lowered across Morocco, as King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning starting Sunday. The army mobilized search-and-rescue teams, and the king ordered water, food rations and shelters to be sent to those who lost homes.
He also called for mosques to hold prayers Sunday for the victims, many of whom were buried Saturday amid the frenzy of rescue work nearby.
Though it said for the first time Sunday that it would accept aid from four countries, Morocco has not made an international appeal for help like Turkey did in the hours following a massive quake earlier this year, according to aid groups.
Aid offers poured in from around the world, and the U.N. said it had a team in Morocco coordinating international support. About 100 teams made up of a total of 3,500 rescuers are registered with a U.N. platform and ready to deploy in Morocco when asked, Rescuers Without Borders said. Germany had a team of more than 50 rescuers waiting near Cologne-Bonn Airport but sent them home, news agency dpa reported.
A Spanish search-and-rescue team arrived in Marrakech and headed to the rural Talat N’Yaaqoub, according to Spain’s Emergency Military Unit. Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in a radio interview that Moroccan authorities asked for help. Another rescue team from Nice, France, also was on its way.
Officials in the Czech Republic earlier said the country was sending about 70 members of a rescue team trained in searching through rubble after receiving an official request from the Moroccan government. Czech Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said three military planes were prepared to transport the team.
In France, which has many ties to Morocco and said four of its citizens died in the quake, towns and cities have offered more than $2.1 million in aid. Popular performers are collecting donations.
The epicenter of Friday’s quake was near the town of Ighil in Al Haouz Province, about 45 miles south of Marrakech. The region is known for scenic villages and valleys tucked in the High Atlas Mountains.
Devastation gripped each town along the High Atlas’ steep and winding switchbacks, with homes folding in on themselves and people crying as boys and helmet-clad police carried the dead through the streets.
“I was asleep when the earthquake struck. I could not escape because the roof fell on me. I was trapped. I was saved by my neighbors who cleared the rubble with their bare hands,” said Fatna Bechar in Moulay Brahim. “Now, I am living with them in their house because mine was completely destroyed.”
There was little time for mourning as survivors tried to salvage anything from damaged homes.
Khadija Fairouje’s face was puffy from crying as she joined relatives and neighbors hauling possessions down rock-strewn streets. She had lost her daughter and three grandsons ages 4 to 11 when their home collapsed while they were sleeping less than 48 hours earlier.
“Nothing’s left. Everything fell,” said her sister, Hafida Fairouje.
The Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity was coordinating help for 15,000 families in Al Haouz province, including food, medical aid, emergency housing and blankets, the state news agency MAP quoted the organization’s head, Youssef Rabouli, as saying after he visited the region.
Rescuers backed by soldiers and police searched collapsed homes in the remote town of Adassil, near the epicenter. Military vehicles brought in bulldozers and other equipment to clear roads, MAP reported.
Ambulances took dozens of wounded from the village of Tikht, population 800, to Mohammed VI University Hospital in Marrakech.
In Marrakech, large chunks were missing from a crenelated roof, and warped metal, crumbled concrete and dust were all that remained of a building cordoned off by police.
Tourists and residents lined up to give blood.
“I did not even think about it twice,” Jalila Guerina told The Associated Press, “especially in the conditions where people are dying, especially at this moment when they are needing help, any help.” She cited her duty as a Moroccan citizen.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m., lasting several seconds, the USGS said. A magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later, it said. The collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates occurred at a relatively shallow depth, which makes a quake more dangerous.
It was the strongest earthquake to hit the North African country in over 120 years, according to USGS records dating to 1900, but it was not the deadliest. In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 temblor struck near the city of Agadir, killing at least 12,000. That quake prompted Morocco to change construction rules, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such temblors.
In 2004, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake near the coastal city of Al Hoceima left more than 600 dead.
(Sam Metz & Mosa'ab Elshamy, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Hurricane Lee barreled Sunday through open waters just northeast of the Caribbean, unleashing heavy swell on several islands as it restrengthened.
The Category 3 storm is not forecast to make landfall and is expected to stay over open water through Friday. On late Sunday afternoon, it was centered about 285 miles north-northeast of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 120 mph and it was moving west-northwest at 8 mph.
Last week, Lee strengthened from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5 storm in just one day.
“We had the perfection [sic] conditions for a hurricane: warm waters and hardly any wind shear,” said Lee Ingles, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Juan.
Lee is expected to strengthen further in upcoming days and will then weaken again, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Breaking waves of up to 20 feet were forecast for Puerto Rico and nearby islands starting early this week, with authorities warning people to stay out of the water. Coastal flooding also was expected for some areas along Puerto Rico’s north coast and the eastern portion of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the National Weather Service in San Juan.
The National Hurricane Center noted that dangerous surf and rip currents were expected to hit most of the U.S. East Coast starting Sunday, but that the hurricane’s impact beyond that is still unclear.
“It is way too soon to know what level of impacts, if any, Lee might have along the U.S. East Coast, Atlantic Canada or Bermuda, especially since the hurricane is expected to slow down considerably over the southwestern Atlantic.” the center said.
Lee was forecast to take a northward turn by Wednesday. However, its path after that remains unclear.
“Regardless, dangerous surf and rip currents are expected along most of the U.S. East Coast this week as Lee grows in size,” the center said.
Lee is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30 and peaked on Sunday.
Tropical Storm Margot became the 13th named storm after forming Thursday evening, but was far out in the Atlantic and posed no threat to land. It was about 1,175 miles west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands on Sunday. Its winds had risen to 65 mph, and it was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane today.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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RABAT, Morocco - A powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday night, killing hundreds of people and damaging buildings and historic landmarks in major cities.
Morocco’s Interior Ministry said early today that at least 296 people had died in the provinces near the quake. Additionally, 153 injured people were sent to hospitals for treatment. The ministry wrote that most damage occurred outside of cities and towns.
Moroccans posted videos showing buildings reduced to rubble and dust, and parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in Marrakech, a UNESCO World Heritage site, damaged. Tourists and others posted videos of people screaming and evacuating restaurants in the city as throbbing club music played.
Reports on damage and any casualties often take time to filter in after many earthquakes, particularly those that hit in the middle of the night.
Rather than return to concrete buildings, men, women and children stayed out in the streets worried about aftershocks and other reverberations that could cause their homes to sway.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m., with shaking that lasted several seconds. Morocco’s National Seismic Monitoring and Alert Network measured it at magnitude 7.
Variations in early measurements are common, although either reading would be Morocco’s strongest in years. Though earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa, a magnitude 5.8 temblor struck near Agadir and caused thousands of deaths in 1960.
The epicenter of Friday’s earthquake was high in the Atlas Mountains roughly 43.5 miles south of Marrakech. It was also near Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa and Oukaimeden, a popular Moroccan ski resort.
The quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria’s Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.
The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces warned residents to be prepared for aftershocks.
“We remind you of the need to exercise caution and take safety measures due to the risk of aftershocks,” the military wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
About 19 minutes after the main quake, a magnitude 4.9 aftershock hit, the USGS reported.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Hurricane Lee weakened slightly Friday to a Category 4 after rapidly gaining strength the day before, when it leaped from a low-end Category 1 to a monstrous Category 5. It is set to remain at least a Category 4 over the next four to five days as it progresses to the northwest of the Leeward Islands.
Lee is expected to turn to the north by the middle of next week and could eventually affect Bermuda, the northeastern United States and the Canadian Maritimes. How severe any effects on land will be is still unknowable because of uncertainties about the storm's track and future strength.
Unexpectedly hostile high-altitude winds weakened Lee on Friday, dropping it to a high-end Category 4. Before that, the National Hurricane Center had issued one of its most aggressive forecasts, predicting that Lee would have maximum sustained winds of 180 mph by evening. But it lowered its expectation in its 11 a.m. update.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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HONOLULU, HI - One month after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century leveled the historic town of Lahaina, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Friday that the number of missing has dropped to 66, the confirmed death toll remains at 115 and authorities will soon escort residents on visits to their property.
Tens of millions of dollars in aid will make its way to families and businesses as they recover, Green said, and beginning Oct. 8, travel restrictions will end and West Maui will open to visitors again.
“If we support Maui’s economy and keep our people employed, they will heal faster and continue to afford to live on Maui,” Green said.
Donations from around the world have poured in to the American Red Cross, the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Maui United Way and other organizations, Green said, and he has authorized $100 million from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program “to support what others donate, magnifying the power of their generosity.”
The government is also making $25 million available to help businesses survive, distributed in grants of $10,000 to $20,000, he said.
The Aug. 8 fire started in the hills above the historic oceanfront town. Within hours, it spread through single-family homes and apartment buildings, quaint city streets, art galleries and restaurants, destroying more than 2,000 structures. Dozens of people fled to the ocean seeking refuge from the flames. The blaze is estimated to have caused $5.5 billion in damage.
The new tally of 66 people still missing represents a significant drop from a week earlier, when authorities said 385 remained unaccounted for.
So far, Maui police have released the names of 55 of the dead. With about half the deceased still unidentified, Green said he expected there to be significant overlap between the names on the missing list and remains that have already been recovered. Therefore, he said, he did not expect the death toll to rise considerably.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The landmark 2015 Paris agreement, embraced by nearly every nation on Earth, “has driven near-universal climate action,” according to a detailed United Nations assessment released Friday, and yet the world remains woefully off track in its efforts to halt the warming of the planet.
The findings published by the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change note that “there is a rapidly narrowing window” for the world to more quickly cut emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels and avoid an ever worsening set of disasters that are likely as the atmosphere grows hotter.
Friday’s report comes ahead of this year’s global climate summit, known as COP28, scheduled to kick off in November in the United Arab Emirates. While the two-week gathering has a lengthy agenda, a central focus will be completing a formal, comprehensive assessment of how far the world has come toward meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement — and how much work remains.
That global “stocktake,” to determine whether the world is actually on pace to cut its emissions enough to meet the most ambitious aims of the Paris accord, will document some bright spots — for instance, that emissions have peaked in developed and some developing countries.
But it paints a sobering picture about the speed of change scientists say is needed.
“On the whole, we’re not doing well,” David Waskow, director of the World Resources Institute’s International Climate Initiative, said in an interview. That much, Friday’s report again makes clear.
But Waskow also said its 17 distinct findings, across topics such as adapting to climate change, boosting funding to help poor nations bypass fossil fuels as they develop and moving more urgently to cut emissions, offer a detailed road map for the type of transformations that must happen in the years ahead.
“It’s a call to action in many ways,” he said. “Now it’s in the governments’ hands to make good on it. ... We know much of what can and needs to be done. We’re not shooting in the dark.”
Year after year, scientists and researchers, environmental advocates and governments, diplomats and policymakers have detailed the many ways in which — despite signs of progress — the world’s largest emitters have fallen short of their promises to cut carbon pollution and help smaller and more vulnerable nations contend with the deepening disasters fueled by a warming planet.
But even the high-profile promises to boost ambitions at a global climate summit in Scotland in 2021, a U.N. report late last year found, have shown few signs of becoming reality. The report noted that nations had shaved just 1 percent off their projected greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 — leaving Earth on track to steamroll past key temperature thresholds that scientists say will result in deepening catastrophes.
That same analysis found that even if countries fulfilled existing pledges, it would still put the Earth on a path to warm by a dangerous 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.3 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, compared with preindustrial levels. That is far beyond the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit written into the Paris agreement.
Even so, few nations have yet embraced the policies needed to meet even the lackluster pledge that exists, a reality that led U.N. Secretary General António Guterres to chide world leaders for “falling pitifully short.”
Likewise, last year’s global talks in Egypt ended with little progress to propel the world toward faster and more dramatic cuts in carbon emissions, in an effort to avert more climate-fueled suffering to come.
Even as diplomats and activists at COP27 applauded the creation of a fund to support vulnerable countries in the wake of disasters, many worried that nations’ reluctance to adopt more ambitious climate plans left the planet on a path toward dangerous warming.
In some ways, Friday’s U.N. assessment marks merely the latest chapter in a massive compendium of research and reports that outline the many ways in which the world has failed to adequately confront the perils of climate change.
But beyond documenting failures, the assessment also focuses on the transformative and wide-ranging actions that can help to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. Among them: aggressively scale up renewable energy, phasing out fossil fuels, ending deforestation, providing significant climate finance to developing nations and designing changes in ways that alleviate poverty and minimize environmental injustice.
Marcene Mitchell, senior vice president of climate change for the World Wildlife Fund, called Friday’s report another stark reminder that leaders must find ways to move faster.
“Hope is not lost. We have seen critical actions taken that are making a difference,” she said in a statement about the findings. At the same time, she said, “It is clear that we cannot continue business as usual. ... We must face the reality that it is going to take a lot of challenging work — continued advancements in science and technology, strong political will, and actions from individuals, communities, businesses and governments if we expect to address the greatest global crisis of our time.”
For decades now, scientists have meticulously documented how humans are supercharging the warming of the planet through the burning of fossil fuels, and how that unceasing trend has led to a growing set of disasters in every corner of the globe — often, with some of the poorest populations who did little to cause the problem bearing the worse [sic] of the impacts.
But it doesn’t take sprawling reports and outspoken scientists to see the consequences of a hotter planet are growing.
This past summer has been the hottest ever recorded in human history, and its legacy is one of death and destruction and misery — from crippling and historic heat waves across many parts of the globe, to record wildfires in Canada and Europe, to biblical flooding caused by record rains in places as far flung as Greece, China and Florida.
Global emissions once again hit a record high in 2022, and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen to levels not seen in millions of years.
(Brady Dennis, WASHINGTON POST)
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Hurricane Lee whirled through open waters on Thursday as forecasters warned it could become the first Category 5 storm of the Atlantic season.
Lee was not expected to make landfall while on a projected path that will take it near the northeast Caribbean, although forecasters said tropical storm conditions are possible on some islands. Meteorologists said it was too early to provide details on potential rainfall and wind gusts.
The Category 4 hurricane was about 780 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 130 miles per hour and was moving west-northwest at 15 mph.
The storm was expected to grow even more powerful late Thursday and remain a major hurricane into next week.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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ATHENS, Greece - A night of heavy rainfall compounded major flooding in central Greece, leaving some villages almost completely under water Thursday and prompting the government to deploy armed forces to help rescue residents from the worst-hit areas.
At least six people have died in Greece as a result of the extreme weather conditions this week, according to the country’s fire service. And the toll could rise amid reports of missing residents.
Fire service vehicles were unable to reach many of the worst-hit spots because the water was so deep, reaching 6 feet in some parts, according to the government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis. He said divers from the fire service were using dinghies to try to reach trapped residents, but it was difficult for aircraft to access some of the areas because of lightning. The coast guard was sending divers to help in the rescue efforts.
In neighboring Turkey, at least nine people have been killed in floods that have hit multiple areas in the country since Sunday, including Istanbul, the most populous city.
Global warming has brought more intense wildfires and flooding to Greece in recent years, and last month’s fires in northern Greece were the biggest ever recorded in Europe, according to European Union officials. Meteorologists have been stunned by the level of rainfall that has pounded central Greece this week, calling it the heaviest in decades.
Greek military forces were helping to rescue trapped citizens and repair major damage to roads to restore transport, the head of the armed forces, Konstantinos Floros, said at a news conference Thursday.
“All our forces are on standby and operating in the affected areas,” he said. Special military units have been dispatched to areas where bridges have collapsed to help rebuild them, he said.
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has ordered the creation of an operations center to coordinate the rescues of trapped residents, distribute food and water, and try to restore power and running water.
Turkish officials warned Thursday of another wave of heavy rain expected to hit northern and western parts of the country.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Flooding from a cyclone in southern Brazil washed away houses, trapped motorists in vehicles and swamped streets in several cities, killing at least 31 people and leaving 2,300 homeless, authorities said Wednesday.
More than 60 cities have been battered since Monday night by the storm, which has been Rio Grande do Sul state’s deadliest, Gov. Eduardo Leite said. He said Wednesday that the death toll had reached 31.
In Mucum, a city of about 50,000 residents, rescuers found 15 bodies in a single house. Once the storm had passed, residents discovered a trail of destruction along the river with most buildings swept away down to the ground level.
Images showed a sheep hanging from an electrical line — an indication of how high the water had risen.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Tropical Storm Lee strengthened into a hurricane on Wednesday as it churned through the open waters of the Atlantic on a path that would take it near the northeast Caribbean.
The hurricane was about 1,130 miles east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had maximum sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving west-northwest at 14 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Current projections show it not making landfall but passing just northeast of the British Virgin Islands, which is still recovering from hurricanes Maria and Irma in September 2017.
“It has the potential to become a powerhouse Category 5 hurricane, the strongest hurricane of the year,” said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist for AccuWeather.
Lee is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.
It is expected to develop into an “extremely dangerous” major hurricane by early Saturday, according to the National Hurricane Center, which noted the storm was moving over very warm water and in a moist environment.
The hurricane is expected to generate life-threatening swells forecast to hit the Lesser Antilles on Friday and Puerto Rico and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands this weekend, the center said. The seas around Puerto Rico could rise up to 12 feet, according to the National Weather Service in San Juan.
However, “there is still too much uncertainty regarding rainfall and possible wind impacts, as Lee is forecast to pass a couple hundred miles north of the islands,” it said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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San Diego County’s fragile shoreline and vulnerable beachfront properties could be in for a rough winter, according to the California Coastal Commission, the National Weather Service and some top San Diego scientists.
“We are looking at an emerging El Niño event,” staff geologist Joseph Street told the Coastal Commission at its meeting Wednesday in Eureka.
An El Niño is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years. The water temperature at the surface of the central Pacific Ocean along the equator warms a few degrees above its long-term average, creating conditions for stronger, more frequent seasonal storms across much of the globe.
“El Niño conditions can generate a triple threat for coastal hazards in California,” said Adam Young, an integrative oceanography researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.
“Increased rainfall triggers landslides, powerful waves can accelerate erosion of beaches, sea cliffs and bluffs, and cause coastal flooding, and strong El Niño conditions can raise sea level on the California coast by 6 to 13 inches,” Young said. “Combined, these factors increase coastal erosion and flooding ... which can threaten public parks, beaches, critical infrastructure, highways, and homes.”
The Coastal Commission’s webpage at www.coastal.ca.gov has been updated with El Niño information and resources, and staffers are working to publicize the situation.
“We are kind of raising the flag on this,” said commission Chair Donne Brownsey.
“Every single day there is a new report about the warming ocean, the rising seas, and the accelerated melting of the arctic,” Brownsey said. “It just goes on and on. This is a harbinger that is really scary.”
Powerful storms can be “a formula for disaster” in coastal communities already subject to seasonal flooding, said Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre, who represents San Diego County on the Coastal Commission.
“We see it firsthand in Imperial Beach,” Aguirre said. “We just had the first-ever tropical storm make landfall in San Diego County. It’s extremely concerning to say the least.”
Tropical Storm Hilary dropped more than 2 inches of rain on most parts of San Diego County in August, and as much as 7 inches at the highest elevations. August is normally one of San Diego’s driest months of the year.
There is a 95 percent chance of an El Niño occurring between December 2023 and February 2024, and a 66 percent that it will be a “strong” El Niño, according to an update issued Tuesday by the National Weather Service. Indicators include above-average sea surface temperatures and “atmospheric anomalies” in the Pacific.
Still, predictions are notoriously difficult.
El Niño conditions do not cause individual storms. Instead, they influence the frequency and characteristics of storms.
“El Niño alone is not a reliable bellwether for a major storm season,” said Street, the commission’s geologist. “We’ve had several fizzles.”
Many variations can take shape for an El Niño, and only time will tell if this winter brings a whopper.
Two of Southern California’s strongest El Niños occurred in the winters of 1982-83 and 1997-98, bringing extensive flooding, landslides, coastal erosion and damage to coastal structures.
El Niño conditions last occurred in Southern California in 2015-16 and brought powerful waves and coastal erosion. But there was less rainfall than expected and little structural damage because the jet stream carried most of the storms to the north.
A year ago, the winter of 2022-23 was unusually wet with powerful storms and some of the biggest ocean waves the area has ever seen. Still, that season did not have the ocean temperatures and atmospheric conditions of an El Niño.
Rail service in Southern California is particularly vulnerable to the landslides and bluff failures brought by winter storms.
Weather-related landslides at two coastal trouble spots in San Clemente forced the suspension of passenger service for months at a time over the past two years. The tracks along the coast through Orange County are the only link between San Diego and Los Angeles for rail passengers and freight.
Any series of strong storms can cause a temporary rise in sea level that increases flooding and erosion, said Jeremy Smith, an engineer on the Coastal Commission staff. That happened in 2016, when ocean waters rose as much as 8 inches along some parts of the California coast.
The highest tides of the year, known as “king tides,” occur on a few days in mid-summer and mid-winter. This winter’s king tides will be Jan. 11-12 and Feb. 9-10.
“Some of the highest tides for the 2023-24 winter will occur close to holidays,” a commission staff report states. “This highlights the need for early preparation since holidays are times that people tend to travel and go on vacation.”
In addition to warming the ocean’s surface, the El Niño phenomenon brings warmer temperatures in deep water and the atmosphere that also affect the weather. There’s a related term, La Niña, in which cooler temperatures and drier conditions prevail.
“El Niño and La Niña are the result of complex interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere,” said Shang-Ping Xie, a professor of climate science and physical oceanography at Scripps.
Both conditions originate far from San Diego along the equator in the tropics.
“The tropics are like the engine room of the Pacific,” Xie said. “Heat in the tropics drives global atmospheric circulation. In that sense, variations in the tropical Pacific like El Niño can have huge impacts on global weather patterns.”
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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In a bid to slow deforestation in the Amazon, Brazil announced Tuesday that it will provide financial support to municipalities that have reduced deforestation rates the most.
During the country’s Amazon Day, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also signed the creation of two Indigenous territories that total 511,000 acres and of a network of conservation areas next to the Yanonami Indigenous Territory to act as a buffer against invaders, mostly illegal gold miners.
“The Amazon is in a hurry to survive the devastation caused by those few people who refuse to see the future, who in a few years cut down, burned, and polluted what nature took millennia to create,” Lula said during a ceremony in Brasilia. “The Amazon is in a hurry to continue doing what it has always done, to be essential for life on Earth."
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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ATHENS, Greece - Torrential rain unleashed major floods in central Greece on Tuesday that submerged streets and wreaked widespread damage, just as firefighters were containing wildfires in the country. One man died, and at least one person was missing.
As television showed semi-submerged cars stuck on flooded streets and vehicles being swept into the sea or onto muddy beaches, police banned traffic in three regions. The ban came a day after warnings by local authorities and Greece’s fire service for people to avoid unnecessary travel.
Greece’s fire service said a 51-year-old Albanian national died after a wall collapsed on him; state news media identified him as a cattle breeder who was trying to reach his animals. A 42-year-old Greek man was missing after getting out of his car to try to push his 16-year-old son to safety amid raging floodwaters, said fire service spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis.
The damage came days after major flooding elsewhere in Europe: In Spain, the slow-moving Storm Dana brought exceptional rainfall, leaving a trail of destruction and killing at least five people since Saturday.
On Saturday, two canyon experts drowned in flash flooding in a ravine in the Spanish Pyrenees, according to local news reports, when rain caused the water to increase tenfold in minutes. In Casarrubios del Monte, a village near Toledo that was drenched from Sunday night to Monday, a 20-year-old man died when floodwaters poured into an elevator where he was trapped. Two other victims near Toledo, one of whom was washed away with his car, were located Monday.
Early Monday morning, a 10-year-old was found up a tree he had clung to all night after his family’s car fell into the Alberche River in Aldea del Fresno, a village outside Madrid that was cut off after three of its bridges collapsed and the fourth was closed. The boy had wounds and symptoms of hypothermia, according to news reports. His mother and sister were found alive, but Spain’s Civil Guard was still searching for his father.
In Greece, the floods particularly affected the port of Volos, about 200 miles north of Athens, and the nearby mountain village of Pelion. Video from Volos showed partly submerged cars in streets and people being ferried through floodwaters by rescuers in plastic boats.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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At least 21 people died in southern Brazil after a fierce storm caused floods in several cities, authorities said Tuesday.
Rio Grande do Sul Gov. Eduardo Leite said the death toll is the state’s highest related to a climate event. He said about 60 cities had been battered by the storm, which was classified as an extratropical cyclone. Leite said 15 of the deaths occurred in one house in Mucum, a city of about 50,000 residents.
The Rio Grande do Sul state government said it had recorded 1,650 people made homeless since Monday night. TV footage showed families on the top of their houses pleading for help as rivers overflowed their banks. The city hall at Mucum recommended that residents seek out supplies to meet their needs for the next 72 hours.
The governor said one of the dead was a woman who was swept away during a rescue attempt. “I regret the death of a woman in a rescue attempt over the Taquari river,” Leite said in his social media channels. “The wire broke, she and a rescuer fell. Unfortunately the woman did not survive and the rescuer is seriously injured.”
Rio Grande do Sul was hit by another extratropical cyclone in June, which killed 16 people and caused destruction in 40 cities, many of those around state capital of Porto Alegre.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The world is experiencing a surge in extremely hot days that put human health at risk, with the threat concentrated in some of the places least prepared to cope, according to an analysis of climate data by The Washington Post and CarbonPlan, a nonprofit that develops publicly available climate data and analytics.
By 2050, over 5 billion people — probably more than half the planet’s population — will be exposed to at least a month of health-threatening extreme heat when outdoors in the sun, the analysis shows, up from 4 billion in 2030 and 2 billion at the turn of the century.
The analysis calculated an approximate form of “wet-bulb globe temperature,” a metric that combines temperature, humidity, sunlight and wind. Scientists consider it the gold standard for evaluating how heat harms the human body.
The Post and CarbonPlan used a threshold of 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit to delineate extremely risky heat, which is equal to a temperature of 120 degrees if it’s dry, or in the mid-90s if it’s very humid. At that point, even healthy adults who are active outside for more than 15 minutes in an hour can suffer heat stress; many deaths have occurred at much lower levels.
There are huge new risks even for people who escape the sun’s radiation. By 2050, 1.3 billion people will be exposed unless they can find some sort of cooling, up from 500 million in 2030 and 100 million in 2000.
This new epidemic of extreme heat represents one of the gravest threats to humanity, scientists say, but it won’t affect the world in a uniform way. While certain parts of rich countries will see a surge in days, most of the danger will come in poor countries in already hot regions such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa that lack widespread air conditioning and other advantages like advanced health care systems.
“The resources just look vastly different,” said Tamma Carleton, an assistant professor of environmental economics at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “The story of heat is inequality.”
For example, 80 percent of the population affected by extremely hot days will live in countries that have an estimated 2030 gross domestic product per capita of less than $25,000 — a quarter of the United States’ predicted GDP per capita — while just 2 percent will live in countries with a GDP per capita of $100,000 or greater.
The danger of climate change is often associated with huge disasters: floods, fires, hurricanes. Heat, on the other hand, is a creeping, quieter risk — but one that is already transforming lives around the world.
People are dying of heat in fields, on construction sites, and in apartments without air conditioning. Others, forced to labor outside in the hot sun, are struck by kidney disease. Still others face heart attacks, strokes and even mental illness exacerbated by high temperatures.
“It is going to be one of the biggest challenges we face as a human society,” said Matthew Huber, a professor of earth science at Purdue University.
Unlike better-known metrics such as the heat index, wet-bulb globe temperature illustrates how sun and wind also affect people’s ability to stay cool. Most metrics assess only temperature and humidity, which can help show how the body struggles to cool itself by sweating when the air is humid. But they don’t account for the sun pounding down on the skin, or the cooling from a light breeze — factors that can also affect how well a person can endure hot conditions.
“It’s a better indicator of heat stress,” said Dan Vecellio, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University.
Wet-bulb globe temperature is a heat metric that captures the impact of four weather elements on our body.
On one of the hottest days of the summer in D.C., high temperatures, humidity and blazing sun combined to create an oppressive wet-bulb globe temperature in the sun of 94.7 degrees.
On the same day, with all other conditions remaining the same, the wet-bulb globe temperature in the shade was about 10 degrees cooler.
Ninety degrees doesn’t sound like much, but when it comes to wet-bulb globe temperature, it indicates punishing heat. Elderly people and those with preexisting conditions can be vulnerable at lower wet-bulb globe temperatures — but at 90 degrees, researchers say, almost everyone is vulnerable.
Absolute temperature isn’t everything — over time, regions and cultures have adapted to even very hot conditions. But the analysis shows which places will face sudden increases in scorching temperatures, threatening people’s ability to cope even in places that have long been hot.
And many have died in heat events that barely touched that threshold. In 2021, hundreds of people died during a record-breaking heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. In Portland, OR, one of the key cities that was affected, wet-bulb globe temperatures reached only 90 degrees on one day. Dozens still died.
But while the impacts will be felt in developed countries, the biggest growth in high-risk days will be in low-income ones.
Many of the countries most affected have limited air conditioning. In India, for example, 270 million people will face extreme heat even indoors by 2030. But as of 2018, only about 5 percent of households in the country had air conditioning, according to the International Energy Agency.
Lucas Davis, a professor of environmental economics at the University of California Berkeley, says research shows that once households in hot regions reach $10,000 in annual income, they tend to buy air-conditioning units. But in some of the poorest and hottest countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, that level of income may remain unattainable for decades — leaving some of the world’s most vulnerable people at the mercy of dangerous heat.
Sierra Leone will soon face some of the hottest temperatures in the world. But according to one study by Lucas and other researchers, only 2 percent of the country’s households are expected to have air conditioning by 2030. Average income is less than $2,000 a year.
“In 2040, they still won’t be buying a lot of ACs — even if there’s good growth,” Davis said. “Sierra Leone just starts out so poor.”
People who labor outdoors are also often based in the hottest and most at-risk countries. In India and Pakistan — which are likely to face some of the most brutal hot days in the sun — outdoor workers make up 56 percent and 47 percent of the workforce, respectively, doing everything from agriculture to construction, according to data from the International Labor Organization. By contrast, outdoor workers account for only 10 percent of the U.S. workforce.
Even within single countries, those with fewer resources are at higher risk. Leonidas Ioannou, a researcher at the Jozef Stefan Institute in Slovenia who studies outdoor workers, has found that migrant workers are responsible for heavier and more demanding workloads — even at the same job site.
Experts recommend training outdoor workers to pace themselves and take rest breaks when the heat becomes untenable; some workers have experimented with ventilated vests with attached fans. Wearing white clothing has also been shown to reduce heat strain and skin temperature in people toiling outside.
Some of these interventions, Ioannou says, can help alleviate the strain of working in the heat — but legislation guaranteeing breaks and even containing prohibitions on working outdoors under particularly punishing conditions may also be needed. Only a few countries — Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar — have legislation preventing outdoor work under conditions that are too hot. The United States has no uniform standard, although President Biden has asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create one.
People in developed countries aren’t immune. Researchers linked heat waves last year in Europe, where air conditioning is less prevalent than in the United States, to over 60,000 deaths. Globally, heat already claims about half a million lives every year, according to a 2021 study published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health.
(Niko Kommenda, Shannon Osaka, Simon Ducroquet & Veronica Penney, WASHINGTON POST)
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DEATH VALLEY PARK, CA - It’s unclear when Death Valley National Park will reopen to visitors after heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hilary forged new gullies and crumbled roadways at the site of one of the hottest places in the world, officials said.
The storm dumped a furious 2.2 inches of rain Aug. 20, roughly the amount of rainfall the park usually receives in a year.
This year’s rainfall broke its previous record of 1.7 inches in one day, set in August of last year.
“Two inches of rain does not sound like a lot, but here, it really does stay on the surface,” Matthew Lamar, a park ranger, told the Los Angeles Times. “Two inches of rain here can have a dramatic impact.”
The park, which straddles eastern California and Nevada, holds the record for the hottest temperature recorded on the planet — 134 degrees Fahrenheit, reached in 1913.
Officials say it could be months before the park reopens.
It has been closed since Hilary, the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, swept through the state in August.
Christopher Andriessen, a spokesperson with the California Department of Transportation, also known as Caltrans, told the Times that about 900 of the park’s nearly 1,400 miles of roads have been assessed.
Repair costs are estimated at $6 million, but only for one of the park’s main roads, State Route 190, and a small part of State Route 136.
“We don’t have a timeline yet,” park spokesperson Abby Wines told The Associated Press on Monday. “Caltrans has said they expect to fully open 190 within three months, but they often are able to open parts of it earlier.”
Some familiar sites survived the storm, including Scotty’s Castle, a popular visitor destination.
Young and adult endangered pupfish at Devil’s Hole cavern survived, although eggs were likely smothered by sediment, the park said on social media last month. Endangered Salt Creek pupfish also survived, the newspaper reported.
Less known are the effects of the tropical storm on the park’s Bristlecone pines, which are among the oldest trees on Earth, the Los Angeles Times reported.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Climate change has ratcheted up the risk of explosive wildfire growth in California by 25 percent and will continue to drive extreme fire behavior for decades to come, even if planet-warming emissions are reduced, a new study has found.
“Emissions reductions have a minimal impact on wildfire danger in the near term — the next several decades,” said author Patrick T. Brown, co-director of the climate and energy team at the Breakthrough Institute, a Berkeley-based think tank. “So it’s important to look at more direct on-the-ground solutions to the problem like fuel reduction.”
Although previous studies have looked at the impact of climate change on broader metrics like annual area burned, as well on conditions that are conducive to wildfires, like aridity, the research published last week in Nature drills down on how rising temperatures affected individual fires, and how they might continue to do so in the future.
The researchers analyzed nearly 18,000 fires that ignited in California between 2003 and 2020. Using artificial intelligence, they had models learn the relationship between temperature and extreme fire growth, which they defined as more than 10,000 acres in a day. They then simulated how those fires would behave under preindustrial conditions, as well as a host of potential future conditions.
They found that climate change raised the risk of extreme daily wildfire growth by an average of 25 percent, in the aggregate. But the exact influence varied greatly from fire to fire — and even from day to day.
For example, if a fire ignites right after a rainstorm, the risk of extreme growth often remains relatively low, regardless of warming, said Brown, who is a visiting research professor at San Jose State University and a member of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. Conversely, if conditions are very dry, the risk is generally high, regardless of climate change, he said.
“Where if conditions were pretty dry but not super dry then the background warming kind of pushed you over a critical threshold of drying or aridity and caused a large increase in the probability of extreme daily fire growth,” he said.
Higher temperatures alone do not increase fire danger — they do so by drying out vegetation, Brown said. That’s in part because of heat’s effect on the vapor pressure deficit, which is basically a measure of how thirsty the atmosphere is, he said. Warmer air can hold more moisture, meaning that it sucks more water from soil and plants, priming landscapes to burn.
In fact, previous studies have found the vapor pressure deficit to be the leading meteorological variable that controls how much land burns in the western U.S. during a given fire season — and that climate change is boosting the deficit upward.
By looking at how warming affected past fires, Brown’s study highlights how climate change is already making our world more combustible, said Neil Lareau, professor of atmospheric science at University of Nevada-Reno.
“It provides a nice framework for quantifying some of the things that we already intuitively know and feel like we’re seeing in California, in particular this impact of increasing heat on driving extreme fire behavior,” he said. “I think a lot of us have kind of experienced that on a visceral level over the last decade.”
Firefighters have had a front-row seat to this shift as they’ve been tasked with battling more fast-moving fires that are burning “multiple thousands of acres per burn period,” said Capt. Robert Foxworthy, a public information officer with Cal Fire.
“I’m not a scientist so I can’t say exactly what’s causing it, but what I have seen in the last 10 or so years is that things are changing,” he said. “We have seen more of these larger fires that are growing faster and burning more acres in a shorter amount of time.”
The faster a fire moves, the more difficult and dangerous it is to fight because it can jump ahead of firefighters and outpace their efforts to contain it, he said.
“Inevitably, when speed picks up, so does intensity,” he said. “And the more intense a fire is, the harder it is for crews to be able to get right on that fire’s edge to put it out. It can move faster than those crews can get fire hose on the ground or drive a fire engine next to the flames and squirt water on them.”
Fast-moving fires can also catch residents off guard, forcing firefighters to switch focus from battling the flames to conducting evacuations and rescues, he said.
Brown’s research team found that warming substantially increased the extreme growth risk of several lightning-sparked complex fires in 2020, including the LNU Complex — by 42 percent — and the North Complex — by 40 percent. These fires ignited during what was then the state’s hottest August on record.
But climate change had less of an effect on the growth risk of other devastating fires. The 2018 Camp fire, in which climate change increased the risk by an estimated 14 percent, was stoked by dry vegetation and high winds, by some accounts burning roughly 80 acres per minute.
“The Camp fire occurred under very dangerous conditions and so that lower number indicates that even in a preindustrial climate they would have been very dangerous conditions,” Brown said. “So the influence of climate change on that fire is not very large.”
The machine learning approach is a nice way of capturing some of the interactions between fire, fuels and the atmosphere, but it also has shortcomings, Lareau said. With the exception of temperature, the researchers held everything about historical conditions constant, including ignitions, winds and precipitation.
“But there are other things we don’t know about how the climate system is going to change, and that’s kind of underlying uncertainty,” Lareau said.
One example, he said, is that extreme temperatures and drought result in increased tree mortality, which provides more fuel for fires. Warming could also affect rain and wind patterns, but that is uncertain. If anything, he said, not accounting for these changes likely resulted in somewhat conservative estimates of the effect of climate change.
“I think it’s still a really important approach to not get bogged down in the things we can’t know and instead focus on the role heat is going to play in making the world more flammable,” he said.
The researchers estimate that climate change will raise the risk of extreme daily wildfire growth by an average of 59 percent by the end of the century if emissions reach net zero in the 2070s. If emissions continue to rise until 2050, climate change will raise the risk by an average of 90 percent, according to the study.
One thing that’s important to note, Brown said, is that both the low and moderate emissions scenarios look virtually identical in the middle of the century when it comes to fires. Although there are other important reasons to cut emissions, doing so will not affect fire growth in people’s lifetimes, he said.
“It’s just that it takes so long for emissions reductions to imprint on temperature,” he said. “I’m trying to dispel the notion that we can see an increase in wildfire danger, then go and pass climate policy and see some effect of that climate policy right away.”
(Alex Wigglesworth, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan - Much of southern Taiwan came to a standstill Sunday as Typhoon Haikui churned over towns and farmland. Residents were urged to stay home, and flights, rail transport, ferry services, classes and outdoor events were suspended, but there were no reports of injuries or serious damage.
The storm made landfall in Taitung county on the Pacific-facing east coast around 3 p.m. Sunday, bringing sustained winds of 96 mph and gusts of 120 mph.
The winds and driving rains forced in unsecured doors, uprooted trees — at least one of which crushed a parked minivan — and caused flooding in some low-lying areas.
By Sunday evening, almost 4,000 people had been evacuated from mountain communities that are at high risk of landslides and flooding, according to the Interior Ministry.
There appeared to be little serious damage, and some shops remained open, partly to dispose of locally grown fruits and vegetables.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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RAMONA, CA - A state water board will consider a proposed cease-and-desist order for the egg processing facility at Pine Hill Egg Ranch in Ramona over concerns that contaminated water has been flowing into stormwater basins and two nearby creeks, officials said.
The California State Water Resources Quality Control Board will discuss the order at its Oct. 11 meeting.
Christina Arias, representative of the prosecution team for the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, said she is recommending that the board approve the cease-and-desist order following a three-year investigation.
Arias said inspectors with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board observed that the method used for processing wastewater at the egg processing facility did not remove contaminants. This water was seen to flow down into stormwater basins on the property, she said.
The water in these basins, which a report described as “foul smelling, brownish-red color and frothy,” made its way into the Santa Teresa Valley Creek, she said. When the creek was tested for contaminants in March 2023, it was found to have extremely high levels of ammonium-nitrate and phosphorous, posing a danger to the creek’s ecosystem, she said.
The California State Water Resources Quality Control Board can issue a cease-and-desist order if it finds that a waste discharge is taking place, or threatening to take place, in violation of state requirements or discharge prohibitions, Arias said.
“This is a priority for our office and we intended to get this facility enrolled properly and expect that waste discharges will no longer be a threat to our surface waters,” Arias said. “We’ll get the job done.”
Alex Demler, the facility manager in charge of environmental compliance at the egg processing facility, said that due to ongoing discussions he could not give specific details. He said the company is working with the Regional Water Quality Control Board to address the issues identified in the report.
“We’re working with the best technical consultants we have available to us to guide us through and we’re going to have ongoing discussions to help us address all these issues,” Demler said. “We’re working very closely with the Regional Water Quality Control Board — we have been for some time — and we look forward to addressing all the issues in the upcoming months.”
Ramona residents first brought concerns about the Pine Hill egg processing facility, owned by Demler Brothers LLC, to the attention of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2020, Arias said.
According to her report, the facility produces approximately 2,000 gallons of wastewater per day from an egg-washing operation and about 375 tons of manure per week. Other waste generated from the facility includes broken eggs and chicken carcasses.
Arias said that operations at the facility, such as composting and wastewater treatment devices and practices, were not in compliance with state requirements. She said the Demler Brothers have missed deadlines in reporting their waste discharge and could have been subject to fines.
“The maximum penalty is $1,000 a day,” she said. “We have decided in the office to forgo that in favor of just getting their attention and getting those very expensive treatment systems in place.”
The Demler Brothers operation started at 25818 state Route 7 in 1974.
Ramona resident Gayle Wright said the smell coming from the egg processing facility has been an ongoing issue since she moved near the farm in 1988.
“The fact of the matter is it’s starting to affect a much wider area of this end of Ramona, which it never did back in the day,” Wright said. “I have friends all the way down at Santa Fe Highland that are being affected by it and that’s 6 miles away.”
The regional water board sent out a field inspector after hearing from residents about the egg processing facility, Arias said. It was then that they realized that the large facility, capable of housing up to 2 million chickens, had not been regulated by the Water Resources Quality Control Board.
“In my 20 years of being here, this is the most complicated in regards to involving several different regulatory programs,” Arias said. “I’ve been working with staff with the storm water program, the waste discharge requirements and composting. They’ve been out in the field doing inspections.”
The Pine Hill Egg Ranch processing facility had been using a septic tank designed for residential use that became overwhelmed with pollutants, according to Arias. When wastewater would leave the septic tank, it would pass through a leach field, which is a filtration system that removes contaminants and impurities from liquid as it travels to a designated disposal area.
“The problem was they were using it for the egg process wastewater, which is completely loaded with pollutants and the system isn’t designed for that,” Arias said. “So instead of having these natural biological processes breaking these pollutants down in the leach field they couldn’t keep up with it, so water was ponding at the surface.”
Arias said that after the Demler Brothers were informed that improvements had to be made to their wastewater discharge practices, the company installed a larger tank in 2021. This tank, which did not have a leach field, would discharge into an unlined pond in a natural depression on the facility’s property, Arias said. From there, the water had the potential to overflow into one of two stormwater detention basins — northern or southern, her report stated.
The large tank did not receive a permit before it was built, Arias said. It would not have received a permit because it did not meet state discharge requirements, she said.
“If it rains hard enough, it’s possible that water drains down to the (northern) basin,” Arias said.
The southern basin has also become a recipient of improperly treated water, Arias said, but from another source — the Demler Brothers’ composting operations. Composting requires a permit that the facility does not have at this time, Arias said.
According to the report, in February 2023regional water board staff observed dark-colored ponded water within the composting operation area and dark-colored runoff from the composting operation area flowing toward the southern unlined stormwater detention basin, which drains to the nearby Santa Teresa Valley Creek.
In the report, Alex Demler stated that the valve of the stormwater detention basin was open during the Jan. 14-16 storm events, which allowed wastewater from the composting operation to discharge into the creek. Demler stated that he accepted responsibility for the release of wastewater into the creek.
A month after this discharge, water board staff observed that the water in a creek west of the egg ranch was “foul smelling,” opaque, brownish-red color and frothy, according to the report.
The report compared the desired water quality to a sample measured from the creek on March 6. Levels of ammonium-nitrogen were found to be 400 times higher than the water quality objective and levels of phosphorus 30 times higher than the objective.
“That’s why enforcement is a priority in this situation,” Arias said. “We’re concerned about nitrogen and phosphorus because if a creek system is overloaded with those substances then it generates really bad nuisance conditions and algae. If the algae mats grow too thick it can starve everything else of oxygen so it’s just really bad for the ecosystem.”
If the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approves the cease-and-desist order, the Demler Brothers will have to acquire the applicable permits required for their operations and ensure they have all the treatment controls for the wastewater, Arias said.
Barbara Klein, a Ramona resident who has complained to the water board about issues at the farm, said the goal isn’t to shut it down. Since Pine Hill Egg Ranch and egg processing facility are businesses in the community that employ Ramona residents, Klein said she wants to see the company adhere to proper discharge practices.
“We don’t want to sensationalize it, these are the facts of what’s happening at this place and you have a period of time you can comment and it’s right around the corner,” Klein said.
(Noah Harrel, U-T Community Press)
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Typhoon Saola made landfall in southern China early today, bringing severe weather to the region as residents in Hong Kong faced strong winds and heavy rain, according to China’s state-run news media.
The typhoon was already causing disruptions Friday ahead of coming ashore.
Storm surge had been occurring around the city of Hong Kong, with seas rising 10 to 13 feet above normal tide levels, forecasters with the Hong Kong Observatory said.
They added that some areas might even reach record levels.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a meteorological service operated by the U.S. Navy, reported that winds were sustained at 115 mph, with higher gusts.
Authorities reported that 51 people in Hong Kong had gone to hospitals for injuries during the storm and that nearly 500 others had sought refuge at temporary shelters.
In Guangdong, hundreds of thousands of people had been evacuated from “risky areas,” according to state-run media.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The remnants of Hurricane Idalia were forecast to regain strength and become a tropical storm again over the weekend as it approached Bermuda, days after the storm made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast and swept across the Southeast.
On Friday, the storm, which was once a powerful Category 4 hurricane, had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. At 5 p.m. Eastern time, the storm was 100 miles west of Bermuda, where a tropical storm warning was in effect. The warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected in the area within 36 hours.
The storm’s center will move near or to the south of Bermuda today. Tropical storm-force winds extended outward up to 240 miles from the center.
Idalia was expected to transition back into a tropical storm today and bring 3 to 5 inches of rain and hazardous surf conditions to Bermuda over the weekend, the hurricane center said.
Idalia made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane Wednesday in a sparsely populated area of the Big Bend region, where the state’s peninsula meets the Panhandle.
The scope of the disaster came into sharper focus Friday as residents were trying to find places to live as they rebuild — if they decide it’s even worth it — and will be waiting potentially weeks for electricity to be restored after winds and water took out entire power grids.
A power cooperative warned its 28,000 customers it might take two weeks to restore electricity. Emergency officials promised trailers would arrive over the weekend to provide housing in an area that didn’t have much to begin with.
“We’ll build back. We’ll continue to fish and enjoy catching the redfish and trout and eating oysters and catching scallops and eating them,” said real estate agent Jimmy Butler, who lives in Horseshoe Beach, which saw some of the worst damage.
While the storm wreaked havoc on a slice of old Florida that has escaped massive coastal development, its path and forward speed spared the state’s insurance industry a huge financial hit, said elected Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, whose agency oversees the state Office of Insurance Regulation.
Two days after the more powerful Hurricane Ian hit southwest Florida last year around Fort Myers, for instance, the state reported more than 62,000 insurance claims. In the two days after Idalia, there have been about 3,000, Patronis said.
But some of the Big Bend’s older homes may have been passed down for generations, owned outright and not insured. People who lost everything may decide they can’t afford or it is not worth it to rebuild, leaving a bigger cultural impact than a financial one, Patronis said.
More than 100,000 homes and businesses in Florida and Georgia remained without power Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. And even with high temperatures below normal, the high humidity meant sweltering late-summer days and nights, with no power to run air conditioners.
Democratic President Joe Biden planned to visit Florida today and survey the damage.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Hawaii Governor Josh Green says his administration has opened several investigations into people who have allegedly made unsolicited offers for property in the fire-stricken Maui town of Lahaina in violation of a new emergency order.
Green prohibited such offers by signing an emergency proclamation on Aug. 19 aimed at preventing land in the historic coastal community from flowing into the hands of outside buyers. The order aims to give residents some “breathing room” as they decide what to do next, he said.
Even before the Aug. 8 fire, Lahaina was a rapidly gentrifying town and there’s been widespread concern since that Native Hawaiians and local-born residents who have owned properties in their families for generations might feel pressured to sell.
The fear is they would leave Lahaina, or Maui or the state, take their culture and traditions with them and contribute to the ongoing exodus of Hawaii’s people to less expensive places to live.
“We’ve seen that in a lot of different places in our country and in our world where people have lost everything but their land and someone swoops in and buys properties for pennies on the dollar,” Green said. “We want to keep this land in the hands of local people, and we want to give them at least a chance to decide whether they’d like to build back.”
Green said people have reported unwanted offers to his attorney general, although he did not reveal how many. Those found guilty of a violation may be imprisoned for up to one year and fined up to $5,000.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Florida and Georgia residents living along Hurricane Idalia’s path of destruction on Thursday picked through piles of rubble where homes once stood, threw tarps over ripped-apart roofs and gingerly navigated streets left underwater or clogged with fallen trees and dangerous electric wires.
“My plan today is to go around and find anything that’s in the debris that is salvageable and clean out my storage shed,” said Aimee Firestine of Cedar Key, an island in the remote Big Bend area of Florida where Idalia roared ashore with 125 mph winds Wednesday.
Firestine rode out Idalia about 40 minutes inland. When she drove back onto the island hours after the storm passed, her heart sank. The gas station was gone. Trees were toppled. Power lines were on the ground. An entire building belonging to the 12-unit Faraway Inn her family owns had been wiped away. Another building lost a wall.
“It was a little heart-wrenching and depressing,” Firestine said.
At Horseshoe Beach in central Big Bend, James Nobles returned to find his home had survived the storm, though many of his neighbors weren’t as lucky.
“The town, I mean, it’s devastated,” Nobles said. “It’s probably 50 or 60 homes here, totally destroyed. I’m a lucky one, a few limbs on my house. But we’re going to build back. We’re going to be strong.”
Residents of the tiny town, most of whom evacuated inland during the storm, helped each other clear debris or collect belongings. They frequently stopped to hug amid tears.
Florida officials said there was one hurricane-related death in the Gainesville area, but didn’t release any details. The state’s highway patrol reported earlier that two people were killed in separate weather-related crashes just hours before Idalia made landfall.
A man in Valdosta, Ga., died when a tree fell on him as he tried to clear another tree out of the road, Lowndes County Sheriff Ashley Paulk said.
As many as a half-million customers were without power at one point in Florida and Georgia as the storm ripped down utility poles.
Before heading out into the Atlantic on Thursday, Idalia swung east, flooding many of South Carolina’s beaches and leaving some in the state and North Carolina without power. Forecasters said the weakened storm should continue heading away from the U.S. for several days, although officials in Bermuda warned that Idalia could hit the island early next week as a tropical storm.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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OCEANSIDE, CA - A 3.7 magnitude earthquake centered in the Pacific Ocean 34 miles off Oceanside jolted the region at 1:05 a.m. Tuesday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Rather than a gentle rolling quake, this seismic activity felt like a brief jolt that could be felt from as far north as Long Beach and as far south as Tijuana, and from as far inland as Poway and San Bernardino, according to the USGS community internet intensity map.
The USGS reported that the quake occurred in the ocean about halfway between Oceanside and Santa Catalina Island and 10.5 miles below the surface.
The quake appears to be an isolated incident with the most recent quake in the area nearly three weeks ago.
(Pam Kragen, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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ATHENS, Greece - A massive wildfire was burning unabated in northeastern Greece for the 11th day Tuesday despite the efforts of hundreds of firefighters and a fleet of water-dropping aircraft from Greece and several of its European Union partners.
After burning across vast tracts of land, the blaze in the Alexandroupolis and Evros region was mainly concentrated deep in a forest near the border with Turkey, in an area difficult to access.
The wildfire, which was blamed for 20 of the 21 wildfire-related deaths in Greece last week, is the biggest in the EU since the European Forest Fire Information System started keeping records in 2000.
Six planes and four helicopters were assisting 475 firefighters on the ground, backed by 100 vehicles, the fire department said. Another 260 firefighters and one helicopter were tackling flare-ups of another major fire burning for days in a forest on the southern slopes of Mount Parnitha, on the fringes of the Greek capital.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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BATON ROUGE, LA - One of the largest wildfires in Louisiana history continues to burn through land and threaten rural communities, which are used to flooding and hurricanes this time of year rather than drought and blazes.
Louisiana has had an unprecedented wildfire season as dry conditions and extreme heat persist. The rapid spread of fires has been made worse by pine plantation forests, blown down by recent hurricanes, fueling the blazes. This month alone, there have been about 600 wildfires across the state, and officials say there will likely be more in the weeks ahead.
“This is not done. We expect a dry September. So we got to be prepared for this and all work together until the rain comes ... and then we can get back to life,” Mike Strain, the commissioner for Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry, said during a news conference Tuesday.
The state’s largest active blaze, the Tiger Island Fire in southwestern Louisiana, doubled in size over the weekend, growing to 33,000 acres — accounting for more acres of burned land than the state usually has in a year.
The wildfire forced the entire town of Merryville — just 5 miles east of the Texas border, with a population of 1,200 people — to evacuate. No injuries or deaths have been reported, but at least 20 structures, including barns and homes, have been damaged or destroyed.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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CEDAR KEY, FL - Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave Tuesday as Hurricane Idalia gained steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to unleash life-threatening storm surges and rainfall.
Idalia also pummeled Cuba with heavy rains on Monday and Tuesday, leaving the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio underwater and many of its residents without power.
Idalia had strengthened to a Category 2 system on Tuesday afternoon, with winds strengthening to 105 mph by Tuesday evening.
The hurricane was projected to come ashore early today as a Category 3 system with sustained winds of up to 120 mph in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula.
The result could be a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.
On the island of Cedar Key, Commissioner Sue Colson joined other city officials in packing up documents and electronics at City Hall. She had a message for the almost 900 residents who were under mandatory orders to evacuate. More than a dozen state troopers went door to door warning residents that storm surge could rise as high as 15 feet.
“One word: Leave,” Colson said. “It’s not something to discuss.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis repeated the warning at an afternoon news conference.
“You really gotta go now. Now is the time,” he said. Earlier, the governor stressed that residents didn’t necessarily need to leave the state, but should “get to higher ground in a safe structure.”
“You can ride the storm out there, then go back to your home,” he said.
Not everyone was heeding the warning. Andy Bair, owner of the Island Hotel, said he intended to “babysit” his bed-and-breakfast, which predates the Civil War. The building has not flooded in the almost 20 years he has owned it, not even when Hurricane Hermine flooded the city in 2016.
“Being a caretaker of the oldest building in Cedar Key, I just feel kind of like I need to be here,” Bair said. “We’ve proven time and again that we’re not going to wash away. We may be a little uncomfortable for a couple of days, but we’ll be OK eventually.”
Tolls were waived on highways out of the danger area, shelters were open and hotels prepared to take in evacuees. More than 30,000 utility workers were gathering to make repairs as quickly as possible in the hurricane’s wake. About 5,500 National Guard troops were activated.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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HONOLULU, HI - Hawaii’s electric utility acknowledged its power lines started a wildfire on Maui but faulted county firefighters for declaring the blaze contained and leaving the scene, only to have a second wildfire break out nearby and become the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century.
Hawaiian Electric Co. released a statement Sunday night in response to Maui County’s lawsuit blaming the utility for failing to shut off power despite exceptionally high winds and dry conditions. Hawaiian Electric called that complaint “factually and legally irresponsible,” and said its power lines in West Maui had been de-energized for more than six hours when the second blaze started.
In its statement, the utility addressed the cause for the first time. It said the fire on Aug. 8 “appears to have been caused by power lines that fell in high winds.” The Associated Press reported Saturday that bare electrical wire that could spark on contact and leaning poles on Maui were the possible cause.
But Hawaiian Electric appeared to blame Maui County for most of the devastation — the fact that the fire appeared to reignite that afternoon and tore through downtown Lahaina, killing at least 115 people and destroying 2,000 structures.
Richard Fried, a Honolulu attorney working as co-counsel on Maui County’s lawsuit, countered that if the power company’s lines hadn’t caused the initial fire, “this all would be moot.”
“That’s the biggest problem,” Fried said Monday. “They can dance around this all they want. But there’s no explanation for that.”
John Fiske, an attorney at a California firm that’s representing the county of Maui in the lawsuit, said the responsibility rests with Hawaiian Electric to properly keep up its equipment, and make sure lines are not live when they’re downed or could be downed. Fiske said that if the utility has information about a second ignition source, it should offer that evidence now.
Mike Morgan, an Orlando attorney who’s on Maui to work on wildfire litigation for his firm, Morgan & Morgan, said he thinks Hawaiian Electric’s statement was an attempt to shift liability and total responsibility.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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TAMPA, FL - Florida residents loaded up on sandbags and evacuated from homes in low-lying areas along the Gulf Coast as Tropical Storm Idalia intensified Monday and forecasters predicted it would hit in days as a major hurricane with potentially life-threatening storm surges.
“You should be wrapping up your preparation for #TropicalStormIdalia tonight and Tues morning at the latest,” the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
As the state prepared, Idalia thrashed Cuba with heavy rain, especially in the westernmost part of the island, where the tobacco-producing province of Pinar del Rio is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian almost a year ago.
Authorities in the province issued a state of alert, and residents were evacuated to friends’ and relatives’ homes as authorities monitored the Cuyaguateje River for possible flooding. As much as 4 inches of rain fell in Cuba on Sunday, meteorological stations reported.
Idalia is expected to start affecting Florida with hurricane-force winds as soon as late today and arrive on the coast by Wednesday. It is the first storm to hit Florida this hurricane season and a potentially big blow to the state, which is also dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 46 counties, which stretches across the northern half of the state from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast. The state has mobilized 1,100 National Guard members, who have 2,400 high-water vehicles and 12 aircraft at their disposal for rescue and recovery efforts.
Tampa International Airport and St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport said they would close today, and the Sunrail commuter rail service in Orlando was being suspended.
DeSantis warned of a “major impact,” noting the potential for Idalia to become a Category 3 hurricane.
Large parts of the western coast of Florida are at risk for storm surges and floods. Evacuation notices have been issued in 21 counties with mandatory orders for some people in eight of those counties. Many of the notices were for people in low-lying and coastal areas, for those living in structures such as mobile homes, recreational vehicles and boats, and for people who would be vulnerable in a power outage.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ATHENS, Greece - More than 600 firefighters, including reinforcements from several European countries and backed by a fleet of water-dropping planes and helicopters, were tackling the remnants of three major wildfires in Greece Sunday, two of which have been raging for days.
Greece has been plagued by daily outbreaks of dozens of fires over the past week as gale-force winds and hot, dry summer conditions combined to whip up flames and hamper firefighting efforts. Across the country, firefighters were battling 105 wildfires on Sunday, 46 of them having broken out in the 24 hours between Saturday evening and Sunday evening, the fire department said.
Authorities are investigating the causes of the blazes, with arson suspected in some.
In Greece’s northeastern regions of Evros and Alexandroupolis, a massive wildfire believed to have caused 20 of the 21 wildfire-related deaths in the past week, was burning for a ninth day.
The blaze, has decimated vast tracts of forest and burned homes in outlying areas of the city of Alexandroupolis.
On Sunday, 295 firefighters, seven planes and five helicopters were tackling flare-ups that were creating new fire fronts, triggering evacuation orders for two villages.
The wildfire has scorched more than 190,000 acres of land, the European Union’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service said Sunday.
On the northwestern fringes of the Greek capital, another major wildfire burning for days was now limited to flare-ups and was being tackled by 160 firefighters, one plane and three helicopters. The fire has already scorched homes and part of a national park on Mount Parnitha, one of the last green areas near Athens.
A third major wildfire started Saturday on the Cycladic island of Andros and was still not under control Sunday, with 73 firefighters, two planes and two helicopters dousing the blaze. Lightning strikes are suspected of having sparked that wildfire.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tropical Storm Idalia, which formed Sunday, was expected to strengthen to a Category 2 hurricane by the time it reaches Florida’s Gulf Coast on Tuesday in what forecasters said would be a “very significant and impactful hurricane.”
Winds were predicted to reach a peak of 100 mph, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, said in an update Sunday evening.
“Evacuations may be necessary for this storm later today or tomorrow,” Rhome said.
“The hazards absolutely will extend beyond the cone,” he added, referring to the forecast maps showing the storm’s potential path. “Do not focus exclusively on the cone to determine your risk.”
Idalia, the latest named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, also threatens to bring heavy rains to Georgia and the Carolinas, forecasters said.
A hurricane watch was issued for a large section of western Florida, extending from Englewood to Indian Pass, and including Tampa Bay, officials said.
A tropical storm watch was also issued for the Gulf Coast south of Englewood, which is about 80 miles south of Tampa, to Chokoloskee, a community roughly 65 miles south of Fort Myers, while a storm surge watch was in effect from Chokoloskee to Indian Pass.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management told residents to keep their gas tanks at least half full in case emergency evacuation orders were issued.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Saturday declaring a state of emergency in 33 counties in preparation for the storm.
“If you are in the path of this storm, you should expect power outages, so please prepare for that,” he said Sunday. “If you are power-dependent — particularly people who are elderly or who have medical needs — please plan on going to a shelter.”
The state mobilized 1,100 members of the National Guard, which has 2,400 high-water vehicles and 12 aircraft ready for rescue efforts. Electric companies will have workers on standby starting today.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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ATHENS, Greece - Beleaguered firefighters trying to curb Greece’s worst wildfire season on record battled two major blazes Friday: one in Evros, home to what an official has called the biggest wildfire the European Union has faced, and the other near Athens, the capital. Greek authorities investigating the causes of the fires arrested dozens of people on suspicion of arson.
“It’s a very difficult summer,” a government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, said at a news briefing Friday, blaming “the explosive mix of climate change” along with arson.
He said that 160 people had been arrested across the country on arson charges, 42 of them accused of intentional arson and the remainder accused of setting fires through neglect. “The culprits will face justice,” he said.
The firefighters are focusing on two fires: one near Parnitha National Park, north of the capital, and the other in the northern region of Evros, where at least 19 people have died.
The outlook for Mount Parnitha, where a large fire has been burning since Tuesday, appeared slightly better Friday morning when winds briefly dropped, a fire service official said, but firefighters were still working to contain an active blaze west of the forest in the early afternoon. State inspectors started evaluating the damage to land and homes south of the mountain, where the flames had been doused.
Firefighting continued for a seventh day in Evros. “The fires in #Alexandroupolis are now the largest #wildfires on record the EU has faced,” Janez Lenarcic, the European commissioner for crisis management, wrote on social media Thursday, referring to the capital of Evros. He wrote that more than 180,000 acres had burned.
The charred body of a man was discovered Thursday in a forest near the village of Lefkimmi in Evros, Greece’s fire service said in a statement Friday.
Efforts were under way to identify 18 other burned bodies, found Tuesday in Avantas, a few miles southwest of Lefkimmi. The dead, who include two children, are believed to have been migrants because the spot where they were found is near the border with Turkey, a popular crossing point, and no locals have been reported missing.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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CANTON TOWNSHIP, MI - At least six tornadoes touched down in Michigan as part of severe storms powered by strong winds that killed five people, while downing trees, tearing roofs off buildings and leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without power, officials said.
The National Weather Service on Friday confirmed that an EF-1 tornado with winds of 90 mph crossed from Ingham County into the western edge of adjacent Livingston County on Thursday night.
Four other EF-1 tornadoes were reported in Belleville and Gibraltar in Wayne County, and in South Rockwood and near Newport in Monroe County.
A weaker EF-0 tornado with peak winds of 80 mph was on the ground for less than two miles in Wayne County’s Canton Township, west of Detroit, the weather service said. That tornado caused a tree to fall into a house, said meteorologist Sara Schultz.
The weather service office in Grand Rapids, in western Michigan, said officials were in the field Friday conducting damage surveys on a suspected tornado in Kent County.
The storms featured lightning displays erupting across the night sky and dumped multiple inches of rain on communities across the lower portion of the state.
In western Michigan, the Kent County sheriff’s office said a 21-year-old woman and two girls, ages 1 and 3, died Thursday night after two vehicles crashed head-on as it was raining.
In Lansing, the state capital, an 84-year-old woman died Thursday night after a tree fell on a home. And in Ingham County, where Lansing is located, the sheriff’s office said Friday that one person was confirmed dead and several people severely injured as more than 25 vehicles were severely damaged along Interstate 96.
The storms pushed east across Lake Erie and into northeast Ohio, uprooting trees and leaving thousands of homes and businesses without power.
A tornado also tore through part of Cleveland late Thursday night. Its path was about 150 yards wide and nearly a mile long.
No injuries were reported, but several buildings were severely damaged, including the 143-year-old New Life at Calvary Church, which lost its roof.
More than 390,000 customers in Michigan and more than 120,000 in Ohio were without power as of Friday evening, according to the Poweroutage.us website.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Authorities in Hawaii for the first time released a list naming 388 people who are still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the deadliest wildfires in America in more than a century, which killed at least 115 people.
The fires devastated the coastal town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, as well as other areas of the island, more than two weeks ago. Search-and-rescue teams are still sifting through the last patches of ash and rubble looking for human remains.
In publicizing the names late Thursday, authorities hope to narrow the tally of the missing. In a statement, Maui Police Chief John Pelletier asked anyone who survived the fire to come forward and remove their name from the list. Officials had said earlier Tuesday that 1,000 to 1,100 people remained unaccounted for.
It was not immediately clear why the list released Thursday had fewer names. Pelletier said the initial list includes anyone for whom officials have a first and last name and contact information for the person who reported them missing.
Officials have been bracing the public for the likelihood that the number of confirmed dead from the fires — which stands at 115 — will rise substantially.
“We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed,” Pelletier said. “This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible.”
Earlier Thursday, Maui officials identified the first child known to have been killed by the fires: Tony Takafua, who was 7. The victims so far have largely been older residents.
The decision to release the names of the missing came after FBI officials, along with Maui police, the Red Cross and other agencies, examined various lists compiled by shelters, cross referencing and combining them into one tally. Along the way, they identified many survivors and removed their names.
Within hours of the list being publicly released, several people posted on social media that several of those named had already said they were alive. One woman wrote, in response to a Facebook post on the list by Maui County, that she had found two people whom she knew had survived. “Hoping there are many more like this,” she wrote.
The final toll from the fire, which began in the grassy hillsides above Lahaina and, fueled by high winds, raced through the center of town to the Pacific Ocean, will probably not be known for months.
Many people died near Front Street in Lahaina, which runs along the sea wall, in their cars or in the ocean. Many were trapped in traffic trying to escape the fire, with the surrounding roads blocked by downed power lines. Some older residents died at a senior living center.
So far, authorities have released the names of 35 people who are confirmed dead and have been identified through DNA testing. Most of them — 28 people — were older than 60.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Tropical Storm Hilary produced some of the heaviest rains ever recorded across San Diego County in August, especially at Mount Laguna, which received 7.11 inches of precipitation while Palomar Mountain got 6.60 inches.
And the storm followed an unusually wet winter. But the combo doesn’t mean the region will not experience a robust wildfire season.
“The rain we received on the Cleveland National Forest was extremely helpful in mitigating our dry fuels and fire threat for the short term,” Battalion Chief Talbot Hayes told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Unfortunately, the effects of this rain will dry out in the very near future and we will be right back into fire season. With the threat of wildfires starting back up in the coming days, it will not allow us to start with our prescribed burning just yet.”
Hayes said prescribed burns may pick back up in the fall, when the region tends to get cooler temperatures and higher relative humidity. He also pointed to other ways to treat fuel year-round without the use of fire, such as the goats who graze vegetation in the Descanso area.
Hilary arrived in central San Diego County around 2:30 p.m. Sunday, packing tropical storm-force winds. It soon curved toward the Inland Empire, then veered toward Compton in Los Angeles County, the National Weather Service said.
The storm dropped 1.82 inches of rain at San Diego International Airport, raising the site’s seasonal total to 15.71 inches, which is more than 6 inches above average. The season extends from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
Before Hilary arrived, the weather service predicted that Hilary would produce about 1.5 inches to 2 inches of rain at and near the coast, 2 to 3 inches across most inland valleys and foothills, 3 to 5 inches at Julian, 5 to 10 inches in the mountains, and 5 inches or more in the deserts. The forecast proved to be spot on, except for the deserts.
Here is a sample of how much rain the system brought to a wide area of the county over the weekend:
Location Amount (in) Lake Wolford 3.52 Julian 3.47 Otay Mountain 3.36 Mt. Woodson 2.92 Skyline Ranch 2.88 Santee 2.70 San Marcos 2.66 Miramar Lake 2.50 Henshaw Dam 2.34 National City 2.29 Fashion Valley 2.22 Oceanside 2.20 Montgomery Field 2.16 Encinitas 2.14 Kearny Mesa 2.14 Bonsall 2.14 Vista 2.12 Poway 2.09 la Mesa 2.05 Ramona 2.03 Borrego Springs 2.01 San Onofre 1.94 Point Loma 1.73 Pine Valley 1.65 Valley Center 1.62 Ocotillo Wells 1.55 Chula Vista 1.43 Brown Field 1.41
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Summer is still four months away in the Southern Hemisphere but Brazil is contending with a balmy winter, with record high temperatures and dry weather across much of the country.
The rare heat wave engulfed 19 of Brazil’s 26 states on Thursday, as well as the capital of Brasilia, according to the National Meteorological Institute.
Four state capitals recorded the year’s highest temperature on Wednesday. In Cuiabá, in central-western Brazil, the highs reached 107.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Residents in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil’s two most populous cities, were also hit by the heat wave. In Rio, temperatures reached 101.7 degrees on Thursday — the city’s second hottest day of 2023.
(U-T NEWS SERIVCES)
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MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE - For years, firefighters in California have relied on a vast network of more than 1,000 mountaintop cameras to detect wildfires. Operators have stared into computer screens around the clock looking for wisps of smoke.
This summer, with wildfire season well under way, California’s main firefighting agency is trying a new approach: training an artificial intelligence program to do the work.
The idea is to harness one of the state’s great strengths — expertise in AI — and deploy it to prevent small fires from becoming the kinds of conflagrations that have killed scores of residents and destroyed thousands of homes in California over the past decade.
Officials involved in the pilot program say they are happy with early results. Around 40 percent of the time, the AI software was able to alert firefighters of the presence of smoke before dispatch centers received 911 calls.
“It has absolutely improved response times,” said Phillip SeLegue, the staff chief of intelligence for Cal Fire, the state’s main firefighting agency. In about two dozen cases, SeLegue said, the AI identified fires that the agency never received 911 calls for. The fires were extinguished when they were still small and manageable.
After an exceptionally wet winter, California’s fire season has not been as destructive — so far — as in previous years. Cal Fire counts 4,792 wildfires so far this year, lower than the five-year average of 5,422 for this time of year. Perhaps more important, the number of acres burned this year has been only one-fifth of the five-year average of 812,068 acres.
The AI pilot program, which began in late June and covered six of Cal Fire’s command centers, will be rolled out to all 21 command centers starting in September.
But the program’s apparent success comes with caveats. The system can detect fires only visible to the cameras. And at this stage, humans are still needed to make sure the AI program is properly identifying smoke.
Engineers for the company that created the software, DigitalPath, based in Chico, are monitoring the system day and night, and manually vetting every incident that the AI identifies as fire. Even what seems like a straightforward task — teaching a computer to recognize smoke — has been a painstaking process that is far from complete, engineers say. There are many false positives.
“You wouldn’t believe how many things look like smoke,” said Ethan Higgins, a chief architect of the software.
Fog. A little haze in front of a mountain. Dust kicked up from a farmer’s tractor. Steam rising from geothermal plants. Camera flare from a rising sun. All of these have tricked the computer into thinking there was a fire.
Engineers and firefighters are spending their days training the AI program to understand what is — and what is not — fire.
“I don’t think this robot is ever going to take my job,” said Andrew Emerick, the duty chief for Cal Fire’s northern region. Emerick, an experienced operator of the cameras, gives the example of the deliberately set fires in agricultural areas: vintners burning branches after an autumn pruning or rice farmers burning stalks after harvest.
Emerick knows the area and understands the context — these are not fires that he needs to dispatch engines and aircraft to snuff out. But he is not sure the AI program will ever fully understand those nuances.
“What we do is going to require some sort of human intervention, someone with experience to say, ‘Hey, do something about this,’ or ‘No, don’t do something about it,’” he said.
During two days in July, when the AI trial had been in operation for only two weeks, the system flagged fires with varying degrees of certainty. A hilltop camera trained onto a raging fire in Topanga Canyon, west of Los Angeles, a blaze that was sending up a column of billowing smoke. The AI framed the fire with a red square and calculated a 71 percent probability that it was indeed a fire. When asked why the AI had come in with such a relatively low probability for a seemingly obvious fire, Neal Driscoll, a geophysicist at UC San Diego and a leader of the AI project, answered that the system was still in its early stages.
“It’s two weeks old,” he snapped. “What did you recognize at two weeks old?”
Operators are constantly teaching the AI program to properly identify fires. At the main dispatch center for Southern California, a squat building on the edge of March Air Reserve Base, Cal Fire officials stared up from their desks at a jumbo screen that resembled part of a made-for-Hollywood war room. The AI program alerted the Cal Fire officials to an image taken at Onyx Peak in the San Bernardino Mountains. The AI had placed a red box around a plume of smoke in the picture.
“It might be a dumpster fire, it might be a vehicle fire, it might be a vegetation fire,” said SeLegue of Cal Fire. With a few mouse clicks, the operator confirmed to the AI program that the image was indeed smoke from a fire.
“We are feeding into the logic of the system,” SeLegue said.
The AI system churns through billions of megapixels every minute, images generated by the network of cameras, which cover around 90 percent of California’s fire-prone territory, according to Driscoll. The images from the cameras are part of a project known as AlertCalifornia and are viewable by the public on a website managed by UC San Diego.
SeLegue said the AI camera system was only one of a number of ways that Cal Fire was alerted to fires. In addition to 911 calls from residents, commercial pilots flying over the state have in the past called into control towers to report fires.
And in 2019, Cal Fire gained access to a much more systematic detection tool. The United States military offered to use its highly classified network of spy satellites as well as drones and other aircraft to alert the state agency when fires were detected. Because of the classified nature of the intelligence, the data is “sanitized,” according to SeLegue, and comes with a 10- to 12-minute delay. The partnership, which has been named Fireguard, came together after the deadly 2018 Camp fire when military officials realized they knew about it before Cal Fire did.
Cal Fire’s mission is to suppress 95 percent of all fires when they are 10 acres or less. The AI program will help the agency meet that goal, said Driscoll.
“The success of this project will be the fires you will never hear about,” he said.
(Thomas Fuller, NEW YORK TIMES)
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ATHENS, Greece - Advancing flames devoured forests and homes as wildfires that have killed 20 people raged across swaths of Greece on Wednesday, with blazes also burning in neighboring Turkey and in Spain’s Canary Islands.
Greece’s largest forest fire was burning out of control for the fifth day near the city of Alexandroupolis in the northeast. Another major blaze on the outskirts of Athens torched homes, reducing some to piles of smoldering rubble, and encroached into the national park on Mount Parnitha, one of the last green areas near the Greek capital.
From Friday to Tuesday, 355 wildfires broke out, Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said. On Wednesday, firefighters were tackling 99 blazes, fire department spokesperson Ioannis Artopios said in an evening briefing, including 55 that had broken out in the previous 24 hours.
Authorities made 140 wildfire-related arrests, including 117 for negligence and 23 for deliberate arson, Artopios said, adding that nearly all were for heat-inducing or agricultural outdoor work.
Gale-force winds combined with hot, dry weather to whip up the flames, making the blazes exceptionally difficult to bring under control, authorities said.
Weather conditions this summer have been “the worst since meteorological data have been gathered and the fire risk map has been issued in the country,” Kikilias told a news conference.
Across the border in Turkey’s Canakkale province, strong winds fanned a wildfire for a second day. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said winds reaching 40 miles per hour at times were hampering efforts to extinguish the blaze but said firefighters had managed to halt its spread.
“Hopefully, we will get it under control soon,” Erdogan said in a televised address.
Ibrahim Yumakli, Turkey’s forestry minister, said firefighting teams and more than two dozen fire-dousing planes and helicopters had largely blocked the blaze from spreading beyond the 5.8 square miles [3700 acres] it had already affected.
In Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands, authorities said a wildfire burning for more than a week was nearly under control after scorching 150 square kilometers (58 square miles/37,000 acres).
“It’s a very tough battle that the firefighting teams are winning,” said Canary regional government counselor Manuel Miranda.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tropical Storm Franklin unleashed heavy floods and landslides in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday after making landfall in the country’s southern region, killing at least one person and injuring two others.
The storm began to slowly spin away late Wednesday afternoon from the island of Hispaniola that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti after dumping heavy rain for several hours. Forecasters warned the storm could drop up to 12 inches of rain in the Dominican Republic, with up to 16 inches for the country’s western and central regions. Meanwhile, up to 4 inches of rain are forecast for Haiti, with nearly 8 inches for the country’s eastern regions.
“The population of the Dominican Republic must all be right now, without exception, in their homes, the homes of friends and family, or in shelters,” said Juan Manuel Méndez, emergency operations director.
The Civil Defense identified the man killed as Carlos Marino Martínez, saying he died in the city of San Cristobal after being swept away by floodwaters. The agency initially said he was one of its volunteers, but later corrected the information saying it misidentified a uniform he was wearing. They did not provide further details. Two women in that city also were injured following a landslide and were hospitalized, officials said.
More than 300 people were huddled in shelters in the Dominican Republic, where emergency operations officials said they were looking for a 54-year-old man with mental health issues who went missing after he jumped into a creek late Tuesday. Another 280 people were evacuated from their homes to safer ground, with at least six communities cut off by heavy rains, officials said.
The storm also downed trees and light posts, with dozens of homes affected by floods that turned streets into rushing rivers. Authorities said the roof of one home in San Cristobal collapsed, as did walls of various buildings around the country.
“There’s a lot of damage,” Méndez said.
Officials shuttered schools, government agencies and several airports with at least 25 of the country’s 31 provinces under red alert. On Wednesday, more than 400,000 customers were without power, and dozens of aqueducts were out of service because of heavy rains, affecting more than 1.3 million customers.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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AUSTIN, TX - Deadly heat that has gripped Texas for much of the summer has spread into other parts of the central U.S. this week where it is forecast to stay for days, with triple-digit temperatures buckling roads, straining water systems and threatening the power grid of the nation’s energy capital.
With heat warnings and advisories stretching from New Orleans to Minneapolis, the unyielding weather is stressing the systems put in place to keep resources moving and people safe. Just this week, a 1-year-old left in a hot van in Nebraska died, and Louisiana reported 25 heat-related deaths this summer — more than twice the average number in recent years.
The heat is expected to become “dangerous to the average person” if they don’t have air conditioning, said Alex Lamers, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.
It has felt hotter than 110 degrees in cities in Texas and Louisiana more often than at any time since World War II, Lamers said. The brunt of the enduring heat has hit states from Florida to New Mexico, he said.
Texas’ grid — which failed during a deadly winter storm in 2021 — has so far held up with no outages in the face of unrelenting heat.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the grid, asked residents twice last week to conserve energy because of high demand and low reserves. The agency issued a weather watch that’s in place through Saturday.
But there are risks the longer this drags on, said Alison Silverstein, a Texas-based independent energy analyst and former adviser to the state’s energy regulator. She compared it to a car overheating as the system tries to keep up with weeks of record-breaking demand.
“At least your car on a long trip has a chance to rest overnight and cool off,” she said. “A lot of these plants have been running nonstop, or pretty close to it, since June.”
Experts have warned that infrastructure can be damaged under the extreme strain of enduring and recurring heat waves brought on by climate change.
The heat has already caused an unusual number of Texas water line breaks and roadway issues.
San Antonio Water Systems has already tallied more breaks this month than in all of July, the agency said Wednesday. Customers need to cut back on outdoor watering, the agency said.
Cooling systems are also under strain. Missouri firefighters helped remove 117 patients from a Kansas City nursing facility Tuesday after the air conditioning failed in temperatures that felt as high as 115 degrees.
Students across the U.S. are learning in roasting classrooms or having their days cut short, including over a dozen in Denver on Wednesday. Chicago-area schools delayed classes or ending them early. Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin’s largest, closed campuses through today.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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KAUA'ULA VALLEY, HI - Burning homes have a specific kind of plastic smell, one Samantha and David Dizon know too well. So when it wafted through their windows on Aug. 8, they froze. Running outside, they saw the plumes of smoke coming from Lahaina and heard propane tanks exploding in the distance. They knew what was unfolding, because nearly five years ago, the same thing had happened to them.
Around 11 p.m. on Aug. 24, 2018, something ignited in the dry, grassy hills behind their home in the Kaua’ula Valley, a West Maui community uphill from Lahaina. Howling winds from a passing hurricane helped feed that spark, sending what the Dizons called a “wall of fire” toward their unincorporated village, where about 50 Native Hawaiian people live on ancestral (known as Kuleana) land that has been in their families for centuries.
They barely got out. In the chaos, David’s mother, Yolanda Dizon, fell, and flames licked her arms and legs. Trying to help his grandmother, David’s teenage son also sustained third-degree burns. Yolanda’s puppy got left in a car, and David heard her yelping as she burned to death. Firefighters showed up but couldn’t handle the terrain. Over the next 24 hours, crews would battle three blazes at the same time.
No one died, but had the winds been stronger that day, officials said, the ultimate toll could have been far worse. Even so, the West Maui fires of 2018 torched 21 houses, 27 cars and more than 2,100 acres, causing $4.3 million in damage and displacing a few dozen people, including the Dizons, who lived in a shelter for a year and a half while they rebuilt.
Five years apart, the two disasters eerily parallel one other. Both times, in August, hurricane-fueled winds pounded West Maui. Both times, they helped to ignite what would become multiple fires in overgrown, drought-stricken hills. The first time, the lack of warnings and chaotic evacuations spurred residents to question their leaders’ response, preparation and transparency. The second time, some of the same problems repeated themselves.
A heated town hall on Aug. 29, 2018 — recorded on Facebook — captures the raw emotions five years ago. For three hours, angry and emotional residents peppered Mayor Alan Arakawa and other state and county officials with questions: Why didn’t Maui Electric shut off the power given the high winds and their equipment having caused other fires? Why didn’t emergency staff sound their all-hazard sirens? Why did firefighters lose water? Why was there not an evacuation plan? Why did their cellphones not get alerts? Why, after the fire, did the county not quickly provide the displaced with assistance, instead forcing the community to fill the gap?
Now, in the aftermath of the deadliest U.S. wildfire in a century, people in the Lahaina area are again asking the same questions, further challenging recent statements made by county and state officials that “nobody saw this coming,” that “this has never happened before.”
“We were begging to be taken seriously, but our voices weren’t being heard,” Samantha Dizon said. “2018 should have been a wake-up call. But nothing was done here.”
Despite promising they would take action, Maui County leaders did not make wildfires a priority after 2018, a Washington Post investigation has found, even though their hazard plan stated that “West Maui has experienced more wildfires than any other community planning area over the last 20 years.”
The Post investigation — a review of hundreds of pages of county documents and interviews with more than a dozen people, including current former county and state employees — found that Maui Emergency Management Agency officials regularly warned county leaders that their staffing and evacuation infrastructure was inadequate to respond to a major disaster. However, even with a budget boost, the county only increased agency staffing from seven to nine employees between fiscal years 2020 and 2021.
The agency’s administrator, Herman Andaya, also did not act on recommendations by residents and others that the county broaden its outdoor warning sirens to include wildfires. At county meetings, he called the system a “last resort.” Emergency officials again did not activate those sirens on Aug. 8 to alert Lahaina residents of the approaching fire, a decision Andaya repeatedly defended before he resigned last week.
The agency also never published its internal after-action report on the 2018 fires, which should have included findings on what went wrong and recommendations for improvements, according to a former county official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about the matter.
In addition, the county did not broadly or swiftly act on calls by residents, as well as reports commissioned by the community, to improve fire safety. At least two called for homeowners and private landowners to remove dangerous vegetation on their properties and create defensible spaces and fire breaks.
West Maui groups and activists had been “begging and begging and begging” for disaster planning, including more emergency management funds and more fire stations, said Joseph Pluta, the head of the West Maui Taxpayers Association. In September 2018, the nonprofit created a draft plan to better prepare the area for disasters, using a state-provided template for residents. Pluta said the county declined to participate, so the plan never went anywhere.
Back then, he said, he complained to the mayor and emergency management agency that they were minimizing the potential threats. In his view, there has been little political will to prioritize emergency planning.
The hazard plan was still sitting untouched, in draft form, on Aug. 8, when he awoke choking on thick, black smoke. He survived by only a minute or two, he believes, by jumping out his window. When he looked up from the ground, he saw his Lahaina home and his neighbors’ on fire.
“Everything that we told them was true,” he said. “They didn’t pay attention to our warnings. They didn’t do what we asked them to do and minimized it and now people are dead because of it.”
Asked about the concerns of Pluta, the Dizons and other residents, Maui county officials did not respond to telephone messages or emails. Arakawa, the former mayor, also could not be reached. In previous statements, Maui officials have said their priorities now are helping fire victims recover, assisting in the search for missing loved ones and restoring services, such as drinking water.
Little focus on fire threats
During fiscal 2023, Maui County designated $1.1 million for emergency management — nearly 85 percent of which came from grants — out of a general fund budget of $1.07 billion.
While some Maui residents have criticized the county for not investing more in emergency management, it is well-known that such planning departments are underfunded nationwide. Local governments have also long struggled to fund and launch large-scale infrastructure projects and update building codes to keep people safe, the former county official said.
The county’s small emergency response agency had issues beyond obtaining funding. The coronavirus pandemic forced the agency to redirect time and already stretched resources into the public health response.
As for the broken and empty fire hydrants that hampered the firefighting response in 2018 and 2023, a spokesperson for the Maui Fire Department said the county water districts are responsible for making sure water flows to those hydrants and the equipment is functioning. Water in Maui is a complicated, hot-button issue, and crews are just the “the end users” of it. Water district officials could not immediately be reached.
Hawaiian counties such as Maui take their leads from the state and depend on it for funding and direction, according to the former county official and a former state emergency official, who also requested anonymity to speak freely.
While Hawaii is highly concerned about climate change, it largely focuses on sea level rise, flooding and hurricanes. Its five-year strategic plan, updated in 2022, only mentions “wildfire” twice, compared with 13 references to “hurricane.” And though Maui has a thorough wildfire section in its 2020 hazard mitigation plan, which stated that the entire county was “at risk” because of climate change, it didn’t prompt robust preventive work.
‘You abandoned us’
Five days after the Kaua’ula Valley fire, Arakawa stood in the Lahaina High School cafeteria — flanked by officials from the county, state, electrical company, police and fire departments — and addressed the packed room. The last week, he said, had been one of the most traumatic ones he’d ever experienced.
Listening now to what he said then, is chilling, Samantha Dizon said.
“We had three fires while watching for a hurricane. We could have had a lot of deaths,” Arakawa told survivors, including the Dizons. “We could have lost a lot of Lahaina and our tourist area, but instead, we didn’t.”
The meeting quickly turned tense. For three hours, residents, including David Dizon, took the microphone and shared their grief and anger over a lack of warning, communication and post-disaster response: “You abandoned us.” “Where were you?”
“You failed us,” Dizon told officials, and it wasn’t the first time, he noted. The community had faced close calls with fires in 2007 and 2012, and this time, his neighbors, the Palakikos, also endured a harrowing experience.
That night, Daniel Kuulei Palakiko and his wife, Jaime, sprinted to wake up 30 members of their family as large embers landed in the coconut trees around their five homes. They quickly began to battle the fire on their own, cutting fire breaks and soaking the wooden structures. Fire crews could not make it to them, and hydrants ran out of water. The last of their five homes went up in flames around 5 a.m.
Commending them for their hard work, the fire chief confirmed that there had been a “break” with the hydrant. “I can’t tell you exactly why. We will follow up and see from our side and make sure we will have fire protections in place.”
Next: Why didn’t officials blare their sirens?
Andaya, the head of the agency, sat silently, so another emergency staffer took the mic: “Currently we don’t have a protocol for sounding sirens for fires but it doesn’t mean it isn’t something we can look at.”
Residents grew angry. “Just do it,” they yelled.
And even back then, people had questions for and concerns about Maui Electric, which is part of Hawaiian Electric - whose equipment is strongly suspected of causing the most recent Lahaina fire. According to residents in the 2018 meeting, the company was responsible for other blazes as well.
“If the winds exceed a certain amount is Maui Electric required to shut down?” one person asked. “Those wires were whipping up there. And that was the cause of the fire.”
“That was not a conversation that was had,” an emergency response official replied, asking the utility’s then-director of government and community relations to weigh in. At the time, that person was Mahina Martin, who is now the chief of communications and public affairs for Maui County and has been helping lead the response to the 2023 fires.
Martin confirmed that the utility did not have a protocol to shut down power ahead of high winds. They still do not.
There was, according to one resident, an electrical incident before the fire started. He then pressed the utility and fire chief for statistics about how many fires were the result of power lines or distribution transformers. The chief replied that he did not have that information, but told him to submit the question in writing.
The 2018 fire galvanized Lahaina and Kaua’ula Valley residents to take action themselves. The Palakikos said they spent hundreds of dollars on water tanks and hoses, and got trained on how to use them.
Others showed up at county meeting after meeting, year after year, asking for better radios, evacuation plans and more emergency management staff.
Struggling to ‘move on’
After Samantha Dizon lost everything in 2018, she said it felt like the county wanted her and her community to move on, and she did, in some ways.
Now every day is like déjà vu, but worse. Most of the historic town that helped her family rebuild is gone, including the homeless resource center where they lived for so long. Many of the people who fed and clothed her have now lost their homes, and she’s the one organizing supplies for them. That’s especially hard, because she knows what they are in for, what the trauma can do.
“You don’t move on,” from something like this, Samantha Dizon said. Because when you witness and escape a fire like she did, every whiff of smoke brings you right back to that smothering, burning air, to the panic and the chilling thoughts that you won’t ever get out it, to the sounds you wish you’d never heard.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; ASSOCIATED PRESS; LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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LAHAINA, HI - Two weeks after the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century swept through the Maui community of Lahaina, authorities say anywhere between 500 and 1,000 people remain unaccounted for — a staggering number for officials facing huge challenges to determine how many of those perished and how many may have made it to safety but haven’t checked in.
Something similar happened after the 2018 wildfire that killed 85 people and destroyed the town of Paradise. Authorities in Butte County, home to Paradise, ultimately published a list of the missing in the local newspaper, a decision that helped identify scores of people who had made it out alive but were listed as missing. Within a month, the list dropped from 1,300 names to a dozen.
“I probably had, at any given time, 10 to 15 detectives who were assigned to nothing but trying to account for people who were unaccounted for,” Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea said in a phone interview. “At one point the local editor of our newspaper … said, ‘Hey, if you give me the names, I will print them.’ And at that point it was like, ‘Absolutely. Anything that we can do to help out.’ ”
Hawaii officials have expressed concern that by releasing a list of the missing, they would also be identifying some people who have died. In an email Tuesday, the State Joint Information Center called it “a standard held by all law enforcement and first responders here in Hawaii, out of compassion and courtesy for the families, to withhold the names until the families can be contacted.”
As of Monday, there were 115 people confirmed dead, according to Maui police. All single-story, residential properties in the disaster area had been searched, and teams were transitioning to searching multistory residential and commercial properties, Maui County officials said in an update late Monday.
Authorities on Tuesday pleaded with relatives of those missing to come forward and give DNA samples, saying the low number provided so far threatens to hinder efforts to identify any remains.
There are widely varying accounts of the tally of the missing. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday that more than 1,000 remained unaccounted for. Maui Mayor Richard Bissen said in a prerecorded video on Instagram that the number was 850.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ATHENS, Greece - Greek firefighters recovered the bodies of 18 people Tuesday who they believe may be migrants in the Evros region of northern Greece, close to the city of Alexandroupolis, where a major wildfire was burning for a fourth day.
The charred remains were found near a shack on the border of the Dadia Forest, a spokesperson for the Greek fire service, Yiannis Artopios, said in a televised briefing. There have been no reports of missing people in the area, so authorities said they were examining the possibility that the dead “had entered the country illegally,” Artopios said.
No further details were available about the dead. The Evros region, where the bodies were found, is on the border with Turkey and is a crossing point for thousands of migrants seeking to enter Europe through Greece.
Greek firefighters were battling several fires across the country Tuesday, but their efforts were hampered by strong winds and dry conditions after a summer of back-to-back heat waves. In addition to the large fire near Alexandroupolis, firefighters were grappling with another blaze in the northern region of Rodopi, as well as blazes in Aspropyrgos and Fyli, west of Athens. Three villages near Fyli were evacuated in the afternoon as well as a monastery. And fires were burning on the islands of Kythnos and Evia.
And in neighboring Turkey, at least six villages are evacuated in the west, after forest fires broke in the province of Canakkale, an Aegean city along Dardanelles Strait, Turkish authorities said.
Vessel traffic on the waterway was temporarily suspended from south to north, the transportation ministry said, according to media reports.
The fire in Evros and those west of Athens were the most dangerous, Artopios told Greek state television, adding that 65 wildfires had broken out in just one day: “New fronts keep breaking out across the country.” In a briefing later, he said 93 fires had started in the past 24 hours.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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CATHEDRAL CITY, CA - Crews in mountain and desert towns worked to clear away mud and debris Tuesday in the aftermath of the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years.
The system was dissipating as it moved over the Rocky Mountains.
Hilary dumped record rainfall over the deserts, including in Death Valley, which experienced its single-rainiest day on record on Sunday.
As the storm system moved northeast into Nevada, flooding was reported, power was out and a boil-water order was issued for about 400 households in the Mount Charleston area, where the only road in and out was washed out. The area is about 40 miles west of Las Vegas.
Hilary slammed into Mexico’s arid Baja California Peninsula as a hurricane, causing one death and widespread flooding before becoming a tropical storm. At least two storm-related deaths were reported in Tijuana, but so far no deaths, serious injuries or extreme damages have been reported in California. Officials in San Bernardino said Tuesday they were still searching for one missing person in a rural mountain community.
In one dramatic scene, rescue officials in the desert community of Cathedral City, near Palm Springs, drove a bulldozer through mud to a swamped care home and rescued 14 residents by scooping them up and carrying them to safety, Fire Chief Michael Contreras said.
“We were able to put the patients into the scoop. It’s not something that I’ve ever done in my 34 years as a firefighter, but disasters like this really cause us to have to look at those means of rescue that aren’t in the book and that we don’t do everyday,” he said at a news conference.
It was one of 46 rescues the city performed between late Sunday night and Monday afternoon from mud and water standing up to 5 feet.
Hilary is the latest potentially climate-related disaster to wreak havoc across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Hawaii’s island of Maui is still reeling from a blaze that killed more than 100 people, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Firefighters in Canada are battling that nation’s worst fire season on record.
Hot water and hot air were both crucial factors that enabled Hilary’s rapid growth — steering it on an unusual but not quite unprecedented path that dumped rain in some normally bone-dry places.
The wet weather might stave off wildfires for a few weeks in Southern California and in parts of the Sierra Nevada, but widespread rain was not expected in the most fire-prone areas, University of California, Los Angeles, climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an online briefing Monday.
Flooding and mudslides were reported across Southern California’s inland desert and mountain areas and parts of Nevada.
The annual Burning Man counterculture festival in the desert 110 miles north of Reno remains on schedule to begin on Saturday, but rain from the remnants of the tropic storm disrupted the plans of thousands of participants who typically set up their camps early. Organizers closed the entrance gates as the storm entered California over the weekend when rain started to turn the typically dry, ancient lakebed into a muddy quagmire.
Heavy rain ended Monday but organizers said there is still a lot of mud, so the the gates will remain closed until at least noon today.
Hilary shattered daily rain records in San Diego and dumped the equivalent of a full year’s worth on Death Valley National Park, forcing the park to close indefinitely and leaving about 400 people sheltering at Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells and Panamint Springs until roads could be made passable, park officials said.
It was the rainiest day on record Sunday as the storm hit dumping 2.2 inches on the desert area, according to John Adair, senior meteorologist at NWS Las Vegas.
A tropical storm last roared into California in September 1939, ripping apart train tracks, tearing houses from their foundations and capsizing many boats. Nearly 100 people were killed on land and at sea.
In the case of Hilary, steady rain helped avoid great disaster.
Swain said conditions of the storm just didn’t produce some of the more extreme rainfall rates that were forecast as an outside possibility, which he said helped minimize flooding damage.
Instead of 3 to 4 inches an hour, most areas saw more-manageable rates of closer to 1 to 2 inches. However, Swain said, the amount of rain that fell was unprecedented.
“Numerous locations in Southern California saw their wettest August day on record ... and many locations set new records for the wettest day in summer,” Swain said.
Another factor that helped is that the rain fell at more steady rates, instead of brief bursts of the same amount of rainfall that would have created greater flooding.
“Even though the same amount of water fell overall in many cases, it didn’t fall as quickly as had been feared,” Swain said, avoiding those “catastrophic” flooding concerns.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; ASSOCIATED PRESS; LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Tropical Storm Harold made landfall on Padre Island, Texas, on Tuesday after forming in the Gulf of Mexico overnight, capping an extraordinarily busy 48 hours for an Atlantic hurricane season that saw three other storms form in quick succession.
By Tuesday afternoon, Harold was pummeling parts of southern Texas with heavy rain, and was expected to deliver up to 6 inches of rainfall in isolated areas through early today, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
The storm had already delivered up to 2 inches of rain in several places, including at Corpus Christi International Airport, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Around 7 inches had fallen on Mustang Island, east of the airport, he said.
“It’s moving very quickly,” Oravec said, noting that he did not anticipate the heavy rainfall to last that long. By late Tuesday afternoon, the storm had been downgraded to a tropical depression, but heavy rains were continuing, the hurricane center said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the state had deployed emergency response resources including rescue boats, search and rescue teams and platoons from the Texas National Guard. In Corpus Christi, several roads were closed because of flooding, the city said, urging residents to drive slowly, turn on headlights and find alternate routes.
Billy Delgado, the emergency management coordinator for Corpus Christi, said there were no fatalities or injuries, and the majority of calls the city was receiving were about road closures and fallen trees. “We’ve been through a lot of flooding,” Delgado said. “We were well-prepared.”
Meteorologists said the storm made landfall around 10 a.m. local time on Padre Island, a popular tourist area known for its beaches. Videos posted to social media appeared to show darkening skies and palm trees and street signs teetering in the wind. By 1 p.m., the core of the storm had moved inland, forecasters said. Harold was moving west-northwest at around 21 mph toward southern Texas and northern Mexico, they said. Several areas remained under tropical storm warnings and watches.
Harold, which follows the storms Emily, Franklin and Gert, is the first storm of the Atlantic hurricane season to make landfall.
More than 25,000 businesses and homes in the state were without power as of around 4 p.m. local time, according to poweroutage.us.
Harold had sustained winds near 45 mph, with higher gusts, the hurricane center said. Tropical disturbances that have sustained winds of 39 mph earn a name. Once winds reach 74 mph, a storm becomes a hurricane, and at 111 mph it becomes a major hurricane.
The Atlantic hurricane season started on June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 12 to 17 named storms this year, a “near-normal” amount. On Aug. 10, NOAA officials revised their estimate upward, to 14 to 21 storms.
There were 14 named storms last year, after two extremely busy Atlantic hurricane seasons in which forecasters ran out of names and had to resort to backup lists. (A record 30 named storms took place in 2020.)
This year features an El Niño pattern, which arrived in June. The intermittent climate phenomenon can have wide-ranging effects on weather around the world, and it typically impedes the number of Atlantic hurricanes.
In the Atlantic, El Niño increases the amount of wind shear, or the change in wind speed and direction from the ocean or land surface into the atmosphere. Hurricanes need a calm environment to form, and the instability caused by increased wind shear makes those conditions less likely. (El Niño has the opposite effect in the Pacific, reducing the amount of wind shear.)
At the same time, this year’s heightened sea surface temperatures pose a number of threats, including the ability to supercharge storms.
That unusual confluence of factors has made solid storm predictions more difficult.
“Stuff just doesn’t feel right,” said Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane researcher at Colorado State University, after NOAA released its updated forecast in August. “There’s just a lot of kind of screwy things that we haven’t seen before.”
(Judson Jones & Livia Albeck-Ripka, NEW YORK TIMES)
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OMAHA, NE - Scorching weather hitting nearly 100 million people across a huge swath of the U.S. forced schools and outdoor workers to scramble to adjust Tuesday — and claimed the life of a 1-year-old girl left in a Nebraska day care center’s van on one of the hottest days of the year.
Officers and medics were called Monday afternoon to Kidz of the Future Childcare in Omaha for an unresponsive baby inside the van, police said. Temperatures at the time reached into the upper 90s, part of a days-long heat wave.
The child, Ra’Miyah Worthington, was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said. Prosecutors charged the 62-year-old van driver, Ryan Williams of Omaha, on Tuesday with a felony count of child negligence resulting in death, which carries a sentence of up to four years in prison.
State officials said the day care would remain closed while the girl’s death is investigated.
The National Weather Service issued heat alerts Tuesday for parts of 22 states stretching from the Midwest and Great Plains down to the Gulf Coast.
The high temperatures in some states, including Nebraska, Iowa and parts of South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, were expected to be as much as 20 degrees above average. Higher overnight temperatures and high humidity were expected to compound the effects of the heat, which the weather service said would stick around through Thursday and possibly into Friday.
In Missouri, firefighters helped remove 117 patients from a skilled nursing facility after the air conditioning failed in the sweltering weather. Most were taken to other nursing facilities but seven who had COVID-19 were taken to local hospitals, authorities said.
The heat led schools across the Midwest to make changes, bringing recess indoors and postponing sports events from South Dakota to Indiana.
The Midwest heat is a taste of what areas in the Southwest have borne. Metro Phoenix, which recorded some of the hottest weather in the U.S. this summer, in recent days has enjoyed unseasonably lower temperatures of around or under 100 after sweltering through most of July with highs at or above 110. Thanks to the cloud cover, the high temperature Monday at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport reached only 91.
(SSOCIATED PRESS)
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There was no time to grab his birth certificate, much less a stove or food or military service records.
As the San Diego River rose Sunday by Mission Valley, 69-year-old Nick Galban realized his tent wasn’t safe. Yet a leg had swollen from a spider bite, and Galban’s left knee was a replacement. He wasn’t moving anywhere fast.
Then, as rain pounded the riverbed, two firefighters appeared and pulled him to higher ground.
“It was just so quick,” Galban said in an interview near the site Monday.
Tropical Storm Hilary hit the region’s homeless population especially hard and strained a shelter system that regularly teeters at capacity. First responders rescued around a dozen people in the Morena area, and the city temporarily moved nearly 150 people from a new safe sleeping site to a shelter downtown.
Those who stayed outside during the downpour assessed the damage Monday.
“It was awful,” said T.J. Brown, 34, who said he spent hours digging a trench with a spade to divert water from his sleeping bag. “I didn’t know it was going to be that bad.”
Outreach teams and police did notify many people about the storm, according to several homeless people and city officials.
“I was trying to get the people to wait in line for the emergency shelters,” Alicia Herrera, an outreach worker with Alpha Project, said in a phone interview. “But obviously there’s not enough space.”
On Thursday and Friday, she gave out tarps. As those disappeared, she offered rolls of plastic normally used to protect mattresses and advised people to huddle under awnings. If nothing else, they might keep dry.
Mayor Todd Gloria previously announced an additional 192 shelter spots.
One hundred and thirty-eight of those, or about 72 percent, were filled during the rains, according to city spokesperson Ashley Bailey.
But some of the remaining beds may not have been accessible to every person. One 46-year-old man downtown recently said he had checked in with a shelter but was told only top bunks were available. Because a spinal cord infection made it hard to climb, he chose to stay outside.
The storm clouds posed a particular challenge to San Diego’s new safe sleeping site.
On Saturday, 157 people were living on a lot south of Balboa Park, at 26th Street and Pershing Drive. Part of the draw was that you could stay in a tent, and the site began quickly filling soon after opening this summer.
Yet the region’s first tropical storm since the Great Depression brought too many unknowns, and officials told everybody they needed to leave. In its place they offered Golden Hall, an aging shelter by the Civic Center that leaders have long tried to shutter.
Dozens chipped in Saturday to help clear the area within hours, according to Kelly Spoon, a spokesperson for Dreams for Change, the nonprofit overseeing the site. Tents were folded. Bikes were locked to a fence. Participants were directed to pack enough clothes for four days, Spoon said.
All but about 10 people agreed to stay at Golden Hall, Bailey added.
The rains came Sunday. Low-lying areas were vulnerable, and waterways especially so.
Water beat dirt into mud and mud into rivulets that curled and swelled around encampments.
Around 8:45 p.m., more than two dozen firefighters and lifeguards arrived by the Mission Valley riverbed to help a small crowd wade through knee-deep water, according to an incident report and a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesperson.
First responders soon spotted people on an island downstream, officials said. Crews asked for a helicopter, but the storm was too strong. They requested a drone, but that plan was scuttled by the winds. A swift-water rescue team eventually opted to search the area on its own.
The operation was called off after about an hour. Two people were eventually checked for hypothermia, but neither was taken to a hospital and their current condition wasn’t known.
Dullanni Waterman, 44, was in a large green tent Sunday night. It sat at an angle on a hill, just a few bushes from the Mission Valley YMCA.
His dog, Ginger, a 3-year-old American dingo, started whining. Waterman largely ignored her. They were far from where the river normally flowed.
The dog pawed a corner of the tent. He looked over. Water was inside.
They fled through the back.
On Monday, Waterman slowly pulled blanket after blanket through the front flap. Sweat gathered on his forehead in the humidity. He stepped over a pool and onto a log, pushing the wood into several inches of muck.
Waterman laid his bedding on piles of sticks. He’d had to call out of work — Waterman is a cashier at a hardware store — to see what could be saved. Hopefully he would be ready to take another shift today.
A few miles south, a handful of people walked across the safe sleeping site.
No tents were visible. Sandbags had been pushed to the edges. Several metal storage containers were now clustered near the back, by some port-a-potties, to hold what had been left behind.
A few men in a jobs program swept the asphalt. A street sweeper was on its way, and then the ground itself could be washed and sanitized, nonprofit representatives said. City officials hoped everyone could move back by Thursday at the latest.
If anybody chose not to return, the waiting list is long.
In the riverbed, some of the mud had dried by the afternoon. A handful of tents remained under a trolley line.
Brown, the man who had dug a trench, stroked a small puppy.
Did he feel safe now that the rains had stopped?
“It’s not safe anywhere,” he said. “But there’s safety in numbers.”
(Blake Nelson, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; Ana Ramirez, Philip Molnar)
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A day after Hilary became the first tropical storm since 1930 [sic] to directly hit San Diego County, the region’s leaders began assessing the damage left in its wake and expressing gratitude that the storm didn’t pack the punishing punch that some had expected.
The storm was extremely wet, dumping record amounts of rain across the San Diego region.
But Hilary, which had grown to a Category 4 hurricane while spinning off the west coast of Mexico, caused limited damage by the time it limped into San Diego County. Hilary was severely weakened by the conditions that typically prevent such storms on the West Coast.
Despite reports of hundreds of fallen trees and some roadway flooding, the county appeared to have escaped major damage. More serious flooding and widespread damage was reported in Baja California and the desert regions northeast of the county.
“We prayed for the best case, we prepared for the worst case,” Eric Dargan, the city of San Diego’s chief operating officer, said at a Monday morning news conference at a county facility in Kearny Mesa.
As officials applauded the preparation efforts of both county and city staff, as well as the public, forecasters continued tracking Hilary’s remnants and studying how the storm lost its bite.
“The biggest thing with Hilary is that she weakened very quickly as she progressed north,” Elizabeth Adams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in San Diego, said by phone Monday.
Adams said the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean, the terrain of Baja California, where Hilary first made landfall, and the wind shear, or the changing of wind speeds and direction with height, sapped Hilary of its power.
“Those factors are very conducive for a hurricane to collapse,” Adams said. “All those things were working against this system.”
Adams said Hilary also moved through San Diego County at about 20 to 25 mph, which is “really fast for a tropical system.” Hurricanes and tropical storms that hit the East Coast and Gulf areas of the U.S. typically move at speeds between 5 and 10 mph, creating the feeling that they “sit there for a really long time,” Adams said.
Comparatively, the local “crunch time” for Hilary was about 18 to 24 hours, Adams said.
The storm made initial landfall about 11 a.m. Sunday south of Ensenada, Mexico. Forecasters predicted the center of the storm would arrive in San Diego around 6 p.m., but it actually hit much sooner, moving through between roughly 2:30 and 3 p.m.
The heaviest winds of the day preceded the center of the storm, with the strongest gust — 84 mph — recorded Sunday morning at Big Black Mountain near Ramona. A gust of 54 mph was recorded at Camp Pendleton, and 44 mph at Petco Park in downtown San Diego.
Despite those brief blustery conditions, most urban areas in the county did not experience the sustained, strong winds typically associated with tropical systems. No gusts stronger than 40 mph were reported at the downtown airport, which had continued normal operations Sunday despite more than 200 flights being canceled by airlines.
The lack of sustained winds was chalked up to the weakening of the system and the speed with which it moved through the area.
“The biggest impacts with Hilary were definitely the rainfall amounts,” Adams said.
With 1.82 inches of rain at San Diego International Airport, Sunday set a new record for the city’s wettest August day on record, according to the National Weather Service. It also marked the rainiest day in the city in more than six years, since 2.34 inches fell at the airport on Feb. 27, 2017, Adams said.
While Mount San Jacinto in Riverside County recorded the most rain in Southern California at 11.74 inches, Ranchita set the high mark for San Diego County with 7.38 inches, followed by Mount Laguna with 7.11 inches.
The National Weather Service said new August rainfall records were also set at Cuyamaca, with 4.11 inches; Escondido, with 2.66 inches; Oceanside Harbor, with 2.38 inches; Vista, with 2.12 inches; Ramona, with 2.03 inches; and El Cajon, with 1.86 inches.
The previous records were set Aug. 17, 1977, when a post-hurricane storm named Doreen slammed the region.
Sunday’s heavy rainfall caused some flooding and falling rocks on stretches of highways and interstates across the county.
The mudslides and rockslides largely occurred in rural areas in eastern and northeastern San Diego County, including on Interstate 8 near the boundary with Imperial County, where crews continued to work Monday clearing boulders and debris that shut down eastbound lanes. Crews were using jackhammers and other heavy equipment to break up the rocks, while geotechnical personnel were on-site to scale and survey the slide area to make sure the road was safe.
Dargan, the city’s chief operating officer, said city crews worked “around the clock” to respond to damage on roads, fielding 147 reports of fallen trees and branches across the city, as well as a report of a sinkhole in the Miramar area.
“I’m thankful we did not receive any major catastrophe, no major damage to our facilities,” he said.
A little after sunset on Sunday, swift-water rescue crews from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department aided 13 people whose encampment flooded in the Morena neighborhood, helping the group walk out of knee-deep water in the riverbed. A Cal Fire San Diego captain said firefighters performed two minor, non-injury rescues Sunday in desert communities for homeowners worried about flooding.
San Diego Gas & Electric officials said they didn’t see the number of outages they were expecting. “We were staffed up and ready,” SDG&E spokesperson Alex Welling said Monday morning.
By 4 p.m. Sunday, SDG&E reported that as many as 39,000 customers had lost electricity at some point during the day. But Welling said that 38,000 later regained power, and the average time for restoration was about one hour.
Most of the outages were due to high winds or fallen tree branches striking power lines and occurred in the eastern and northern parts of the county.
“We didn’t see the number of outages that we had expected to see, so being able to have all that extra crew of staff ready to go, I think, lent a hand to being able to restore power so quickly,” Welling said.
The Tijuana River was one area where the storm’s impact was apparent. The U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission said Monday that 1.8 billion gallons of untreated wastewater were flowing down the Tijuana River — more than four times as much as when the remnants of Tropical Storm Kay struck the area last September.
“It looks like a bomb went off of trash in the floodplain of the river,” Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre said Monday. Aguirre said it was frustrating that Gov. Gavin Newsom was in town this weekend to declare an emergency ahead of Hilary’s arrival, but has yet to do so to address the years-long battle to end the flow of sewage from Tijuana into local beaches.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria also proclaimed a local emergency Sunday, and the City Council voted 7-0 on Monday during an emergency meeting to approve the declaration, which will enable the city to seek state and federal emergency assistance funds.
“I want to thank the public for doing their part,” Councilmember Raul Campillo said during the meeting. “I saw lots of acts of neighborliness to make sure that people were taken care of, doing their part to make sure people were helping stay informed. It brought out the best in San Diego.”
At the news conference earlier in the day, Gloria had also thanked San Diegans for staying home and taking precautions.
“By doing so, what you managed to do is to reduce the need for emergency services,” Gloria said.
In an email Monday, San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Lamont Jackson thanked parents for being understanding about delaying the first day of the new school year, which had been scheduled for Monday. He said staff spent the day evaluating the district’s facilities and making repairs to minimal damage, and the district would be ready to welcome students back today.
Borrego Springs Unified School District, which postponed its first day, was also planning to start classes today.
Though the storm did not do as much damage as expected, officials agreed that the preparation was warranted.
“This is what I hoped for, but hope is not a plan,” Chris Heiser, director of the city of San Diego’s Office of Emergency Services, said during the joint city-county news conference. “I don’t control the weather, no one does, but you have to make decisions based on ... science and the best information you have at the time. It’s easier to back down from something than to school up for something.”
Flooding, power outages, traffic crashes and downed trees were part of the toll left behind as the storm moved through Baja California, authorities said Monday.
At least two people died in the state in weather- related incidents, and the Civil Protection agency said it was continuing to monitor 13 areas with active landslides in Tijuana.
(Alex Riggins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; David Hernandez, Rob Nikolewski, David Garrick, Tammy Murga, & Caleb Lunetta)
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A steadfast tropical storm named Hilary left an indelible impression on San Diego County on Sunday, toppling trees, shifting boulders, flooding intersections and canceling airline flights with winds and rain that are more reminiscent of winter than summer.
The center of the storm also arrived sooner than expected, moving through San Diego between 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. before curving toward Palm Springs, the National Weather Service said. Forecasters, who thought Hilary might show up around 6 p.m., will reconstruct the storm’s precise path over the next couple of days.
Hilary made initial landfall south of Ensenada, Mexico, about 11 a.m. Sunday. That weakened the system considerably. But the first tropical storm to directly hit San Diego in more than 80 years was still robust and was lashing the coast with high winds during the dinner hour and was expected to roil the skies until early today.
All of this led the San Diego Unified School District — the largest in the county — to delay its first day of school today, with students now starting on Tuesday. And San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria declared a state of emergency, a move that enables the city to acquire state and federal disaster resources, if needed.
President Joe Biden said he spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday about emergency preparedness measures in place and will continue to be briefed on the storm’s impact. Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel, supplies and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft have been positioned to respond as necessary.
“My administration stands ready to provide additional assistance as requested,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. “I urge people to take this storm seriously, and listen to state and local officials.”
Most people didn’t know quite what to expect Sunday when they woke up. Comparatively few have experienced a tropical storm. And such systems usually veer west and die over cooler water long before they reach the Baja California peninsula.
But Hilary kept jogging north-northwest and quickly established credibility, producing sheets of rain and wild winds that caused dry stream beds to come to life and made kites out of lawn chairs.
Most coastal cities got more than an inch of rain by 7 p.m., and it was still coming down, while the inland valleys got 1.5 to 2 inches. Mount Laguna recorded more than 6 inches of precipitation by dark — moisture that could delay the start of wildfire season.
In its own way, the figure at San Diego International Airport was even more impressive: 1.06 inches. The airfield averages 0.01 inches during the entire month of August. The mere threat of heavy rain and fierce winds approaching the airport led to the cancellation of more than 200 flights Sunday.
Hilary’s winds also were impressive, regularly blowing 40 to 60 mph through many parts of the county and gusting to 84 mph at Big Black Mountain near Ramona.
By the dinner hour, Hilary had not caused a major incident. But it got everybody’s attention, especially between roughly 2:30 and 4 p.m.
Heavy rains caused flooding on stretches of state Route 94 and parts of Interstate 5 and Interstate 8. DoorDash announced it was suspending food deliveries until today due to the rain. The weather service said that boulders loosened by downpours were rolling in Julian. Then it issued a tornado warning for the Alpine area.
It was the second heart-stopping announcement of the day.
Around noon, the weather service said that Hilary posed a “life-threatening” danger in much of East County where rain was falling at the rate of an inch a minute in some areas.
No fatalities were reported by the time the warning expired at 2:30 p.m. But it created anxiety at a time when TV forecasters were showing ominous graphics and repeatedly saying Southern California was going to get whacked.
In In-Ko-Pah, moving boulders blocked several lanes on Interstate 8, forcing lane closures and one-way traffic control, the California Highway Patrol reported. Runoff also appears to have caused a mudslide near Julian that closed the southbound lanes of state Route 78 near Banner Drive, authorities said. At Sunset Cliffs, dirt runoff turned the sea chocolate-milk brown.
Despite the mud, trees and boulders on some highways, the roadway conditions across the county as of 2 p.m. were “pretty good” considering the steady rain, CHP Officer Mark Latulippe said.
“So far it doesn’t seem any worse than any normal rain day, maybe even better than most rain days,” Latulippe said. “I think a lot of people have chosen to stay home and avoid travel, which is helping.”
Even so, many churches told their parishioners and volunteers to stay home Sunday, offering live-streamed services instead. Roads were unusually quiet, even for a Sunday, and some businesses decided to close early.
The winds appear to have contributed to some of the roughly 2,000 power outages reported by San Diego Gas & Electric.
In University City, a large eucalyptus tree fell on a two-story condo complex near La Jolla Colony Park about 5:30 p.m. Three residents were displaced, but no one was injured, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Matt Nilsen.
Hilary first hit the coast in a sparsely populated area about 150 miles south of Ensenada.
The storm has already caused flooding along the length of the Baja California peninsula, and torrential rains threatened mudslide-prone Tijuana, where improvised houses cling to hillsides just south of the U.S. border.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reported moderate damages in Baja California as of Sunday afternoon.
In Tijuana, government officials were asking residents to remain indoors as the storm continued to pass and urged people in precarious areas to relocate.
As of Sunday afternoon, about 60 people had gone to shelters set up throughout the city, said Gerardo López, Tijuana’s secretary of social welfare. There was still capacity for about 260 more people.
“We are still in a state of pre-alert, and we will be ready to respond to any emergency,” said Secretary of Government Miguel Angel Bujanda.
Crews throughout the Mexican state responded to a mix of traffic crashes, downed power lines, power outages, fallen trees and water rescues Sunday. At least one person died in a car crash believed to be weather-related.
The Mexican army deployed 90 soldiers to patrol the streets or to help with the removal of debris should landslides occur.
Farther south in the town of Santa Rosalia in Baja California Sur, one person drowned Saturday when a vehicle was swept away in an overflowing stream.
Such storms are a rarity in that part of Baja California. But it’s possible it won’t be the last to occur this year. The National Hurricane Center on Sunday reported that a tropical depression may be coming to life of [sic] the southwest coast of Mexico, in the same general area that Hilary did.
Rainfall totals through 7 p.m.:
Location Rainfall (inches) Mount Laguna 6.82 Ranchita 4.72 Lake Cuyamaca 4.06 Mount Woodson 2.11 Santee 1.86 Otay Mountain 1.99 Miramar Lake 1.66 Poway 1.55 Escondido 1.53 Carlsbad 1.45 Oceanside 1.32 Kearny Mesa 1.30 San Diego International Airport 1.06 Encinitas 1.00 Chula Vista 0.94
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; Tammy Murga, David Hernandez, Alexandra Mendoza, David Garrick Abby Hamblin, Lyndsay Winkley & Phillip Molnar, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The wind and heavy rain that Tropical Storm Hilary brought to San Diego on Sunday caused power outages, school closures, road detours, mudslides, fallen trees, flight cancellations and major adjustments to transit routes.
Fire departments and ambulance companies added extra staff and came up with alternate routes for emergency responses based on where flooding had already happened and where it was expected through the night.
Law enforcement focused on closing flooded roads and clearing fallen trees and debris from others. Several roads in flood-prone Mission Valley were preemptively closed just before the storm’s mid-afternoon arrival.
Officials told residents to expect many of the road closures and power outages to extend well into today, and possibly even longer in East County and other hard-hit areas.
The San Diego Unified School District postponed its first day of the new school year from today to Tuesday, but no other county school districts had canceled classes today.
Churches across the region took varying approaches to the storm. Some closed completely, some offered online services, and others followed through with regular in-person services.
Some grocery stores and restaurants stayed open, while many others closed. The DoorDash food delivery service announced Sunday afternoon that it was suspending operations through at least 9 a.m. Monday.
Power outages, which were expected to be widespread and prolonged because of the storm’s heavy winds, began just before noon Sunday in coastal North County. An outage in La Costa cost more than 1,500 residents power, and another east of Del Mar affected more than 1,100.
“I really want to make sure that our customers are prepared for prolonged outages,” said Caroline Winn, chief executive of San Diego Gas & Electric.
Winn said the company has additional crews and equipment in place. She also advised residents to stay away from any downed lines, and to call 911 if they smell gas. Updated outages can be viewed on SDG&E’s app and website.
By Sunday evening, there were small additional outages in parts of South County and East County, including Spring Valley, Otay Mesa and El Cajon.
Through late Sunday, airlines had canceled 253 flights at San Diego International Airport and 33 flights at Tijuana International Airport. A spokesperson at the San Diego airport said there were no immediate plans to shut down all flights with a ground stoppage.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria signed a local emergency proclamation Sunday afternoon, a move that enables the city to acquire state and federal disaster resources if needed.
“I ask San Diego to continue to be vigilant — make sure water has a place to go around your property, prepare for power outages, steer clear of downed power lines and report them to 911,” Gloria said.
On the city’s Get It Done! tipster app, residents reported flooding from Southcrest to Miramar Ranch, downed trees from Encanto to Rancho Bernardo, streetlight outages from Logan Heights to Rancho Peñasquitos, and blocked or overflowing storm drains from North Park to Sorrento Valley.
The Red Cross opened overnight shelters that will offer food and a place to rest in San Marcos and Chula Vista, the county announced.
“The Red Cross shelters will serve people with a wide range of needs, including people with disabilities, children and seniors,” the county said in a statement.
The locations are Corky Smith Gym, at 274 Pico Ave. in San Marcos, and Southwestern College’s Jaguar Aquatics Wellness and Sports center, at 900 Otay Lakes Road in Chula Vista. The shelter at Southwestern College will also accommodate pets, according to the county.
Many residents across the county prepared Friday and Saturday for the storm by securing patio furniture and removing outdoor items that could get blown away by heavy winds.
Brandi Smothers said she felt better prepared than last September, when high winds from Tropical Storm Kay damaged the small business she runs in Wynola, just west of Julian. But she said it still hasn’t been enough.
“We took everything down that could blow over, wrapped about a dozen trees yesterday so that they wouldn’t fall over — but we’ve lost them,” she said Sunday. “I have about nine trees down across the 5 acres. It’s nerve-wracking because there’s still more. It’s still heading our way, and we prepped.”
Veronica Viveros, owner of Veronica’s Kitchen in Descanso, said there was an eerie emptiness in the streets amid afternoon rainfall.
“It hasn’t come down hard, but I think a lot of people decided to stay home because they were scared and wanted to be cautious,” she said. “Last year our power went out and the Sweetwater River went up. People couldn’t get around because they’d get stuck in the river.”
To prevent flooding, San Diego lowered the water level in two city reservoirs — Lake Hodges near Rancho Bernardo and Barrett Lake near Dulzura. Officials said they expect the storm to cause flooding and spills early this week from Loveland Reservoir in Alpine.
The storm presented major challenges for firefighters and emergency service workers.
San Diego’s ambulance provider Falck USA added extra crews, put all employees on call and planned alternate routes in flood-prone areas.
Those moves are part of Falck’s incident action plan, which also includes putting generators in place for power outages and boosting supplies for paramedics and emergency medical technicians, a company spokesperson said.
If it becomes necessary to evacuate nursing homes or hospitals, Falck designated National University as an assembly point for potential strike teams to handle those evacuations.
Falck is also working with city fire officials to avoid delays, but the company said some delays will be unavoidable.
“We’re going to be responding more slowly for our own safety, and we could be delayed by flooding, mudslides or downed trees on roadways,” said the spokesperson, Jeff Lucia.
Alternative routes are key to the strategy.
“We’re closely monitoring roadway conditions and are prepared to use alternate routes to reach hospitals if necessary,” Lucia said. “Nobody can predict the full impact of the hurricane, but we are monitoring areas where flooding has occurred in the past — for example, the border area and Mission Valley, as well as areas that are prone to mudslides, such as Bay Park.”
Chief Jason Malneritch of Cal Fire said Sunday that many fire departments across the region had added staff. He said CalFire had six water-rescue teams in place and 10 additional strike teams to tackle emergencies.
In addition, he said Cal Fire had moved several fire engines with four-wheel drive into rural areas perceived to be in danger of getting cut off by road closures and flooding.
County Sheriff Kelly Martinez said Sunday that she was focused on getting any blocked routes back open as soon as possible.
“We need to really think about tomorrow after the storm is through and getting across our roadways that might have flooding and significant debris,” she said.
There were also major disruptions to many transit routes. The North County Transit District canceled many Sunday evening Coaster trains, and the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System made several changes. They include rerouting Lines 1, 20, 41, 88 and 120, which ordinarily cross the San Diego River on Fashion Valley Road.
For updates, visit sdmts.com/getting-around/alerts-detours or goNCTD.com.
(David Garrick, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; Tammy Murga, Paul Sisson, Abby Hamlin, David Hernandez, & Sam Schulz)
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San Diego Unified School District announced Sunday that it is postponing its first day of school from today to Tuesday due to Tropical Storm Hilary, while all other county districts said that so far they have no plans to cancel classes.
In a letter to district colleagues, Superintendent Lamont Jackson said the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution” and based on the “latest storm-related information from local officials.”
“Postponing the first day will allow us to assess any impacts to sites and district offices and ensure that we are prepared to welcome our students and families to the new school year,” he said, adding that today will remain a work day for district staff to prepare campuses for students’ return.
SDUSD, the second-largest district in California, serves about 98,000 students in preschool through grade 12 and has more than 13,000 employees.
Borrego Springs, Lakeside and Ramona school districts had scheduled today as their start to the new year and, currently, have no plans to change that.
Memos from officials at several districts indicated that no other districts besides San Diego would close their campuses today.
“If there is any indication of a circumstance that would impact our normal school operations, we will notify you,” Anne Staffieri, San Dieguito Union High School District superintendent, told district staff.
The decision to close campuses is no easy decision, said Music Watson, spokesperson for the county Office of Education.
“It really is looking at being cautious while fulfilling (districts’) fundamental duty because we also know that schools are places where kids get meals, where they learn, places where they’re safe,” she said.
The most severe weather was expected Sunday, with much of it having passed by today, though it was unclear what damaging effects it may leave in its path.
Still, that may not affect the scheduled start dates for five other districts later this week. Carlsbad, San Pasqual and Santee school districts start Wednesday, while Coronado and Valley Center-Pauma begin Thursday. The remaining 33 districts across the county have already begun the 2023-24 school year.
Several institutions of higher education have already announced changes to classes and events.
The San Diego Community College District announced Sunday evening that all of its campuses and facilities will be closed today for its first day of classes. All classes at San Diego City, Mesa, Miramar, and Continuing Education colleges are canceled “so that all facilities can be inspected,” the district said in a news release.
“The health and safety of our students and employees is our highest priority,” SDCCD Acting Chancellor Gregory Smith said in a statement. “While we have received no reports of damage to any district facilities, we believe it best for the community to keep as many people as possible off local roads and highways.”
Palomar Community College has canceled in-person and online courses today, for what was scheduled to be the first day of its fall semester. A reopening is set for Tuesday, officials said Sunday. Cal State San Marcos has canceled and switched some events to virtual formats.
Classes at San Diego State University will move to virtual instruction and employees are expected to work remotely. Welcome Week and Aztec Nights are canceled and may be rescheduled.
(Tammy Murga, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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For as long as meteorologists can recall, California has been protected from the wrath of hurricanes by three robust natural defenders:
* The first is a frigid ocean current that flows down the Pacific Coast, robbing storms of their strength-building tropical heat.
* The second is a prevailing east-to-west wind pattern that serves to shoo storms out to sea before they can collide with the mainland.
* And the third is atmospheric subsidence — a downward flow of air over California that squishes storms before they can form, and also contributes to the state’s moody marine layer.
For generations, these conditions have kept California hurricane-free. The last tropical storm to make landfall in the region occurred in September 1939 in Long Beach, when an unnamed storm brought 65 mph wind gusts and drenched the region in more than 5 inches of rain over three days. Ninety-three people died.
This year, however, an unusual set of weather patterns and warm Pacific Ocean waters have short-circuited these normally reliable safeguards and allowed Hurricane Hilary to sweep across Southern California.
California is familiar with natural disasters. The state witnesses more than 4,000 wildfires and about three major earthquakes a year, and major flooding and mudslides each winter. But the arrival of a tropical storm in California is yet another marker of how climate conditions have reshaped what residents can expect, in an astonishingly short period of time.
In the southeastern U.S., several hurricanes form each year in the warm waters of the Atlantic, where currents move tepid water from south to north. On the West Coast, ocean currents carry water from north to south, bringing colder water from Alaska to California, which typically acts as a deterrent to tropical storms.
“Very warm ocean water is essentially hurricane fuel,” said Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist. “So you generally need water temperatures getting up toward around 80 degrees or warmer on a sustained basis. The all-time record, high temperature at Scripps Pier [in San Diego] is right at 80 degrees, so we’re almost always well below this temperature threshold the ocean would be required to generate or sustain a tropical cyclone.”
But globally, July set a record for the highest monthly ocean surface temperature in NOAA’s 174-year history. And specifically, ocean temperatures off the coast of Baja California are higher than normal, due to the warming effects of El Niño and the proliferation of fossil fuel emissions.
“Over the last 40 years, climate change has made hurricanes more powerful, both in terms of wind speed and the amount of water they deliver as rain,” said Kristy Dahl, principal climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Massachusetts. “To see a storm of this magnitude in this part of the world — and at this time of year — is highly unusual.”
By Friday afternoon, energy from these steamy waters had boosted Hilary to a Category 4 hurricane with 145-mph winds, but it weakened Saturday to a Category 3 hurricane with winds under 130 mph. Hilary hit California as a tropical storm and did not diminish into a tropical depression or fragmented storm cells as it typically would.
But warmer waters are not the only factor. Some of the strongest hurricanes on record have formed in the Pacific, including Hurricane Patricia, a Category 5 storm that rocked southwestern Mexico in October 2015.
Typically, these storms are blown away from California, shunted out to sea by prevailing easterly winds. But that is not the case with Hilary. Due to a pair of unique atmospheric conditions, those east-to-west winds have vanished.
These conditions include a very unusual ridge of high pressure building over the central U.S. — a weather pattern that could bring extreme heat to that area. The other factor is an unusually persistent trough of low pressure off the West Coast. In between these two regions, winds are now blowing from south to north, experts say.
Perhaps one of the few benefits of Hilary’s visit will be its effect on the threat of wildfires.
The moisture is expected to diminish Southern California’s fire risk for several weeks — effectively ending the traditional summer fire season, according to Jonathan O’Brien, a meteorologist with the National Interagency Fire Center’s Predictive Services in Riverside.
(Tony Briscoe, Hayley Smith & Alex Wigglesworth, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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LOS ANGELES, CA - On a day the region was already coping with a major tropical storm, a powerful earthquake centered in Ventura County shook most of Southern California today.
The temblor, initially given a magnitude of 5.0 but later upgraded to 5.1, struck at 2:41 p.m. about 4 miles southeast of Ojai, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was quickly followed by a series of aftershocks, the largest of them measuring a magnitude of 3.8.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage attributed to the quake, but it was widely felt across the region, with shaking felt across Los Angeles County’s South Bay and into Riverside County. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that there are “no immediate reports of damage at this time.”
The Los Angeles Fire Department went into “earthquake mode” after the shaker, with crews dispatched to conduct inspections of all major infrastructure, such as bridges, apartment buildings, power lines and places where people typically gather.
Southland earthquake expert Lucy Jones wrote on X that the shaker appeared to have been preceded to [sic] a series of foreshocks that began Saturday morning. She said the area will likely continue to experience aftershocks, with a 5 percent chance of one that will be larger than the initial 5.1-magnitude quake.
“There is no correlation between the earthquake and the tropical storm,” she wrote.
The quake occurred on a day the remnants of Hurricane Hilary, which weakened into a tropical storm before it made landfall, was bringing heavy rain across Southern California and had first responders already on high alert.
(CITY NEWS SERVICES)
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Firefighters kept wildfires at bay near the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as well as a threatened city in British Columbia, though no one claimed victory as forecasters warned that drier and windier weather was coming.
Milder weather was forecast to end Sunday, after providing some help for fire teams battling to contain the flames of Canada’s worst fire season on record that has destroyed homes and other buildings, fouled the air with thick smoke and prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents.
Officials said Saturday that a huge wildfire had been kept from advancing closer than 9 miles to Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories that was left virtually empty when nearly all of its 20,000 residents fled for safety.
“We’re by no means out of the woods yet,” said Mike Westwick, wildfire information officer for the city, told The Associated Press. “We still have a serious situation. It’s not safe to return.”
To the south, in British Columbia, raging flames were also kept away from Kelowna, a city of some 150,000 people about 90 miles north of the United States border.
The Kelowna fire is among more than 380 blazes across the province, with 150 burning out of control. The blaze near Yellowknife is one of 237 wildfires burning in the Northwest Territories.
Yellowknife has become a virtual ghost town since residents fled following an evacuation order issued Wednesday evening. Long lines of cars choked the main highway and people lined up for emergency flights. The last 39 hospital patients were flown out Friday night.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Canary Islands regional President Fernando Clavijo said Sunday that police have confirmed that a wildfire raging on the Spanish tourist island of Tenerife was started deliberately.
Clavijo said police had opened three lines of investigation but did not say if there had been any arrests.
Improved weather conditions helped firefighters make advances overnight in their battle to tame the blaze that has raged out of control for the past five days, authorities said Sunday.
“The night was very difficult but thanks to the work of the firefighters, the results have been very positive,” Tenerife Gov. Rosa Dávila said at a news conference.
The Canary Islands have been in drought for most of the past few years, just like most of mainland Spain.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Firefighters battling wildfires in western Canada received help from reinforcements and milder weather Saturday, after the nation’s worst fire season on record destroyed structures, fouled the air with thick smoke and prompted evacuation orders for tens of thousands of residents.
Flames were being held at bay 9 miles from Yellowknife, the capital of the Northwest Territories, and weary firefighters got a reprieve around Kelowna in British Columbia. But the firefighters were nowhere close to declaring victory, especially with drier and windier weather forecast for the coming days.
“We’re by no means out of the woods yet,” Mike Westwick, wildfire information officer for Yellowknife, told The Associated Press. “We still have a serious situation. It’s not safe to return.”
Yellowknife has been a virtual ghost town since a majority of the city’s 20,000 residents started to flee following an evacuation order issued Wednesday evening, officials said. Long caravans of cars choked the main highway for days and those who couldn’t take to the road lined up for emergency flights out of the city. The last 39 hospital patients were flown out Friday night on a Canadian Forces plane, officials said.
On Saturday, officials said the only road leading out of Yellowknife was safe, for the time being. About 2,600 people remained, including emergency teams, firefighters, utility workers and police officers, along with some residents who refused to leave.
Charlotte Morritt was among those who left on Thursday, reaching that decision because of the unbearable smoke that she feared would be unhealthy for her 4-month-old son.
Morritt, a journalist with the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and her son took an evacuation flight some 950 miles west to safety in Whitehorse, Yukon, while her partner stayed behind to monitor their property, and help create firebreaks and fight fires.
“We knew it was only a matter of time,” said Morritt, who had been following media updates and satellite images of the approaching wildfires.
Air tankers dropped water and fire retardant to keep the flames from Yellowknife. A 6-mile fire line was dug, and firefighters deployed 12 miles of hose and a plethora of pumps.
Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year that have caused choking smoke in parts of the U.S. All told, there have been more than 5,700 fires, which have burned more than 53,000 square miles from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.
All of British Columbia was under a state of emergency Saturday. About 35,000 people have been ordered to evacuate wildfire zones across the province and 30,000 more were under an evacuation alert, meaning they should be prepared to leave, Premier David Eby announced.
Eby told reporters Saturday that the situation was “grim” and warned that the “situation changes very quickly.”
He said he was restricting nonessential travel to fire-affected areas to free up accommodations such as hotels, motels and campgrounds for displaced residents and firefighters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who met Friday with some of the Yellowknife evacuees in Edmonton, Alberta, on Saturday shared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter: “We’ve got your back.”
(David Sharp & Jim Morris, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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MEDICAL LAKE, WA - A wind-driven wildfire in eastern Washington state has destroyed at least 185 structures, closed a major highway and left one person dead, authorities said Saturday.
The blaze began shortly after midday Friday on the west side of Medical Lake, about 15 miles west of Spokane, and then expanded, Washington State Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Isabelle Hoygaard said.
It grew to nearly 10,000 acres by Saturday morning, with zero containment. That remained the case Saturday evening. Officials didn’t expect to have new size estimates until this morning, she said.
The burned structures were a mix of homes and outbuildings.
Evacuations were ordered for the town as winds blew the flames southward, Hoygaard said. The evacuations were extended Saturday evening southeast to the town of Tyler, she said.
Among those evacuated were the parents of Spokane City Councilmember Zack Zappone.
“They were driving into Spokane when they got alerts on their phone that there were ... evacuations at their house,” Zappone told The Associated Press in a phone interview Saturday. “They went back to get their dogs. My stepmom said it was a giant cloud of smoke and darkness. Embers were falling from the sky. She was having trouble breathing.”
The fire swept through the neighborhood soon after they left, destroying his parents’ home and his uncle’s home, just two houses away. Zappone said his parents had lived there since 2003 and had just paid it off last year.
“It’s shocking,” Zappone said. “I’m just in disbelief.”
The blaze burned through the south side of the town and then jumped Interstate 90 on Friday night, forcing its closure, Hoygaard said. The major east-west thoroughfare remained closed in both directions Saturday evening.
“The fire is burning on both sides of the highway,” the Washington state Department of Transportation said on its website.
Joe Smillie, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, said the fire, pushed by wind gusts of about 35 mph, was being fueled by dry grass and wheat fields.
A red flag warning, meaning that critical fire conditions were occurring or would soon occur, was in effect Saturday for eastern Washington state and northern Idaho, the National Weather Service said.
There was one confirmed fatality associated with the fire, Hoygaard said. Further details were not immediately released.
Staff, patients and residents at Eastern State Hospital, one of the state’s two psychiatric facilities, and those living at the Lakeland Village Residential Habilitation Center, both in Medical Lake, were sheltering in place Saturday, said Norah West, a spokesman for the Department of Social and Health Services.
Evacuees from the town were given shelter at a high school overnight.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known.
“My thoughts are with the ... residents who have been ordered to evacuate as the Gray Fire grows,” Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said on X, formally [sic] known as Twitter. “I’m also praying for the safety of the first responders working to contain the fire. May you all remain safe and out of harm’s way.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Officials with emergency services and San Diego Gas & Electric warn that power outages should be expected as the San Diego area braces for high winds and heavy rain from the fast-approaching tropical storm.
“Heavy rainfall, flash flooding and high winds have the potential to cause a significant number of unplanned and prolonged power outages to our grid,” SDG&E Chief Executive Officer Caroline Winn said during a news conference Friday at San Diego City Hall.
Winn said it helps that more than 60 percent of SDG&E’s circuits are underground, but the overhead power lines can be vulnerable when wind speeds are excessive.
“If you see downed power lines, you need to ensure that you’re not touching it,” she said. “Always assume that there’s electricity flowing through those (lines). Call 911 if you see downed power lines.”
Chris Heiser, executive director of the city of San Diego’s Office of Emergency Services, said residents should anticipate that power outages will come this weekend.
“This is not like the other storms we’ve experienced,” Heiser said. “It’s a huge footprint. It goes all the way from the desert out into the ocean.”
Heiser’s office monitored a briefing Friday afternoon from the National Weather Service that predicted winds this weekend reaching 50 mph along the coast and in downtown San Diego, kicking up to the 70 mph range in the mountains.
“Be prepared,” Heiser said. “We’re telling you, this isn’t an ‘if,’ it’s a ‘when’ — and the ‘when’ is this weekend.”
SDG&E officials urge residents to secure all loose items around their homes. That includes items such as trash cans, patio furniture, umbrellas and flotation devices in pools.
“Anything that can be picked up by the wind and flown into a power line,” utility spokesman Alex Welling said, could cause a power outage.
For now, SDG&E had no plans to issue a Public Safety Power Shutoff — in which utilities turn off the electricity in strategic areas when weather conditions are dry and extremely windy to avoid the chance of downed power lines igniting a wildfire.
“If we weren’t expecting rain, that would be a different story,” Welling said. “But fortunately it looks like the rain’s going to come first and then the wind’s going to come after that. At this point, we do not anticipate any proactive Public Safety Power Shutoffs.”
The utility and emergency responders advise residents to make plans in case of emergency.
This includes fully charging your cellphones before the storm hits.
“Make sure that you have a battery-operated radio, so if the power does go out and you don’t have cell service or your cellphone battery dies, you’re still able to receive emergency alerts,” Welling said.
Customers can also go to sdge.com/outages to get updates if they do experience an unplanned outage.
(Rob Nikolewski, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Residents heeded warnings to evacuate the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as a massive wildfire burned toward the city of 20,000 Friday, while firefighters battled a growing fire that set homes ablaze in a city in British Columbia.
Thousands of people in Yellowknife drove hundreds of miles to safety, with authorities guiding motorists through fire zones, while others waited in long lines lines for emergency flights as the worst fire season on record in Canada showed no signs of easing.
Airtankers flew missions to keep the only route out of Yellowknife open. Meanwhile, a network of fire guards, sprinklers and water cannons was established to try to protect the city from the fire.
Fire Information Officer Mike Westwick told The Associated Press by phone Friday evening that the fire was still 9 miles northwest of the city, partly because cooler temperatures helped slow its advance and clear some smoke, meaning air tankers could safely fly and drop fire retardant.
Even so, “we’ve got the wrong kind of wind coming” from the west and northwest and no rain in the forecast, Westwick warned.
The fire, caused by lightning more than a month ago, is about 644 square miles [412,000 acres] and “not going away anytime soon,” he said, adding that the blaze has jumped three different containment lines, fueled by dry weather and dense forests.
Hundreds of miles south of Yellowknife, homes were burning in West Kelowna, British Columbia, a city of about 38,000, after a wildfire grew “exponentially worse” than expected overnight, the fire chief said.
Residents had already been ordered to evacuate 2,400 properties, while an additional 4,800 properties were on evacuation alert. The BC Wildfire Service said the fire grew six times larger overnight and it stretched over 26 square miles.
Some first responders became trapped while rescuing people who failed to evacuate, said Jason Brolund, chief of the West Kelowna fire department, who said residents face another “scary night.” There was no known loss of life.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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San Diego County will be under a tropical storm warning for the first time in history this weekend due to Hilary, a powerful cyclone that could produce “potentially catastrophic” flooding locally and in other parts of the southwestern United States, the National Hurricane Center said late Friday.
The advisory was changed from a watch to a warning Friday night, and contributed to the Navy’s decision to send many of its active-ready San Diego-based warships to sea for several days to make it easier to manage and protect vessels in port that are undergoing maintenance.
The statements came as the National Weather Service warned that the county will experience a volatile mix of extremely heavy rain, high winds and booming surf that could trigger mudslides, power outages, road damage and dangerous beach conditions.
At the time, Hilary was spinning west of lower Baja California with sustained winds of 140 mph, making it a Category 4 hurricane. The system is expected to creep up the peninsula, weakening over cooler water and reverting back to a tropical storm.
But it is expected to release a deluge. The weather service said Hilary will produce 2 to 3 inches of rain at the coast, 2 to 4 inches across inland valleys and 4 to 10 inches in the mountains and deserts, with some spots in those areas receiving as much as a foot of rain.
The rain will begin today, but Hilary won’t reach its peak until late Sunday and early Monday. During that period, the winds are expected to gust upward of 40 mph in many coastal areas, 50 mph or higher in places such as Alpine and Ramona, 64 to 67 mph in El Cajon, Campo and Mount Laguna. Gusts could reach 80 mph at Ocotillo Wells. Driving is expected to be treacherous on Interstate 8, near the border of San Diego and Imperial counties. Tornadoes could embed with rain cells in that area.
The surf is expected to crest to 7 feet or higher north of Carlsbad, and the entire coastline is forecast to be raked by strong longshore currents and rip currents.
“These threats represent a life-threatening situation for San Diego and the rest of Southern California,” said John Suk, meteorologist-in-charge of the weather service office in Rancho Bernardo.
His colleague, Alex Tardy, said, “It does look like the eye-wall (of Hilary) will make it into San Diego County.”
The exact location matters. If Hilary continues on its current course, it will amplify rain in the county’s mountains and deserts. If the storm shifts east, there will be less rain here. But forecasters said Friday that a heat dome over Iowa and the Central Plains will prevent Hilary from sharply veering into northern Baja California.
The possibility of trouble caused a whirl of activity Friday across San Diego County.
Emergency crews hustled to place “No parking” signs in low-lying and flood-risk areas of San Diego, including along the San Diego River, which could near flood stage in the Fashion Valley area over the weekend.
Workers also quickly moved to secure equipment at San Diego International Airport.
There was a mad dash for supplies at a Home Depot in Clairemont, which temporarily ran out of bags and sand. The Padres announced that they would hold a double-header at Petco Park today, instead of single games today and Sunday.
San Diego State University said that its main campus and satellite in Imperial Valley will transition to virtual instruction on Monday so students don’t have to drive in the storm. Cal State San Marcos said it “will be canceling or moving to virtual formats any in-person events scheduled for” Sunday and Monday.
Father Joe’s Villages in San Diego said it would offer temporary overnight shelter tonight and Sunday night.
Police and fire agencies across the region were beefing up staffing as the storm barrels north. For San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, extra staffing starts today, and peak staffing hits on Sunday.
“We are preparing for impact both coastal and inland,” Fire-Rescue Assistant Chief David Gerboth said Friday, moments before he jumped onto a conference call with the National Weather Service.
The lifeguard division will have seven swift-water rescue teams in place — “We’ve never had seven teams during the summer,” he said — with another three swift-water rescue teams among firefighting crews.
“We are bringing in more resources than we would for a winter storm. We are leaning forward to be sure that if what is predicted materializes, we are ready,” Gerboth said.
He said lifeguard crews will also be out warning people of water danger, but also of the danger of cliff collapses spurred by erosion, high winds and storm surge.
In addition, San Diego County Fire Department, operated by Cal Fire, will have two dedicated swift-water rescue teams — one in the north, one in the south — ready to go.
“They are available for regional response. For any agency that needs assistance, county fire will provide it,” Cal Fire Capt. Mike Cornette said.
In Baja California, nonessential public activities will be suspended until Monday, and 80 shelters will be set up throughout the state, said Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila.
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador reached out to the state to offer support if needed, she added.
“If your home is safe, be prepared to stay in it,” said Salvador Cervantes, head of Civil Protection in Baja California. “If your home is not safe or is in a risk zone, request assistance to move to a temporary shelter or to a relative’s home in a safe area.”
In Ensenada, two massive events that were to take place on Sunday were rescheduled, including a popular Paella contest and the International Half Marathon.
Many San Diego-area concert promoters were taking a wait-and-see approach to determine if heavy rains and winds would require shows scheduled for the weekend to be postponed and will post updates on their websites.
The San Diego Symphony, not wanting to take chances, announced Friday evening that it has canceled its Sunday concert with Byron Stripling. UC San Diego’s Sunday concert with Eliades Ochoa is postponed to a yet-to-be-announced date. Earlier Friday, Pala Casino Spa Resort announced it is moving its Saturday outdoor show by Motown legend Smokey Robinson into the indoors Pala Events Center.
Vista’s Moonlight Stage Productions canceled its Sunday night performance of “42nd Street,” which was scheduled for an outdoor stage.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; Pam Kragen, Teri Figueroa, George Varga, Lori Weisberg & Alexandra Mendoza, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Local officials were scrambling Friday to prepare for Sunday’s arrival of Hurricane Hilary, which is expected to cause widespread flooding, significant wind damage and long power outages.
San Diego city officials lowered reservoir levels and preemptively closed streets in flood-prone areas, universities announced they would shift to online-only instruction Monday and transit agencies made some service changes and contemplated others.
City outreach teams were also alerting homeless people, particularly those living near rivers, about the dangerous storm. People at the city’s sleeping lot at 20th and B streets will move indoors to Golden Hall.
City crews were also sweeping streets to remove debris that could clog storm drains, double-checking that pump stations are ready to remove large volumes of water and preparing to remove fallen limbs Sunday to avoid blockages.
Residents across the county were urged to cancel any Sunday activities and shelter in place during the storm. If people must be out on local roads, they were told never to drive through standing water, even if it doesn’t look particularly deep.
County and city officials made sandbags available at multiple locations spanning nearly every local neighborhood. And residents were told to make sure they have fresh batteries for flashlights and a plentiful supply of food at home.
The North County Transit District was also conducting drainage inspections at the Del Mar Bluffs and other areas vulnerable to flooding or inclement weather. NCTD officials said they would monitor the bluffs before, during and after the storm.
People across the county were also asked to secure any loose or vulnerable outdoor items, such as umbrellas, tarps or patio chairs. Pets should be taken inside if possible, officials said.
“This is not like the other storms we’ve experienced,” said Chris Heiser, who leads the city’s Office of Emergency Services. “It’s not ‘if’ — you are going to see flooding.”
San Diego Gas & Electric said power outages are a near certainty during the storm, which is forecast to bring winds over 50 mph — and those outages could be relatively long-lasting, because heavy winds will ground the helicopters typically used to assess damage.
“We are preparing for the worst,” said Caroline Winn, SDG&E’s chief executive. “Heavy rainfall, flash flooding and high winds have the potential to cause a significant number of unplanned and prolonged power outages.”
One piece of good news, she said, is that 60 percent of the utility’s power lines are underground, leaving 40 percent vulnerable to the storm and related outages.
With forecasters expecting the storm’s most severe impacts to affect East County, Mayor Todd Gloria said city officials hope the worst of the storm might pass the city by — but proper preparation is crucial whatever happens.
The most vulnerable parts of the city to flooding are Mission Valley, Carmel Valley, Sorrento Valley, the Tijuana River Valley and other parts of the South Bay, said Kris McFadden, the city’s deputy chief operating officer.
“Just think of any valley system, any stream that you come across — it might not even look like a stream now — but it’s going to turn into a river soon,” McFadden said. “Even if what you see now is just a trickle like Chollas Creek, it’s going to be a lot bigger later.”
San Diego plans to lower the volume in two reservoirs — Lake Hodges in Rancho Bernardo and Barrett Lake near Dulzura — in locations where rainfall is expected to be the heaviest, city spokesperson Arian Collins said.
San Diego State University, whose fall semester starts Monday, announced Friday that it will shift to online-only instruction Monday. It wasn’t clear whether other colleges and schools would follow suit.
Across the county, K-12 school districts — including some, such as San Diego Unified, whose students are set to go back to school Monday — were closely monitoring the weekend forecasts. Many districts emailed parents Friday about the storm and began preparing their campuses.
Districts in areas expected to be hit hardest, such as Warner Unified and Borrego Springs Unified, were considering canceling Monday classes. Superintendents in both districts said those decisions would be made Sunday.
The torrential rains Hilary is expected to bring could also wreak havoc on the already crumbling rail line linking San Diego with the rest of the California coast and the nation, due to the potential for further erosion and landslides.
In advance of the storm’s arrival, Amtrak announced some scheduling changes on the Pacific Surfliner route, including cancellation of train 794 between Los Angeles and San Diego today and Sunday, and cancellation of train 761 between San Diego and Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday.
Additional cancellations may be necessary, it said.
Neither NCTD nor Metropolitan Transit System officials had announced any service changes or cancellations as of late Friday, but they also hadn’t ruled them out.
“Detours and schedule adjustments will be made as deemed necessary,” MTS said in a statement. “Riders should check the Alerts & Detours webpage for the latest information about any service disruptions.”
NCTD said to check GoNCTD.com for any service changes.
San Diego city officials suggested residents sweep and pick up trash, leaves, grass clippings and other debris that collect around storm drains and curb gutters near their homes.
They were also urged to keep lids securely closed on trash and recycle bins when placing them out on the street for collection. Bins should be placed farther from the curb than normal to avoid blocking stormwater, officials said.
When the storm arrives, residents are asked to report flooding or downed trees by using the city’s Get It Done! tipster app or calling 619-527-7500.
Downed electrical lines or gas emergencies should be reported to SDG&E at (800) 411-7343.
(David Garrick, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; Caleb Lunetta & Emily Alvarenga, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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LAHAINA, HI - Native Hawaiians and others from a Maui community devastated by a ferocious fire said Friday they worry Hawaii’s governor is moving too quickly to rebuild what was lost while the grief is still raw.
Since the flames consumed much of Lahaina, locals have feared a rebuilt town could become even more oriented toward wealthy visitors.
Green has said Lahaina’s future will be determined by its people, but didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the group’s concerns.
“The governor should not rush to rebuild the community without first giving people time to heal, especially without including the community itself in the planning,” Lawrence said. “Fast-track development cannot come at the cost of community control.”
The coalition of activists, under the umbrella of a group calling itself “Na Ohana o Lele: Lahaina,” were especially concerned about the impact of development on the environment and noted how mismanagement of resources — particularly land and water — contributed to the quick spread of the fire.
There was no word Friday on who would replace the Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator who abruptly resigned after defending a decision not to sound outdoor sirens during the fire.
The decision to not use the sirens, coupled with water shortages that hampered firefighters and an escape route clogged with vehicles that were overrun by flames, has brought intense criticism from many residents following the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in more than a century.
While crews sifted through ashes and rubble in Lahaina, scenes of normalcy continued in other parts of Maui, even if the tragedy hung heavy over the island.
Off the coast of Kihei on Friday, a holiday marking Hawaii’s statehood, paddlers in outrigger canoes glided through Maalaea Bay about 20 miles south of Lahaina. Fishermen cast their lines from knee-deep water. And beachgoers strolled along the sand.
The search for the missing moved beyond Lahaina to other communities that were destroyed. Teams had covered about 58 percent of the Lahaina area and the fire was 90 percent contained as of Thursday night, Maui County officials said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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PARADISE, CA - California residents driven from their homes by one of the deadliest wildfires in recent history had one request before they would rebuild in the small mountain town of Paradise: install warning sirens to bolster town emergency systems that failed some people before the fast-moving inferno that killed 85.
Town officials started testing the new sirens this summer after installation began in spring and as the fifth anniversary of the wildfire that wiped out much of the community approaches this November. There will eventually be 21 sirens erected throughout town that will emit one minute of loud, Hi-Lo warning sounds followed by evacuation instructions.
“If you’re going to come back to town, if you’re going to be part of Paradise again, what would make you feel secure and happy and wanting to come back? What do you need?” Paradise Mayor Greg Bolin recalled asking residents after the fire. “Number one on that list was a warning system.”
Tests of the sirens began in July and are run on the first Saturday of every month. Twelve sirens were ready for testing in early August, at locations ranging from Town Hall to police headquarters to remote intersections. The town’s protocol says the sirens and messaging will sound for 10 minutes, followed by intervals of five minutes of silence and five minutes of warnings “until the emergency has subsided.”
Reliable, audible warning systems are becoming more critical during wildfires of increasing speed and ferocity, especially as power lines and cell towers fail, knocking out communications critical to keeping people informed. After 2017 fires that ripped through California’s wine country, killing dozens, residents complained they got little to no warning from officials, who used phone calls and other alert systems but did not deploy a widespread cellphone alert. Many residents of Paradise had the same complaint.
Even when siren systems are in place, officials must make the choice to activate them.
Officials in Hawaii failed to activate sirens last week, raising questions about whether everything was done to alert the public.
In Paradise, the Camp fire broke out in the early morning of Nov. 8, 2018, amid dry, gusty weather. It tore through the town of 28,000 people, incinerating roughly 19,000 homes, businesses and other buildings. An investigation determined Pacific Gas & Electric’s aging equipment started the blaze and the utility pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Many residents said they received no warning on their cellphones or landlines as the fire quickly spread their way.
Paradise’s new siren system can be controlled manually, over the Internet, or by satellite. The towers’ power is hard-wired underground, but each siren also has a solar panel that can store two weeks’ worth of power.
“We’ve got backup after backup on these,” Bolin said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A strong earthquake followed quickly by a strong aftershock shook Colombia’s capital and other major cities Thursday, sending panicked residents out onto the streets and causing minor damage to Colombia’s congressional chamber.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the initial quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 and the aftershock a preliminary magnitude of 5.7. The epicenters of both quakes were about 100 miles southeast of Bogota, according to USGS. A magnitude 5.0 earthquake rattled Colombia later Thursday evening.
Paula Henao, the Bogota fire department’s deputy director of operations, said one person died when they panicked and jumped from the seventh floor of a building.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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YELLOWKNIFE, Northwest Territories - Thousands of residents fled the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories ahead of an approaching wildfire Thursday, some driving hundreds of miles to safety and others waiting in long lines for emergency flights, the latest chapter in Canada’s worst fire season on record.
The fire, boosted by strong winds, was within 10 miles of Yellowknife’s northern edge, and people in the four areas at highest risk were told to leave as soon as possible, Fire Information Officer Mike Westwick said.
Officials worried that winds could push the flames toward the only highway leading away from the fire as long caravans of cars evacuated the city of 20,000, and although some rain was forecast, first responders were taking no chances. Westwick urged residents in other areas to leave by noon today.
Evacuating such a large number of people is “going to be tough,” but people were cooperating and staying calm, Westwick said.
Jennifer Young, director of corporate affairs for the Northwest Territories' Department of Municipal and Community Affairs, said 10 planes left Yellowknife on Thursday with 1,500 passengers.
The hope is to have 22 flights leave today with 1,800 more passengers, and flights could potentially still be leaving on Saturday, she said.
Canada has seen a record number of wildfires this year, with more than 5,700 fires burning more than 53,000 square miles [33.9M acres] from one end of Canada to the other, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. As of Thursday, 1,053 wildfires were burning across the country, more than half of them out of control.
Thursday’s evacuation of Yellowknife was by far the largest so far this year, said Ken McMullen, president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs and fire chief in Red Deer, Alberta.
At the Big River Service Station about 185 miles south of Yellowknife, the line of vehicles waiting for fuel was “phenomenal,” employee Linda Croft said. “You can’t see the end of it.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tropical Storm Hilary became a hurricane early Thursday as forecasters warned it would continue to rapidly strengthen and could potentially bring “significant impacts” to Mexico and the southwestern United States this weekend.
Hilary is “highly likely” to come within 100 miles of San Diego as a tropical storm and generate torrential rains that could cause dangerous flooding countywide and raise nighttime temperatures into the 80s, the National Weather Service said late Thursday.
“We’re looking at 2 inches of rain at the coast and 5 to 10 inches in the mountains, and maybe that amount in the desert,” said Brandt Maxwell, a weather service forecaster.
“The rain could last for many hours in some places. And we think there’s a greater than 50 percent chance that tropical-storm-force winds will hit coastal waters with gusts of 39 mph or higher.”
Maxwell added that the weather service, for the first time in history, was planning to issue a tropical storm watch for San Diego today. A flash flood watch will be in effect for the area from the coast to the inland valleys from late Saturday until Monday night.
As of Thursday afternoon, the storm, the eighth named storm of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season this year, had sustained winds of 110 mph, with higher gusts, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center. Tropical disturbances that have sustained winds of 39 mph earn a name. Once winds reach 74 mph, a storm becomes a hurricane, and at 111 mph it becomes a major hurricane.
Hilary formed 470 miles off the coast of Manzanillo, Mexico, on Wednesday and was moving west-northwest toward Baja California. The National Hurricane Center said Hilary’s maximum sustained winds had risen to 120 mph Thursday evening, making it a Category 3 hurricane.
The storm was expected to grow into a Category 4 hurricane today while on a projected path that threatened landfall on the central Baja California peninsula by Sunday or possibly keep just offshore while heading for Southern California.
Hilary will begin producing rain in the local mountains on Saturday morning and spread to the coast later in the day, forecasters said. Hilary is expected to reach peak force on Sunday and into Monday, when fall classes begin at San Diego State University.
It’s possible that the system will cause a rainout of the Padres’ home game with Arizona on Sunday afternoon at Petco. The team has never experienced a rainout at Petco during August.
Such storms are quite rare in San Diego.
The city has been directly hit only once by a hurricane. That occurred on Oct. 2, 1858, generating winds that gusted upward of 70 mph. San Diego also was directly hit by a tropical storm on Sept. 25, 1939. That storm produced winds up to 50 mph.
The two storms originated along the west coast of Mexico, below Baja California, where the water gets warm enough to sustain such activity. The systems rarely travel very far up the Baja California peninsula, where the water is significantly cooler, partly due to the presence of the chilly California Current.
Tropical Storm Kay showed unusual stamina last September, coming within 150 miles of San Diego before it curled off to the west and died. The system produced strong winds and rain in the greater San Diego area.
Computer models suggest that Hilary will cause strong winds to blow from the desert to the sea on Saturday in San Diego County, raising the risk of wildfires. Then the system will generate rain that will be heaviest in the mountains and deserts.
Alex Tardy, a weather service forecaster, said “the range (of the storm) is anywhere from west of the Channel Islands to as far inland as, really, almost Yuma, Ariz. ....
“But if you take the current project path . . . it’s over about San Diego up to Oceanside and (to Huntington Beach).”
Hilary could end up generating 4- to 8-foot waves in parts of San Diego County and breakers in the 10- to 15-foot range in parts of Orange County, the weather service said.
A tropical storm warning was issued by Mexico’s government for the southern portion of Baja California Sur from Cabo San Lazaro southward and Los Barriles southward. A tropical storm watch also stretched from north of the west coast of the Baja California peninsula to Punta Abreojos and north of the east coast of the Baja California peninsula to Loreto.
The Eastern Pacific hurricane season has been very active over the past few weeks, but most of the recent storms have tracked west toward Hawaii, including Hurricane Dora, which helped enhance extreme winds that led to the devastating wildfires on Maui.
It is “exceedingly rare” for a tropical storm to come off the ocean and make landfall in California, said Stefanie Sullivan, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Diego. However, storms have come close or weakened before coming ashore, still causing flooding and dangerous winds, like Kay did last year. Sometimes storms even move across the state from Mexico; in 1997, Hurricane Nora made landfall in Baja California before moving inland and reaching Arizona as a tropical storm.
Hurricane season in the Eastern Pacific began May 15, two weeks before the Atlantic season started. The seasons run until Nov. 30.
Complicating things in the Pacific this year is the development of El Niño, the intermittent, large-scale weather pattern that can have wide-ranging effects on weather around the world.
In the Pacific, an El Niño reduces wind shear, a term that refers to changes in wind speed and direction. That instability normally helps prevent the formation of storms, so a reduction in wind shear increases the chances for storms. (In the Atlantic, El Niño has the opposite effect, increasing wind shear and thus reducing the chances for storm formation.)
An average Eastern Pacific hurricane season has 15 named storms, eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes. The Central Pacific typically has four or five named storms that develop or move across the basin annually.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; NEW YORK TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Nine days after the deadliest wildfires in modern U.S. history scorched much of the historic town of Lahaina on Maui, the head of the Maui Emergency Management Agency resigned and many locals say they’re furious at a government response they describe as slow, inadequate and uncoordinated.
Mayor Richard Bissen accepted the resignation of Herman Andaya effective immediately, the County of Maui announced on Facebook.
Andaya, who cited health reasons for his decision to resign, has been heavily criticized for not activating disaster sirens during last week’s wildfire response.
“Given the gravity of the crisis we are facing, my team and I will be placing someone in this key position as quickly as possible and I look forward to making that announcement soon,” Bissen said in the statement.
As the death toll rose to 111 a day earlier, Andaya defended not sounding sirens as flames raged. Hawaii has what it touts as the largest system of outdoor alert sirens in the world.
“We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” Andaya said Wednesday, using a navigational term that can mean toward the mountains or inland in Hawaiian. “If that was the case, then they would have gone into the fire.”
The system was created after a 1946 tsunami that killed more than 150 on the Big Island, and its website says they may be used to alert for fires.
Andaya was to take part in a meeting of the island’s fire and public safety commission on Thursday morning, but it was abruptly canceled.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez said Thursday that an outside organization will conduct “an impartial, independent” review into the government’s response to the fires.
“We intend to look at this critical incident to facilitate any necessary corrective action and to advance future emergency preparedness,” Lopez said in a statement. She said the investigation will likely take months.
Some people on the island are struggling to find housing and daily necessities. Others say they lack medical aid, generators and transportation to recovery centers to hear news of their missing loved ones. It’s often not clear who is [in] charge among local officials, the National Guard, Coast Guard and Federal Emergency Management Agency, some say.
“We hear that we have lots of provisions, whether it be through FEMA or Red Cross, but everybody is on a different page,” said Dominick Gambino, who lives in the Maui community of Kula, where fires are also burning, and is part of a coalition organizing cleanup and aid distribution. “Emergency services and organizations that should be coordinated and organized, in the public eyes, have completely fallen through.”
Government officials, however, say the overall response has been fast and robust.
FEMA, responsible for leading the federal response after natural disasters, says its rapid-response staff has been on the ground on Maui since last weekend. The response has ramped up this week, and the agency has now deployed close to 400 employees and 200 others for urban search and rescue teams alongside hundreds of troops to distribute emergency cash assistance, set up shelters, provide temporary housing in hotels and motels, and augment local search and recovery missions.
FEMA’s warehouse on Oahu has supplied millions of meals and liters of water, blankets, cots, emergency generators and other supplies, officials said. As of Thursday the agency had distributed $3.8 million in emergency cash to about 1,600 local residents, officials said.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said his office has been meeting daily to coordinate local rescue and recovery and firefighting efforts.
The disconnect points to the vast challenges that federal, state and local agencies face in helping everyone in need after an abrupt catastrophe on an island 2,900 miles off the California coast.
Those demands are coming as FEMA already is stretched thin by staff shortages amid costly and overlapping disasters fueled by climate change and financial shortfalls as its disaster relief fund nears a deficit by September.
With full appropriations threatened by political fights in Congress over funding for the Ukraine war, FEMA officials warned in an email Wednesday that they may have to pause spending on “non-lifesaving and life-sustaining activities” without a quick infusion of money.
“A lot is falling on FEMA right now,” said Alice Hill, who oversaw planning for climate risks for the Obama White House and is now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The agency is being asked to do the superhuman, but it doesn’t have the resources to do that.”
FEMA spokesman Jeremy Edwards said in an email that the agency “is working closely with the Administration to ensure adequate resources to meet all obligations to states, tribes, territories and households impacted by disasters.”
President Joe Biden, who plans to travel to Maui with first lady Jill Biden on Monday to view damage from the fires and meet with first responders, survivors and government officials, praised the federal response this week, calling FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell “the best we’ve ever had.”
“We’re going to coordinate relentlessly for the people on the ground to make sure the work continues,” the president said.
The fire that devastated Lahaina, a town of 13,000, spread rapidly last week after powerful winds from a hurricane off the coast whipped through dry grasslands. As of early Thursday, search and rescue crews had searched about 40 percent of the burned areas. An unknown number of people are still unaccounted for.
FEMA officials said they began activating staff from multiple federal agencies on Aug. 9, as fires were still burning in Lahaina, positioning supplies at the agency’s distribution center on Oahu, conducting satellite imagery to assess the destruction and delivering aid to Lahaina shortly after that.
Criswell arrived on Maui early on Saturday, about 72 hours after the fires ripped across Lahaina. A former local firefighter in Colorado who has led FEMA since 2021, she confronted a significant logistical challenge in mobilizing the federal response.
By then local agencies were still at work battling fires and leading rescue missions; Maui County officials coordinated with the Red Cross to set up emergency shelters with food, water and medical supplies. And Green had authorized a review of the emergency response to the fires.
Any disaster response in Hawaii is complicated by the islands’ remoteness compared with mainland crises. And last week’s wildfires were what emergency management experts call a “no-notice event” — a sudden, fast-moving disaster that, unlike hurricanes, does not appear in weather forecasts. A nonstop flight from Los Angeles to Hawaii takes about five hours, and Maui is reachable only by plane or boat, drawing out the time for supplies and equipment to arrive. Lahaina, on the island’s western edge, is accessible only by water or a highway that for more than a week was heavily restricted. As the community waited for government help to arrive, it relied on its own distribution networks for supplies, lodging, medical checks and other support.
On Wednesday, FEMA officials announced additional resources for the island, including the opening of a joint disaster recovery center where survivors can meet face-to-face with agency staff and connect with volunteer groups and other federal and state resources.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; ASSOCIATED PRESS, WASHINGTON POST)
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It’s possible that Tropical Storm Hilary churning off Mexico will make landfall this weekend roughly between the Channel Islands to the California-Arizona border and might directly hit San Diego with potentially damaging winds and rain, the National Weather Service said Wednesday.
Hilary, which is expected to reach hurricane strength today, could generate winds as high as 70 mph locally and might send storm water flowing into San Diego Bay, forecasters added.
Computer models suggest that Hilary will begin producing wind and rain on Saturday, but not reach land until Sunday, arriving during a weekend when several large outdoor events are scheduled in San Diego County.
“The models could change a lot over the next several days, so the path could change,” said John Suk, the meteorologist-in-charge of the weather service office in Rancho Bernardo. “But this scenario is possible.”
Forecasters issued the scenario on Wednesday afternoon during a video conference call with emergency managers and the news media. The prediction was largely based on data from the National Hurricane Center, which shows Hilary hustling up the coast of Baja California. The weather service said that it might issue a tropical storm watch for San Diego as early as today, something the agency has never done.
Such storms are quite rare in San Diego.
The city has been directly hit only once by a hurricane. That event occurred on Oct. 2, 1858, generating winds that gusted upwards of 70 mph. San Diego also was directly hit by a tropical storm on Sept. 25, 1939. It produced winds up to 50 mph.
The two storms originated along the west coast of Mexico, below Baja California, where the water gets warm enough to sustain such activity. The systems rarely travel very far up the the Baja California peninsula, where the water is significantly cooler, partly due to the presence of the chilly California Current.
Tropical Storm Kay showed unusual stamina last September, coming within 150 mph of San Diego before it curled off to the west and died. The system produced strong winds and rain in greater San Diego.
Hilary quickly roared to life earlier this week and is expected to quickly move up Baja California, possibly becoming a Category 3 hurricane, or one that generates winds from 111 to 129 mph.
Wednesday’s computer models suggest that Hilary will cause strong winds to blow from the desert to the sea on Saturday in San Diego County, raising the risk of wildfires. Then the system will generate rain that will be heaviest in the mountains and deserts.
There’s a good chance that Hilary will have weakened to a tropical storm by then. But the weather service says it might still have the punch to drop upwards of 1 inch of rain at the coast and 3 to 4 inches in the mountains and deserts by the time it plays out on Monday.
Alex Tardy, a weather service forecaster, delivered the startling forecast, saying “the range (of the storm) is anywhere from west of the Channel Islands to as far inland as, really, almost Yuma, Ariz. ....
“But if you take the current project path, yep, it’s over about San Diego up to Oceanside and (to Huntington Beach).”
Hilary could end up generating 4-foot to 8-foot waves in parts of San Diego County and breakers in the 10-foot to 15-foot range in parts of Orange County, the weather service said.
The storm is forecast to occur during a weekend in which the Padres are set to host the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park. There also will be concerts Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Rady Shell on San Diego Bay.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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HAMBURG, CA - Rural areas near California’s border with Oregon were under evacuation orders Wednesday after gusty winds from a thunderstorm sent a lightning-sparked wildfire racing through national forest lands, authorities said.
The blaze in Siskiyou County, dubbed the Head fire, was one of at least 20 fires — most of them tiny — that erupted in the Klamath National Forest as thunderstorms brought lightning and downdrafts that drove the flames through timber and rural lands.
“This has been a fire that has moved extremely quickly,” Forest Supervisor Rachel Smith told The Associated Press. “Just in a matter of a couple of minutes (Tuesday) afternoon the fire grew from just 50 acres to nearly 1,500 acres. This is the kind of growth that historically we have not experienced on our forest prior to the last couple of years.”
An overflight late Tuesday measured the fire at nearly 2,700 acres. By Wednesday evening, Klamath National Forest officials reported the fire had grown to more 3,500 acres and was spreading in all directions. Officials said there was no containment of the blaze as of Wednesday night.
Firefighters were working to protect homes near the confluence of the Scott and Klamath rivers, a very lightly populated area about 20 miles from the California-Oregon state line and about 50 miles northwest of Mount Shasta.
There weren’t any immediate reports of injuries or homes burned. However, the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation orders for several areas, including one south of Hamburg, a riverside community of around 100 people. Additional areas were warned to be ready to evacuate.
State Route 96 was also closed, along with a section of the Pacific Crest Trail north to the Oregon border. Smith said there were dozens and possibly hundreds of hikers on the trail.
“We’re asking those folks to leave it as quickly as they can and we’re providing resources to get them off the trail,” Smith said.
The Head fire is burning near the site of the McKinney fire, which began on July 29 of last year. That fire started in the Klamath National Forest and exploded in size when a thunderstorm created winds up to 50 mph.
It reduced much of Klamath River, a scenic community of about 200 people, to ash and killed four people, including two who may have been trying to flee the flames. Their bodies were found inside a charred vehicle in the driveway of a home.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LAHAINA, HI - Public schools on Maui started the process of reopening and traffic resumed on a major access road in signs of recovery a week after wildfires demolished a historic town and killed at least 110 people, while the head of the island’s emergency agency said he had “no regret” that sirens weren’t sounded to warn people about the encroaching flames.
At least three schools untouched by flames in Lahaina, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to ash, were still being assessed after sustaining wind damage, said Hawaii Department of Education superintendent Keith Hayashi. The campuses will open when they’re deemed safe.
“There’s still a lot of work to do, but overall the campuses and classrooms are in good condition structurally, which is encouraging,” Hayashi said in a video update. “We know the recovery effort is still in the early stages, and we continue to grieve the many lives lost.”
Elsewhere on Maui, crews cleaned up ash and debris at schools, and tested air and water quality. Displaced students who enroll at those campuses can access services such as meals and counseling, Hayashi said. The education department is also offering counseling for kids, family members and staff.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency opened its first disaster recovery center on Maui, “an important first step” toward helping residents get information about assistance, FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell said Wednesday. They also can go there for updates on their aid applications.
Criswell said she would accompany President Joe Biden on Monday when he visits Maui to survey the damage and “bring hope.”
Meanwhile, transportation officials said the Lahaina Bypass Road, closed since Aug. 8, was open again, allowing residents access to some areas near the burn zone during specified hours.
Herman Andaya, Maui Emergency Management Agency administrator, defended not sounding the sirens during the fire. “We were afraid that people would have gone mauka,” he said, using the Hawaiian directional term that can mean toward the mountains or inland. “If that was the case then they would have gone into the fire.”
Andaya said the sirens are primarily meant to warn about tsunamis. The website for the Maui siren system says they may be used to alert for wildfires.
With the death toll rising by four since Tuesday to 110, a mobile morgue unit with additional coroners arrived in Hawaii on Tuesday to help with the grim task of sorting through remains.
Search and recovery crews using cadaver dogs had scoured approximately 38 percent of the burn area by Tuesday, officials said. The number of canine teams was increasing to more than 40 because of the difficulty and scope of the operation, FEMA said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The National Weather Service says a significant tropical storm is likely to develop off Mexico this week and could track unusually far north, bringing heat and rain to Southern California, including much of San Diego County.
“There’s definitely potential for a system that would be like Tropical Storm Kay, which moved up the Baja California peninsula before it turned out to sea last year,” said Brian Adams, a weather service forecaster.
The outer edge of Tropical Storm Kay came within 150 miles of San Diego County on Sept. 9, 2022, breaking heat records across Southern California and delivering rain to the San Diego mountains and other areas. Kay also whipped up strong surf.
“Most of the rain from the new storm would flow into other parts of the southwestern United States, but it’s possible that rain also could wrap around the mountains in San Diego County and flow into the desert,” Adams said.
“We could see some moisture from this new system, and muggy conditions, by Saturday. Right now we’re putting the chance of rain here at 30 percent.”
Tropical storms and hurricanes are common during late summer off the west coast of Mexico. But the waters there typically aren’t warm enough to sustain such systems when they track northwest. And the winds usually keep them from directly running up Baja California into Southern California.
Forecasters briefly thought that the remnants of Hurricane Linda would hit San Diego and Orange counties in September 1997. But the the storm never made it that far north. San Diego did experience hurricane force winds from a tropical cyclone on Oct. 2, 1858.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Awakened by howling winds that tore through his Maui neighborhood, Shane Treu went out at dawn and saw a wooden power pole suddenly snap with a flash, its sparking, popping line falling to the dry grass below and quickly igniting a row of flames.
He called 911 and then turned on Facebook video to livestream his attempt to fight the blaze in Lahaina, including wetting down his property with a garden hose.
“I heard ‘buzz, buzz,’” the 49-year-old resort worker recounted. “It was almost like somebody lit a firework. It just ran straight up the hill to a bigger pile of grass and then, with that high wind, that fire was blazing.”
Treu’s video and others captured the early moments of what would become the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century. Now the footage has emerged as key evidence pointing to fallen utility lines as the possible cause. Hawaiian Electric Co. faces criticism for not shutting off the power amid high wind warnings and keeping it on even as dozens of poles began to topple.
A class-action lawsuit has already been filed seeking to hold the company responsible for the deaths of at least 99 people. The suit cites the utility’s own documents showing it was aware that pre-emptive power shutoffs such as those used in California were an effective strategy to prevent wildfires but never adopted them.
“Nobody likes to turn the power off — it’s inconvenient — but any utility that has significant wildfire risk, especially wind-driven wildfire risk, needs to do it and needs to have a plan in place,” said Michael Wara, a wildfire expert who is director of the Climate and Energy Policy Program at Stanford University. “In this case, the utility did not.”
“It may turn out that there are other causes of this fire, and the utility lines are not the main cause,” Wara said. “But if they are, boy, this didn’t need to happen.”
Hawaiian Electric declined to comment on the accusations in the lawsuit or whether it has shut down power before due to high winds. But President and CEO Shelee Kimura noted at a news conference Monday that many factors go into that decision, including the possible effect on people who rely on specialized medical equipment and firefighters who need power to pump water.
“Even in places where this has been used, it is controversial, and it’s not universally accepted,” she said.
Maui Police Chief John Pelletier also expressed frustration at the news conference that people were complaining both that power was not cut off earlier and that too many people were unaccounted for because of a lack of cellphone and Internet service.
“Do you want notifications or do you want the power shut off?” he said. “You don’t get it both ways.”
Mikal Watts, one of the lawyers behind the lawsuit, said this week that he was in Maui, interviewing witnesses and “collecting contemporaneously filmed videos.”
“There is credible evidence, captured on video, that at least one of the power line ignition sources occurred when trees fell into a Hawaiian Electric power line,” said Watts, who confirmed he was referring to Treu’s footage.
Treu recorded three videos to Facebook on Aug. 8 starting at 6:40 a.m., three minutes after authorities say they received the first report of the fire. Holding a hose in one hand and his phone in the other, he streamed live as the first police cruisers arrived and can be heard warning officers about the live power lines laying in the road.
At one point, he zooms the camera in on a cable dangling in a charred patch of grass, surrounded by orange flames.
Treu’s neighbor, Robert Arconado, also recorded videos that he provided to The Associated Press. Arconado’s footage, which starts at 6:48 a.m., shows a lone firefighter headed toward the flames as they continued to spread west downhill and downwind along Lahainaluna Road, toward the center of town.
By 9 a.m., Maui officials declared the fire “100% contained,” and the firefighters left. But about 2 p.m., Arconado said the same area had reignited.
A video he filmed at 3:06 p.m. shows smoke and embers being carried toward town as howling winds continued to lash the island. Arconado continued to film for hours, as pillars of flame and smoke billowed from the neighborhoods downhill, forcing people to jump into the ocean to escape.
“It was scary, so scary,” Arconado said. “There was nowhere to go. ... I witnessed every single thing. I never go to sleep.”
Treu’s and Arconado’s homes were spared, but satellite imagery shows that starting about 500 yards downwind whole neighborhoods were reduced to ash. Though experts say the early evidence suggests multiple blazes may have been ignited in and around Lahaina on Aug. 8, there were no recorded lightning strikes or other apparent natural causes for the fires.
Robert Marshall, CEO of Whisker Labs, a company that collects and analyzes electrical grid data, said sensors installed throughout Maui to detect sparking power lines showed a dangerously high number of such live wire incidents that night and into the following morning. The sensors, 70 in all, record breaks in electric transmission after trees fall on power lines or other accidents, and they showed dozens of such faults in areas where fires likely broke out and around the time the blazes probably started.
The faults, which Marshall likened to a series of circuit breakers tripping at the same time, were remarkable for the amount of power lost, a third of the usual 120 volts coursing through lines. Marshall said he couldn’t say whether any of the sparks resulted in a fire, only noting that there were many opportunities for it to happen.
“A substantial amount of energy was discharged,” said Marshall, pointing to a graph on his computer screen with several lines plunging at the same time. “Any one of these faults could have caused a wildfire, any could have been an ignition source.”
After the 2018 Camp Fire in northern California killed 85 people in a disaster caused by downed power lines, Pacific Gas & Electric agreed to pay more than $13.5 billion to fire victims. State regulators adopted new procedures requiring utilities to turn off the electricity when forecasters predict high winds and dry conditions that might cause a fire to spread.
In Maui, the National Weather Service first began alerting the public about dangerous fire conditions on Aug. 3. Forecasters issued a “red flag warning” on Aug. 7, alerting that the combination of high winds from a Category 4 hurricane churning offshore and drought conditions driven by climate change would create ideal conditions for fire.
Even though Hawaiian Electric officials specifically cited the Camp Fire and California’s power shutoff plan as examples in planning documents and funding requests to state regulators, on the day of the Maui fire there was no procedure in place for turning off the island’s grid.
Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez announced last week that she opened “a comprehensive review of critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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WASHINGTON, DC - Federal officials said Tuesday they will scale back water cuts for Western states reliant on the Colorado River in 2024, thanks to a slightly improved outlook, but long-term challenges remain.
The river serves seven U.S. states, Native American tribes and two states in Mexico. It also supports a multibillion-dollar farm industry in the West and generates hydropower used across the region. Years of overuse by farms and cities, and the effects of drought worsened by climate change has meant much less water flows today through the Colorado River than in previous decades.
The U.S. government announces water availability for the coming year months in advance so that cities, farmers and others can plan. The first mandatory cuts that magnified the crisis on the river went into effect in 2022, followed by even deeper cuts this year due to drought, poor precipitation and less runoff from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains.
Conservation measures and a wetter winter have improved the river’s health, leading to cuts being dialed back, starting in January. It won’t lead to dramatic changes because those affected have been living with water cuts for two years — or are voluntarily conserving water.
What cuts were announced?
The Bureau of Reclamation uses the water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead as measures of the river’s health. Once Lake Mead drops to a certain point, water reductions are enacted for Arizona, Nevada, Mexico and — much later — California.
Bountiful snowfall and rain pulled much of the region out of drought this spring and raised water levels at the reservoirs, though not enough to avoid mandatory reductions altogether.
Still, water users are intent on creating a safety net in Lake Mead and will pull out less in 2024 than in other years because of conservation and other voluntary efforts.
The reductions announced Tuesday are in the same “Tier 1” category that were in effect in 2022. That means Arizona again will mark an 18 percent cut from its total Colorado River water allocation, down slightly from this year.
Nevada receives far less water than Arizona and California. Its reduction will be down slightly from this year. Mexico’s allocation goes down 5 percent.
California has not faced any forced water cuts yet, based on its legal status as a high-priority user.
Will the river continue getting healthier?
No. Recent snow and rain were a welcome relief, but the river is stressed by hot, dry temperatures and demand.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the largest of the Colorado River reservoirs, remain low, at about 39 percent and 33 percent full, respectively.
“That is a little better than last year but still extremely low. It only takes a few dry years to set us back,” said Kim Mitchell, senior water policy adviser at Western Resource Advocates.
Are deeper cuts coming?
Yes, but not immediately. This week’s announcement is just one piece of various water-savings plans already in place or being negotiated.
Earlier this year, California, Arizona and Nevada released a plan to conserve an additional 3 million acre-feet of water through 2026 in exchange for $1.2 billion from the federal government. An acre-foot of water is enough to serve two to three households annually. The Interior Department is expected to release its analysis of the proposal this fall and finalize the plan in 2024.
Similar agreements also are playing out.
The Gila River Indian Community in Arizona agreed in April not to use some of its river water rights in return for $150 million in federal funding and money for a pipeline project. The tribe gets Colorado River water through the the same aqueduct system that delivers river water to Arizona’s major cities.
Jason Hauter, a tribal member and water attorney said Tuesday’s announcement wouldn’t be a big swing one way or another when it comes to water use on the reservation.
What about farmland in the West?
Farmers use between 70 percent and 80 percent of all the water in the Colorado River system, but Tuesday’s announcement will not change much for most of them.
One farming district in Arizona’s Pinal County outside of Phoenix lost almost its entire Colorado River water supply in 2022, and the district won’t get it back.
Instead, farmers have turned to groundwater or left fields unplanted. As much as half the farmland has been fallowed in the past two years, said Brian Yerges, general manager of the Maricopa-Stanfield Irrigation and Drainage District, which serves the region.
What about cities?
Major cities are unlikely to be impacted by Tuesday’s announcement. Phoenix, for example, has a mix of water from the Colorado, and the in-state Salt and Verde rivers, along with groundwater and recycled wastewater that it uses to serve residents in the fifth-largest U.S. city.
In the Las Vegas area, ornamental lawns are banned, swimming pool sizes are limited and almost all water inside homes is recycled, limiting the impact of water cuts. The Southern Nevada Water Authority said strict conservation measures will continue.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies nearly 20 million people, lifted water restrictions in March for nearly 7 million people. The district draws from rivers in Northern California that swelled with spring runoff, as well as the Colorado River.
What’s next?
Guidelines in place for doling out Colorado River water are set to expire in 2026.
“We have a generational set of agreements coming up,” said Bill Hasencamp, manager of Colorado River resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “That’s where we need to focus.”
Discussions among states, tribes and the federal government about their priorities for the river after 2026 are just starting. Mexican negotiators will engage in a similar but parallel process with U.S. officials.
Negotiators say long-term discussions will be geared toward living with significantly less water in the system.
“We had a good year,” said Anne Castle, U.S. Commissioner to the Upper Colorado River Commission. “But no one expects that’s going to be the new normal. The question is, ‘What’s the plan for the future?’”
(Suman Naishadham, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LAHAINA, HI - Hawaii’s governor warned that scores more people could be found dead following the Maui wildfires as search crews go through neighborhoods where the flames galloped as fast as a mile a minute and firefighters struggled to contain the inferno with what some officials complained was a limited water supply.
The blazes that consumed most of the historic town of Lahaina are already the deadliest in the U.S. in more than a century, with a death toll of at least 96. The cause was under investigation.
“We are prepared for many tragic stories,” Gov. Josh Green told “CBS Mornings” in a recorded interview that aired Monday. “They will find 10 to 20 people per day, probably, until they finish. And it’s probably going to take 10 days. It’s impossible to guess, really.”
As cellphone service has slowly been restored, the number of people missing dropped to about 1,300 from more than 2,000, Green said.
Twenty cadaver dogs and dozens of searchers are making their way through blocks reduced to ash.
“Right now, they’re going street by street, block by block, between cars, and soon they’ll start to enter buildings,” Jeff Hickman, director of public affairs for the Hawaii Department of Defense, said Monday on NBC’s “Today.”
Meanwhile, some state officials say there is a shortage of water available for firefighters, and they blame a recent ruling by an environmental court judge. It’s part of a long-running battle between environmentalists and private companies over the decades-long practice of diverting water from East Maui streams that started during Hawaii’s sugar plantation past.
Elsewhere, evacuees were expected to begin moving into hotels. Green said Sunday that 500 hotel rooms were being made available for displaced locals and an additional 500 rooms will be set aside for workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency who are aiding in the recovery.
In addition, FEMA has started to provide $700 to displaced residents to cover the cost of food, water, first aid and medical supplies, agency administrator Deanne Criswell said Monday. The money is in addition to whatever amount residents qualify for to cover the loss of homes and personal property.
“We’re not taking anything off the table, and we’re going to be very creative in how we use our authorities to help build communities and help people find a place to stay for the longer term,” Criswell said. More than 3,000 people have registered for federal assistance, according to FEMA, and that number was expected to grow.
On the water-supply issue, the deputy head of the U.S. Fire Administration, Tonya Hoover, said she did not have details on the island’s current water supply. She said the head of her agency has been meeting with firefighters, including one who was badly hurt and hospitalized.
The Biden administration is seeking $12 billion more for the government’s disaster relief fund as part of its supplemental funding request to Congress.
Authorities had required anyone traveling into the disaster areas to get a police-issued placard, but that was suspended Monday due to overwhelming demand. Lahaina resident Kevin Eliason said when he was turned away, the line of cars with people waiting to get a placard had grown to at least 3 miles long.
“It’s a joke,” Eliason said. “It’s just crazy. They didn’t expect, probably, tens of thousands of people to show up there.”
The blaze that swept into centuries-old Lahaina last week destroyed nearly every building in the town of 13,000. That fire has been 85 percent contained, according to the county. Another blaze known as the Upcountry fire has been 60 percent contained, officials said.
“There’s very little left there,” Green said of Lahaina in a video update Sunday, adding that “an estimated value of $5.6 billion has gone away.”
Even where the fire has retreated, authorities have warned that toxic byproducts may remain, including in drinking water, after the flames spewed poisonous fumes. And many people simply have no home to return to.
As firefighters battled the flames, a flurry of court actions were lodged last week over access to water. On Wednesday morning, Judge Jeffrey Crabtree issued an order temporarily suspending water caps he imposed for 48 hours. He also authorized water distribution as requested by Maui fire officials, the county or the state until further notice if the judge could not be reached.
But that wasn’t enough for the state attorney general’s office, which later filed a petition with the state Supreme Court blaming Crabtree for a lack of water for firefighting. The state asked the court not to let Crabtree alter the amount of water to be diverted or to put a hold on his restrictions until the petition is resolved.
The judge “substituted his judgment for that of the agency,” the petition said, referring to the Board of Land and Natural Resources. “As a result, there was not enough permitted water to ... battle the wildfires.”
Meanwhile, as officials investigate to determine what caused the fire, the focus has increasingly turned to Hawaii’s biggest power utility — and whether the company did enough as high winds swept over Maui last week.
Lawyers for Lahaina residents suing the utility, Hawaiian Electric, contend that its power equipment was not strong enough to withstand strong winds, which were amplified by Hurricane Dora as it traveled across the Pacific Ocean about 700 miles to the south, and that the company should have shut down power before the winds came.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEW YORK TIMES )
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An anticipated heat wave across the West may lead the California Independent System Operator to issue the first Flex Alert of the year — a request for utility customers to reduce their electricity use during the late afternoon and early evening hours.
Forecasters see hot weather descending on the interior areas of Northern California, across the desert Southwest and up into the Pacific Northwest through Wednesday, which could strain the power systems for California and neighboring states.
“Widespread heat waves can cause energy supply shortages, as resources are stretched thin across multiple states,” the system operator said in a heat bulletin released Sunday. “As part of an interconnected Western grid, the California ISO is preparing for tight conditions and taking coordinated steps with its neighbors to ensure adequate power supply during this week’s hot weather.”
When extremely hot weather spreads over multiple states in the West, grid managers sometimes struggle to allocate the resources needed to keep the electric grid balanced as millions of customers crank up their air conditioners.
The California ISO said it believed there are sufficient resources to meet California’s demand but “if weather or grid conditions worsen,” grid managers may issue emergency notifications to try to access additional megawatts of electricity.
To make sure all generators and transmission lines are available during the heat wave, the Cal ISO has already sent notices to utilities and transmission operators, calling on them to avoid taking grid assets offline for routine maintenance today, Wednesday and Thursday.
If things get tighter, the California ISO may issue a Flex Alert and ask for customers across the state to voluntarily cut energy consumption — usually from 4 to 9 p.m.
The California ISO manages the electric grid for about 80 percent of the state and a small portion of Nevada.
An intense heat wave in late August and early September 2022 that blanketed the West led the system operator to issue Flex Alerts for a record 10 consecutive days.
It appears San Diego will avoid the worst effects of the rise in temperatures forecast for this week.
Winds gathering from Hurricane Fernanda, churning southwest of the Baja California Peninsula, are expected to keep San Diego County from experiencing dangerous levels of heat for the coming days.
But temperatures in Northern California’s inland areas and the desert Southwest are forecast to be 5 to 15 degrees above normal. And through Wednesday, the Pacific Northwest is preparing for temperatures 10 to 25 degrees warmer than average for this time of year.
(Rob Nikolewski; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE )
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San Diego County’s northern-most beaches will receive elevated surf and a spike in rip currents this week due to Fernanda, a Category 4 hurricane that is churning off to the west at a point southwest of the Baja California Peninsula, according to the National Weather Service.
Waves in the Oceanside and San Onofre area are expected to crest at 4 feet, with possibly higher sets, into Thursday. Fernanda was still gaining strength on Monday. But forecasters say that the system will begin to weaken by today.
The hurricane is not expected to significantly affect wave heights in the southern half of San Diego County.
Sea-surface temperatures are in the 70- to 72-degree range. Swimmers and surfers should shuffle their feet upon entering the water to scare off stingrays.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE )
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During the frantic moments Tuesday after a wildfire jumped containment near a residential neighborhood in Lahaina, Hawaii, firefighters rushing to slow the spread were distressed to find that their hydrants were starting to run dry.
Hoping to control the blaze as it took root among homes along the hillside nearly a mile above the center of town, fire crews encountered water pressure that was increasingly feeble, with the wind turning the streams into mist. Then, as the inferno stoked by hurricane-force gusts grew, roaring further toward the historic center of town on the island of Maui, the hydrants sputtered and became largely useless.
“There was just no water in the hydrants,” said Keahi Ho, one of the firefighters who was on duty in Lahaina.
The collapse of the town’s water system, described to The New York Times by several people on scene, is yet another disastrous factor in a confluence that ended up producing what is now the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than 100 years. The lack of water forced firefighters into an extraordinary rush to save lives by risking their own, and it has left people searching for answers about how the community can better prepare for a world of fiercer winds and drier lands.
Edwin Lindsey III, who goes by Ekolu, a Lahaina resident who lost his home and also sits on the county’s Board of Water Supply, said he spoke with a firefighter who said it had been demoralizing for crews to watch the advance of the fire with little ability to slow it. He said he hoped that the water issues, one of a number of challenges the community faced — including a struggle to evacuate all residents — would be part of a larger discussion about lessons from the fire.
“What do we learn from this?” he said.
The water system in Lahaina relies on both surface water from a creek and groundwater pumped from wells. Persistent drought conditions combined with population growth have already led officials at the state and local level to explore ways to shore up water supplies, and they broke ground on a new well two months ago to increase capacity.
On the day the fire tore through Lahaina, the fight was complicated by winds in excess of 70 mph, stoked by a hurricane offshore. Not only did the wind fuel the blaze, it made it impossible during much of the day to launch helicopters that could have carried in and dropped water from the ocean.
Early that day, as winds knocked out power to thousands of people, county officials urged people to conserve water, saying that “power outages are impacting the ability to pump water.”
John Stufflebean, the county’s director of water supply, said backup generators allowed the system to maintain sufficient overall supply throughout the fire. But he said that as the fire began moving down the hillside, turning homes into rubble, many properties were damaged so badly that water was spewing out of their melting pipes, depressurizing the network that also supplies the hydrants.
“The water was leaking out of the system,” he said.
The fire in Lahaina took hold early at a residence, Ho said, and his crew began to set up to fight the flames while evacuating several people from inside and getting them into the truck. But the fire was spreading further, and they moved down to another nearby house, where they set up again and rescued an elderly woman, also giving her refuge in the truck. Every time they set up to suppress the fire in one area, the blaze would spread and they would find themselves scrambling to stay ahead of it. The water pressure was a continuing problem, he said.
In the end, the fire stopped only when it ran out of fuel at the ocean. The extent of the damage is still coming into focus, but it is already huge: some 1,500 residential buildings destroyed, thousands of people displaced, nearly 100 found dead so far, and the heart of a community that has long been a gem of Hawaiian history is reduced to ashes.
(Mike Baker, Kellen Browning & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, NEW YORK TIMES )
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OLOWALU, HI - With the death toll from the Maui wildfires at 93 and expected to rise, search crews continued to scour the scorched ruins Sunday and officials pleaded for patience as they struggle to recover human remains from ashy wreckage that disintegrates when stepped on or touched.
Just two of the victims so far confirmed killed in an inferno Maui Police Chief John Pelletier said “melted metal” had been identified by Saturday night. Search teams had covered only 3 percent of the disaster zone, in part because surviving structures are unstable and dogs sniffing out the area need breaks, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“They have gridded out the area. They use the dogs and they have the teams that go in there. But it’s hot. The ground still has hot spots,” Criswell said, adding that more search-and-rescue dog teams are being deployed. She likened Lahaina’s waterfront, lined with the burned shells of cars, to “a scene from an apocalyptic movie.”
Officials urged relatives of the missing, whose names and photos fill walls at shelters and spreadsheets circulating online, to submit DNA to assist with the identification process in the aftermath of what has become the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century.
“Every one of those [victims] are John and Jane Does,” Pelletier said. “We know we have got to go quick, but we have got to do it right.”
The pace of the search contributed to frustration among Maui residents already angered by local authorities’ failure to activate warning sirens as the blaze sped toward Lahaina last week and a sense that official relief efforts have been sluggish. Across West Maui, people have banded together to provide shelter, food, fuel and other resources for those left homeless by the inferno.
Other questions remain, such as what sparked the wildfires and why warnings and mitigation steps — such as preemptively shutting off power to prevent downed power lines amid powerful winds known to increase fire risk — weren’t followed.
While wildfires take place every year on the islands — the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization estimates that 0.5 percent of Hawaii’s total land area burns each year — none have burned so much so quickly.
The death toll of the Maui wildfires quickly topped the 2018 Camp fire in Northern California, which killed 85. But in California, it took 17 days for the fire centered in the town of Paradise to destroy 14,000 residences over an area the size of Chicago. The fire in Lahaina started slowly but then ripped through town in a matter of hours — with the final death toll still unknown.
Officials have pushed back on criticisms of being unprepared, characterizing the response as deliberate in a hazardous environment. FEMA said Sunday it had deployed more than 250 of its employees, including 45 disaster survivor assistance staffers who are visiting shelters to help residents apply for financial aid.
The National Guard, which said it had activated 134 troops to assist with the response, expects an additional 200 staff members to arrive in the coming days, FEMA said Sunday.
“I can understand why there is frustration because, as I said, we are in a period of shock and loss,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said Sunday on CNN. “From what I can see, the government agencies are there.”
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, a Democrat, said National Guard members could help open roads, easing travel and supply deliveries. In the days after the fire, many residents and businesses transported aid to Lahaina by boat and water scooters. On Friday, however, the U.S. Coast Guard said it was restricting access by any unapproved vessels to about 10 miles of coastline around Lahaina, citing danger to the public and coral-damaging pollution.
Some Lahaina residents who have found a way back to check property damage are describing and documenting a harsh reality: the sight of authorities still recovering bodies, carcasses of dogs and cats strewn about, and other horrors.
Tyler Olsen, a 27-year-old Salt Lake City native, said he and his girlfriend were among the first evacuees to enter a now tightly restricted disaster zone. They were both curious and desperate to find out what happened to his apartment building and his business, a gym, after the couple had escaped the flames.
The gym survived, Olsen said. The apartment building was no more. Then came what they found in the historic district in Lahaina.
“It was way worse than I could ever imagine — ever,” he said. “When we walked in there it looked like bombs had gone off.”
Officials have limited residents’ access to the most affected areas of Lahaina, which they said contained toxic materials and perilous structures. In a statement, Maui County instructed people in fire-affected areas to drink only bottled water and avoid tap water, which it said may contain contaminants. Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen said Lahaina was too hazardous to explore and its contents too sensitive to disturb.
“We’re not doing anybody any favors by letting them back in there quickly, just so they can get sick,” Bissen said. “We’re asking for the respect and dignity of recovering anyone who is still there.”
Hawaii’s attorney general late Friday announced a probe into the decision-making and policies surrounding the Maui fires, including county authorities’ failure to sound sirens that could have alerted Lahaina residents. The risk was known: Wildfire researchers had warned for years, including in a report prepared for the county in 2020, that West Maui was highly susceptible to such conflagrations.
Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, suggested the alerts might not have helped as much as some think. Speaking Sunday on “Face the Nation,” Tokuda said if residents heard the siren, they “would not know what the crisis was.”
“You might think it’s a tsunami, by the way, which is our first instinct. You would run towards land, which in this case would be towards fire,” she said.
Tokuda, whose district includes Lahaina, surveyed the damage on Saturday and described “fires smoldering in the distance” and “cars literally melted into puddles that have hardened over on the road.”
The congresswoman framed the wildfires on Maui as crises caused in part by climate change and underscored the importance of aid from FEMA.
Most of the more than 2,200 structures destroyed by the Maui fires were residential, leaving thousands of people without shelter. Green, Hawaii’s governor, said Saturday that housing and homelessness were “a top priority.”
(WASHINGTON POST )
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PHOENIX, AZ - Postal worker Eugene Gates Jr. was delivering mail in the suffocating Dallas heat this summer when he collapsed in a homeowner’s yard and was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Carla Gates said she’s sure heat was a factor in her 66-year-old husband’s death, even though she’s still waiting for the autopsy report. When Eugene Gates died on June 20, the temperature was 98 degrees Fahrenheit and the heat index, which also considers humidity, had soared over 110 degrees.
“I will believe this until the day I die, that it was heat-related,” Carla Gates said.
Even when it seems obvious that extreme heat was a factor, death certificates don’t always reflect the role it played. Experts say a mishmash of ways more than 3,000 counties calculate heat deaths means we don’t really know how many people die in the United States each year because of high temperatures in warming world.
That imprecision harms efforts to better protect people from extreme heat because officials who set policies and fund programs can’t get the financial and other support needed to make a difference.
“Essentially, all heat related deaths are preventable. People don’t need to die from the heat,” said epidemiologist Kristie L. Ebi, who focuses on global warming’s impact on human health as a professor at the University of Washington.
With a better count, she said, “you can start developing much better heat wave early warning systems and target people who are at higher risk and make sure that they’re aware of these risks.”
Currently, about the only consistency in counting heat deaths in the U.S. is that officials and climate specialists acknowledge fatalities are grossly undercounted.
“Deaths are investigated in vastly different ways based on where a person died,” said Dr. Greg Hess, the medical examiner for Pima County, Arizona’s second most populous county and home to Tucson. “It should be no surprise that we don’t have good nationwide data on heat-related deaths.”
Many experts say a standard decades-old method known as counting excess deaths could better show how extreme heat harms people.
“You want to look at the number of people who would not have died during that time period and get a true sense of the magnitude of the impact,” Ebi said, including people who would not have suffered a fatal heart attack or renal failure without the heat.
The excess deaths calculation is often used to estimate the death toll in natural disasters, with researchers tallying fatalities that exceeded those that occurred at the same time the previous year when circumstances were average.
Counting excess deaths was used to calculate the human impact of a heat wave in Chicago that killed more than 700 people in July 1995, many older Black people who lived alone. Researchers also counted excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide more complete information about deaths directly and indirectly related to the coronavirus.
But as things stand now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports just 600 to 700 heat deaths annually in the United States. A study published last month in the journal Nature Medicine estimated more than 61,000 heat-related deaths last summer across Europe, which has roughly double the U.S. population but more than 100 times as many heat deaths.
Dr. Sameed Khatana, a staff cardiologist at the Philadelphia VA Medical Center and assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, has said deaths in which heat contributed significantly to fatalities from causes like heart failure should also be considered.
Khatana participated in research published last year that counted excess deaths in all U.S. counties. The findings suggested that from 2008 to 2017 between 3,000 to 20,000 adult deaths from all causes listed on death certificates were linked to extreme heat. Heart disease was listed as the cause of about half of the deaths.
The CDC, which is often several years behind in reporting, draws information on heat deaths from death certificate information included in local, state, tribal and territorial databases.
The CDC said in a statement that coroners and others who fill out death certificates “are encouraged to report all causes of death,” but they may not always associate those contributing causes to an extreme heat exposure death and include the diagnostic codes for heat illnesses.
Dallas, which regularly sees summer highs over 100 degrees, sweltered through an excessive heat warning this month and also grapples with oppressive humidity.
Carla Gates, whose mail carrier husband died, noted cities worldwide now must learn to deal with extreme weather.
She said her spouse, with 36 years on the job, tried to protect himself by taking a chest filled with ice and several bottles of cold water on his rounds.
Gates noted that the day her husband died he was in an old mail truck without working air conditioning.
“I don’t wish this on anyone, anyone to get a phone call that their loved one died working, doing something that they love in the heat,” she said.
(Anita Snow & Kendria Lafleur, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Remnants of Tropical Storm Eugene will flow across San Diego County today and Thursday, covering much of the region with clouds and producing scattered showers from the coast to the mountains, the National Weather Service said.
The daytime highs in San Diego are expected to be in the 72- to 74-degree range both days. The seasonal average is 77. The cooler air will be very humid in many areas, and it could be dynamic enough to spark lightning in the mountains.
The region’s weather is expected to remain mild through the weekend. But forecasters say that a major heat wave will begin to take hold on Monday or Tuesday and that it could last for a week and possibly produce record temperatures. Daytime highs could rise as much as 15 degrees above average, replicating the long heat wave that baked the county in July.
Forecasters say that it appears that separate high-pressure domes over Texas and the Pacific Northwest could combine strength and extend the length and severity of the heat wave. It’s likely that the weather service will issue extended heat advisories.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE )
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Communities from Tennessee to New York were clearing debris Tuesday, a day after a wide-ranging storm system that tore through the eastern United States killed at least two people, left more than 1 million homes and businesses without power and grounded hundreds of flights.
Although power had largely been restored for many who were left in the dark Monday, more than 180,000 customers were still without electricity as of Tuesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks outages across the United States.
By Tuesday afternoon, while dozens of flights across the eastern U.S. had been delayed or canceled, airlines appeared to have largely recovered from the weather-related travel mess with far fewer delays and cancellations.
The storm system continued pushing northeast Tuesday, bringing heavy rain that prompted flash flood warnings in portions of New Hampshire and Maine.
In Massachusetts, storms on Tuesday flooded roadways, stranding vehicles and closing some streets, according to the state’s transportation department. The National Weather Service said that a tornado had been confirmed around 11:30 a.m. in Mattapoisett, Mass., about 50 miles southeast of Boston. The tornado had winds up to 95 mph and damaged several trees along a nearly mile-long path, the weather service said, adding that there were no injuries.
The states with the most lingering power failures Tuesday included Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Maryland, Georgia and in Tennessee.
In Maryland, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller said that the storms caused “some of the worst electrical damage our state has seen in years.” More than 46,000 customers across Maryland were still without power Tuesday, according to poweroutage.us.
(NEW YORK TIMES )
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MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, CA - Driving certain back roads in this sprawling desert park is like traveling through time. Along the dusty paths, a stark picture emerges: On one side of the trail, a vibrant ecosystem; on the other, a charred graveyard of Joshua trees. This is the preserve before and after fire.
Those who know the park well can rattle off the names and dates of the blazes that seared these split-screen images into the desert: the Hackberry fire, 2005; the Dome fire, 2020; and now the York fire, which ignited July 28 and has torn through more than 90,000 acres, becoming California’s largest inferno this year and torching an untold number of cherished Joshua trees and other protected plants.
For the Joshua tree — a wild and whimsical internationally recognized symbol of California — fire has become an existential threat. Because its delicate desert habitat did not evolve with major wildfires, the Joshua tree is especially vulnerable to flames. When they burn, they burn fast. And they rarely survive.
That’s of particular concern at this Southern California preserve, where fires were once uncommon but are now increasing in frequency and ferocity. Officials at the 1.5 million-acre park are still assessing the latest damage, but it appears to be catastrophic, said deputy superintendent Debra Hughson, who compared the devastation to the Dome Fire, which burned more than a million Joshua trees.
“The landscape is changing in front of my eyes,” said Hughson, who has worked in the Mojave for more than two decades. “It’s losing something you love and you’ll never get back. Generations from now, people could be born who never see a Joshua tree, like the passenger pigeon.”
The York fire sparked at a crucial moment for Joshua trees. One of the plant’s two species recently received protection under state law, which will help shield it from the sprawl and development that has endangered its habitat. But as the second large fire in three years took a heavy toll, some are now reckoning with the possibility of a future without Joshua trees.
In California, where residents have learned to dread fire seasons that keep breaking records, this year had been eerily quiet. But the York fire, fueled by grasses that grew tall during heavy winter rains and dried out in recent heat waves, could be a sign of what is in store for the coming months, experts say.
The fire, which started on private land inside the preserve, had grown to 93,000 acres by Friday, more than four times the size of all the season’s previous fires combined. Some 9,000 acres burned across the border in Nevada, scorching America’s newest national monument, Avi Kwa Ame.
By week’s end, the fire was mostly contained. But the damage was already done.
‘Huge unknowables’
Hughson could feel the danger before it arrived. She was surveying the preserve last month, driving a gravel road into its New York Mountains. She looked warily around at the thick scrub, brush and grasses.
“Man, this is going to burn,” she said to herself. “For me, it’s a sense of inevitability.”
The greater Mojave Desert, home to Death Valley, was already one of the hottest places on Earth. But rising temperatures and the changing climate has also altered the region’s so-called “fire regime,” the pattern of wildfire occurrence. It is now considered a “climate change hot spot,” characterized by drier dry spells and wetter wet years.
“This is a place that has historically rarely ever burned,” said Terry McGlynn, the director of the California Desert Studies Center, which is located at the Western edge of the preserve. “So it’s unprepared for the fire. The seeds of desert plants aren’t prepared to regenerate after fire.”
For that reason, it’s difficult to predict what a recovery from fire might look like.
“As an ecologist, what I see are huge unknowables,” McGlynn said.
But it is clear the land will not be the same. Joshua trees high mortality rates during fires, and scientists estimate the preserve’s pinyon-juniper woodlands, which are full of hardy evergreen plants that thrive in higher elevations and rocky soil, could take up to three centuries to return to something like their pre-fire state.
Examples of long-lingering wounds were obvious on a visit to the preserve this week. In Cedar Canyon, a remote area near the middle of the park, pinyon-juniper covers the north side. On the south, gray tree skeletons dot the hills. This is the aftermath of the Hackberry fire, which burned 70,000 acres and still pocked the ecosystem some 18 years later.
Northwest, in and around Cima Dome, one of the densest and largest Joshua tree forests in the world, the land is littered with the consequences of the Dome fire. Here, it was the high concentration of plants rather than the burn radius — about 44,000 acres, far less than the York fire — that led to so much destruction.
The effect is especially visible along Morning Star Mine Road near Cima, where one side of the street is home to thick stretches of green, spiny Joshua trees, while the other is covered in their carcasses, which stood like bouquets of burned toilet brushes against the blue afternoon sky.
Scenes like these will become more common as the climate warms, said Justin M. Valliere, a plant sciences professor at the University of California Davis who has studied what is known as the invasive grass cycle. It goes like this: After fires, landscapes like the Mojave can become more vulnerable to invasive species, which then grow faster and promote more fires, continuing a positive feedback loop.
Valliere’s research, which has focused on coastal ecosystems, has linked fossil fuel emissions to increased invasive plant growth. Other studies have shown the phenomenon is occurring in the Mojave, meaning that exhaust from vehicles driven around car-choked Los Angeles can send nitrogen deposits all the way to the desert, fertilizing invasive grasses like red brome.
“Invasive grasses in the Mojave Desert are completely altering the fire regime there,” Valliere said, “and leading to more frequent fires.”
‘Grotesque yet magnificent’
These threats have led to increased Joshua tree preservation efforts. Advocates, who scored a big victory with the June passage of the Western Joshua Tree Conservation Act, are now turning their focus to fire.
But the fact that a legion is willing to fight for their survival is a big win for Joshua trees, which have not always enjoyed such reverence in American culture.
“Their stiff and ungraceful form makes them to the traveler the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom,” wrote the explorer and eventual U.S. Sen. John C. Frémont in 1845, penning its first-known English language description.
Nearly a century later, public opinion had softened, slightly. A magazine article from the 1930s described them as “grotesque in the extreme ... yet they are magnificent.”
Now, however, the plant is iconic.
It appeared on the artwork for one of the best-selling albums of all time, U2’s “The Joshua Tree,” and has been visited and photographed millions of times by people from across the world. It has entered the echelons of California’s most charismatic flora, along with the coastal redwoods, giant sequoias and bristlecone pines.
If those are the tallest, largest and oldest trees, the Joshua tree is perhaps the strangest. Stranger still: It’s technically not even a tree, belonging instead to the yucca genus.
“They have that awkward, gangly, Seussian countenance,” said Brendan Cummings, the conservation director at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. “Maybe they remind us of ourselves and the tensions we have in the world. They can simultaneously be magical but odd.”
After the Dome fire, volunteers undertook a massive effort to plant 1,500 Joshua tree seedlings alongside thousands of their burned forebears. “It’s really a lot to take in,” a firefighter who traveled from New Mexico told the Los Angeles Times then, looking around at the scorched trees.
Cummings was in that group, and he said more such efforts will be needed following the York fire. Preserve officials were able to estimate the number of plants claimed in the Dome fire because it burned on research plots, where scientists knew how many Joshua trees grew and could estimate the total loss.
But after the York fire, that calculation is impossible. Cummings estimates the number is probably several hundred thousand.
“While the preserve has been fundamentally transformed by this fire, it’s still a critically important ecological area that should be the focus of restoration efforts,” he said. “The land is still worth protecting beyond that.”
On Thursday, in the southern swath of the burn scar, the hot air still smelled of bonfire. Plumes of smoke were visible in the distance. Near a campground flying a tattered American flag, what appeared to be acres of freshly burned Joshua trees stretched across the land. Parts of the sandy ground were singed black. One tall plant had toppled into the road.
Conservationists have said it is sometimes difficult to convince members of the public to care about the desert the way they might about, say, a redwood forest. This environment is often mistaken for a desolate wasteland. But the desert is home to thousands of species: rare plants, mammals, birds and the endangered desert tortoise, California’s state reptile.
Scientists, advocates and park officials are desperately trying to keep it that way.
“The desert is not an empty wilderness,” said McGlynn, of the Desert Studies Center. “It is full of life.”
(Reis Thebault, WASHINGTON POST )
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Torrential rains and heavy floods have ravaged southern Austria for the past three days, killing one person who was swept away by a quickly swelling river on Sunday, officials said.
After the person fell into the river, firefighters, divers and water rescuers immediately began rescue operations, according to the press department of the Carinthia province. But rescuers were only able to recover the dead body.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer expressed condolences on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, saying that “our thoughts are with the relatives” of the person killed.
Since Friday, the southern Austrian provinces of Carinthia and Styria have been heavily affected by torrential rains, mudslides and rising rivers, with water surging into buildings. Several villages have been evacuated.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES )
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Bangladesh’s worst dengue fever outbreak on record has killed more than 300 people this year, overwhelming the country’s medical system and prompting calls for a stronger response.
The mosquito-borne disease has claimed at least 303 lives and infected nearly 63,700 people across the South Asian nation, according to the latest government figures on Saturday, making this the deadliest year since the country started tracking dengue outbreaks in 2000.
Raman Velayudhan, who leads the World Health Organization’s program for the control of neglected tropical diseases, said about half the world’s population is now at risk for dengue, as a rapidly changing climate yields warmer and wetter weather that provides ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES )
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BEIJING, China - Thousands of people threatened by storm-swollen rivers were evacuated in China’s northeast on Friday while areas on the outskirts of Beijing cleared debris from flooding that wrecked roads, knocked out power and left neighborhoods in shambles.
China is struggling with record-breaking rains in some areas while others suffer scorching summer heat and drought that threatens crops. Flooding near Beijing and in neighboring Hebei province this week killed at least 22 people.
Resident Xie Xin in the western outskirts of Beijing said the floodwaters had risen so fast that his family house was submerged in less than 10 minutes.
“Objects can be replaced,” said Xie, 25, as he moved a desk. “But neighbors that have gone missing, this is what hits me the most.”
In the northeast, some 54,000 people were forced out of their homes around Harbin, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said rescue crews in 81 boats were evacuating residents.
Beijing recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri deluged the region, according to the weather agency.
Some 1.2 million people in Hebei were relocated, according to the government. It said more than 100,000 government employees were mobilized for relief work.
Rains that started last weekend overwhelmed drainage systems. School classes in Beijing, China’s capital of more than 20 million people, were suspended. Power to some areas was knocked out.
To protect Beijing, floodwaters were diverted to neighboring areas, prompting complaints Friday on social media that destruction could have been reduced if more water had been channeled through the capital’s rivers and canals
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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SAN DIEGO - The average monthly temperature in July was below average for the ninth straight month, something that hasn’t occurred at San Diego International Airport in more than a half-century, according to the National Weather Service.
The average monthly temperature was 70.4 degrees. The historic average for the airport in July is 70.7.
“The jet stream continued to send cool, moist air down here and that produced a marine layer at the coast on many days,” said Casey Oswant, a weather service forecaster.
San Diego experienced numerous hot days during the latter part of July, but there were many days earlier in the month that were significantly cooler than usual.
August has gotten off to a warmer start. The temperature at the airport reached 81 on Monday, and forecasters say readings could be in the upper 70s to low 80s Friday through Sunday.
Scientists also are monitoring the eastbound spread of a huge pool of warm water that’s currently located about 350 miles off San Francisco. The pool — believed to be created by El Niño — could spread along the entire California coast later this year.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE )
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China’s capital has recorded its heaviest rainfall in at least 140 years over the past few days after being deluged with heavy rains from the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri.
The city recorded 29.3 inches of rain between Saturday and Wednesday morning, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau said Wednesday.
Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have been hit by severe flooding because of the record rainfall, with waters rising to dangerous levels. The rain destroyed roads and knocked out power and even pipes carrying drinking water. It flooded rivers surrounding the capital, leaving cars waterlogged, while lifting others onto bridges meant for pedestrians.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES )
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PHOENIX, AZ - After recording the warmest monthly average temperature for any U.S. city ever in July, Phoenix climbed back up to dangerously high temperatures Wednesday. That could mean trouble not just for people but for some plants, too.
Residents across the sprawling metro are finding the extended extreme heat has led to fried flora, and have shared photos and video of their damaged cacti with the Desert Botanical Garden. Nurseries and landscapers are inundated with requests for help with saguaros or fruit trees that are losing leaves.
Phones have been “ringing nonstop” about everything from a cactus to a citrus tree or ficus, said Sophia Booth, a landscape designer at Moon Valley Nursery, which has nearly a dozen locations across the Phoenix suburbs.
“A lot of people are calling and saying their cactus is yellowing really hard, fell over or like broken arms, that sort of thing,” Booth said. “Twenty-year-old trees are losing all their leaves, or they’re turning a crisp brown.”
She advises people to give water and specialty fertilizer to a distressed tree or plant every other day and not to trim them.
At the Desert Botanical Garden, three of the treasured institution’s more than 1,000 saguaro cacti have toppled over or lost an arm in the last week, a rate that officials there say is highly unusual.
These saguaros, a towering trademark of the Sonoran Desert landscape, were already stressed from record-breaking heat three years ago, and this summer’s historic heat — the average temperature in Phoenix last month was 102.7 degrees Fahrenheit — turned out to be the cactus needle that broke the camel’s back.
“Since 2020, we have had elevated mortality in our population of saguaros compared to mortality rates pre-2020,” said Kimberlie McCue, the garden’s chief science officer. “So part of our thinking is that there are still saguaros today that were compromised from what they went through in 2020. And that this could be sending them over the edge.”
Saguaros can live up to 200 years and grow as tall as 40 feet. Some in the Desert Botanical Garden date beyond its opening 85 years ago, and the largest there measure almost 30 feet, according to McCue.
People commonly assume that cacti are made to endure scorching heat, but even they can have their limits, McCue said. It wasn’t just this summer’s 31-day streak of highs at or above 110 degrees, but also the multiple nights when the low never dipped below 90 degrees. Nighttime is when cacti open their pores to get rid of retained water and take in carbon dioxide, she explained.
“With water loss, if they become dehydrated, that can compromise the structural integrity that they have in their tissues,” McCue said.
A cactus’ size can also influence its susceptibility, said Kevin Hultine, the garden’s director of research, and bigger plants with more mass are more prone to the effects of heat and drought.
“Larger (and older) plants have more arms and thus, they tend to be the first to start to lose structural integrity,” Hultine said via email. “The first sign of heat-related stress in a population are arms falling from large plants. Eventually, the entire plant might fall over from the stress.”
There is hope that the arrival of thunderstorms during the monsoon season, which traditionally starts June 15, could bring more delayed moisture that will help struggling flora. The U.S. monsoon is characterized by a shift in wind patterns that pull moisture in from the tropical coast of Mexico. It sets up differently in other parts of the world. In Arizona, about half the rain that falls during the year comes during the monsoon.
It can be a mixed bag — cooling sweltering cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix but bringing the risk of flooding to mountain towns and low-lying deserts alike. It carries a promise of rain but doesn’t always deliver. And even when it does, the moisture isn’t shared equally across the Four Corners region and beyond. The last two seasons were impressive, and the two before that largely duds.
In the southern Arizona city of Tucson, which has already seen some monsoon activity, the outdoor living Sonoran Desert Museum isn’t running into the same problems with its succulents, McCue said.
“We have the double whammy of this heat dome that seems to have decided to sit over Phoenix. And we’re also this massively spread out space with highways and parking lots,” McCue said. However, “the story isn’t complete yet.”
Booth, of Moon Valley Nurseries, agreed that rain could still keep some plants and trees from reaching the point of no return. In the meantime, staffers at the nursery are preparing for temperatures to soar again this week.
“We do take a lot of precautions, especially to our planters and people that don’t just work in the office,” Booth said. “Our yard crew, they’re in long sleeves. They have their straw hats on. We make sure we have bottled water in the fridge at all times. We haven’t had any heat exhaustion yet out of this (location).”
As of Wednesday, there was no rain in the forecast anytime soon according to the National Weather Service. After two days of a slight drop, high temperatures reached 111 degrees and are expected to be 110 degrees or more for the next 10 days.
(Terry Tang, ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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A historically intense and long-duration heat wave has spent weeks baking the South and Southwest, bringing dangerous triple-digit temperatures to 70 million Americans. Phoenix, at the epicenter, just logged its hottest month on record — and the hottest month ever observed in a U.S. city.
Phoenix’s average temperature for July was a blistering 102.7 degrees, taking into account average daytime high of 114.7 degrees and overnight low of 90.8.
The previous highest monthly average temperature in a U.S. city was 102.2 degrees, set in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., in July 1996, according to the Arizona State Climate Office. Phoenix beat that mark by 0.5 degree, a significant margin for such an already lofty record.
The 102.7-degree July average in Phoenix surpassed readings ever observed at any weather stations nationwide, except for the inhospitable Death Valley, which is considered the hottest location in the world.
While the heat in Phoenix eased just enough on Monday to end its record-shattering streak of 31 consecutive days at or above 110, the hot weather is forecast to recharge later this week. Excessive heat watches are in effect from Friday morning through Sunday for the metro area of 5 million residents. High temperatures of 111 to 116 degrees are expected each day, and the National Weather Service is warning that the “major heat risk” will bolster the threat of “heat cramps and heat exhaustion ... [which], without intervention, can lead to heat stroke.”
The number of records set in Phoenix during July, and the margins by which many of the old records were surpassed, is staggering. Here’s a breakdown of Phoenix’s exceptional month (and beyond); note that bookkeeping there dates to August 1895:
Experts say there were several factors that combined to propel Phoenix into such uncharted territory for the month. It was probably an overlap of natural and human-caused factors, they say, exemplifying the effects human action can have on the atmosphere and highlighting the associated repercussions.
Among the contributing factors was natural variability. Some months are, due to the inherent randomness of weather, naturally hotter than average. In this case, the overarching weather pattern, which featured a stagnant ridge of high pressure colloquially known as a “heat dome,” was the dominant weather maker.
Human-caused climate change was also cited as a factor. The frequency, intensity and duration of heat events is demonstrably increasing because of rising concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, resulting from human activities. Since record-keeping began in the mid-1890s, Phoenix has warmed 7.9 degrees during July.
Also believed to be a contributing factor was the urban heat island effect. It’s no secret that pavement, cement, sidewalks and concrete are hotter surfaces than dirt, grasses or the canopy of a forest. That leads to the trapping of heat. It’s why cities are often notably hotter than surrounding rural communities, particularly at night. That has a marked impact on raising temperatures. In 1920, Phoenix occupied 5 square miles. In 2010, it occupied 519 square miles — and it’s continuing to grow.
(Matthew Cappucci, WASHINGTON POST )
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BEIJING, China - Torrential rain in areas around China’s capital, Beijing, killed at least 20 people and left 27 missing, the government reported Tuesday, as flooding destroyed roads, uprooted trees and knocked out power.
Thousands of people were evacuated to shelters in schools and other public buildings in suburban Beijing and in the nearby cities of Tianjin and Zhuozhou.
The severity of the flooding took the Chinese capital by surprise. Beijing usually has dry summers but had a stretch of record-breaking heat this year. Other areas, especially China’s south, have suffered unusually severe summer flooding that caused scores of deaths.
Muddy water surging down streets washed away cars in the Mentougou district on Beijing’s western edge.
“The cars parked on the street floated and got washed away,” said a resident, Liu Shuanbao. “A couple of cars parked behind my apartment building disappeared in just one minute.”
Emergency workers used bulldozers on Tuesday to clear streets while residents waded through mud.
“Neither officials nor ordinary people expected the rain to be so heavy,” said another Mentougou resident, Wu Changpo. “There were a lot of landslides and flooded villages.”
Eleven deaths were reported in Beijing and authorities were looking for 27 missing people, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. Nine deaths were reported in Hebei province, which surrounds the capital.
In Zhuozhou, southwest of Beijing, some 125,000 people from high-risk areas were moved to shelters, Xinhua said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE - Firefighters battling a massive blaze in California’s Mojave National Preserve on Tuesday faced the difficult task of stopping the fire without bulldozers and other heavy equipment that could damage the region’s famous Joshua trees and other sensitive plants.
Crews are using a “light hand on the land” approach to fight the York fire, California’s largest wildfire so far this year. The goal is to reduce the impact of firefighting on the federally protected landscape.
“You bring a bunch of bulldozers in there, you may or may not stop the fire, but you’ll put a scar on the landscape that’ll last generations,” said Tim Chavez, an assistant chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The blaze erupted on Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve, crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke farther east into the Las Vegas Valley. Flames scorched 125 square miles [80,000 acres], though firefighters had contained 23 percent of the wildfire as of Tuesday afternoon.
The cause remains under investigation.
Some of the preserve’s plants can take centuries to recover from destruction. It could take the pinyon-juniper woodlands alone roughly 200 to 300 years to return, while the blackbrush scrub and Joshua trees are unlikely to regrow after this catastrophic blaze, said Ileene Anderson, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity.
But the fire itself isn’t the only worry. When there are ecological and cultural sensitivities at stake, firefighters negotiate with federal officials to determine what equipment can and cannot be used.
In Nevada, the fire has entered the state’s newest national monument, Avi Kwa Ame, said Lee Beyer, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service.
President Joe Biden established the monument in March, protecting the desert mountain region considered sacred by some tribes.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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A wildfire blazing along the Southern California-Nevada border, burning through delicate Joshua Tree forests, continued to swell Monday — becoming the state’s largest of the fire season.
The desert fire had scorched 77,000 acres as of Monday, with 0 percent containment.
After first being observed Friday, the blaze — dubbed the York fire — has spread mainly across the Mojave National Preserve in eastern San Bernardino County but recently jumped into western Nevada.
No evacuations have been issued as a result of the fire, which is burning in mostly remote areas.
“It’s a public misconception that the desert doesn’t burn, but we’re seeing right here that that’s not case,” said Sierra Willoughby, a supervisory park ranger at Mojave National Preserve.
“They’re not as rare as we would hope them to be,” she said.
Just 10 days before this wildfire was spotted in the New York Mountains area of the Mojave National Preserve, park officials warned of extreme fire risk for the federally protected desert, banning all open flames.
“Even though we had a good moisture year with the (winter) season, the very high temperatures that came in July were a concern for our fire folks,” Willoughby said.
Southern California’s wet winter and cool spring helped foster increasing levels of invasive grasses and underbrush in the Mojave and Colorado deserts, federal officials said, which has made the region exceptionally susceptible to brush fires this summer.
This year’s climate patterns have provided a “more continuous fuel bed” than is typical for desert ecosystems, UCLA climatologist Daniel Swain said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Big fires in the desert are entirely consistent with the fire season outlook for 2023,” Swain wrote, and that poses a major concern for ecologists and desert conservationists. Joshua trees and other desert plants have limited natural defenses to fires, federal officials said, and would struggle to recover from such blazes.
The extent of the plants and animals at risk in the York fire are still under investigation, Willoughby said, noting that the blaze has already burned through Joshua tree forests and juniper and pinyon pine groves. Stephanie Bishop, a spokesperson for the York fire, said endangered tortoises that live in the region also could be harmed.
California’s other big fire of the year — the Bonny fire, which has charred 2,300 acres in Riverside County — is also burning across some arid landscapes as well as through the mountains.
It has forced 122 people to evacuate their homes, with almost 800 structures threatened, according to Cal Fire officials.
The Bonny fire, burning south of Anza, was 20 percent contained as of Monday morning.
One structure has been destroyed, and at least one firefighter was injured in the effort to control the flames.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES )
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MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE, CA - A massive wildfire burning out of control in California’s Mojave National Preserve was spreading rapidly amid erratic winds, while firefighters reported progress against another major blaze to the southwest that prompted evacuations.
The York fire that erupted Friday near the remote Caruthers Canyon area of the vast wildland preserve crossed the state line into Nevada on Sunday and sent smoke further east into the Las Vegas Valley.
Wind-driven flames 20 feet high in some spots charred more than 110 square miles [70,400 acres] of desert scrub, juniper and Joshua tree woodland, according to an incident update. There was zero containment.
“The dry fuel acts as a ready ignition source, and when paired with those weather conditions it resulted in long-distance fire run and high flames, leading to extreme fire behavior,” the update said.
No structures were threatened.
The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined, said Stephanie Bishop, a National Park Service public information officer.
To the southwest, the Bonny fire was holding steady at about 3.4 square miles [2,200 acres] in the rugged hills of Riverside County.
More than 1,300 people were ordered to evacuate Saturday near the community of Aguanga, home to horse ranches and wineries.
Gusty winds and the chance of thunderstorms into today will heighten the risk of renewed growth, Cal Fire said in a statement.
One firefighter was injured in the blaze, which was 5 percent contained.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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DENVER, CO - As Denver neared triple-digit temperatures, Ben Gallegos sat shirtless on his porch swatting flies off his legs and spritzing himself with a misting fan to try to get through the heat. Gallegos, like many in the nation’s poorest neighborhoods, doesn’t have air conditioning.
The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach.
“Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that,” he said. “If it’s hard to breathe, I’ll get down to emergency.”
As climate change fans hotter and longer heat waves, breaking record temperatures across the U.S. and leaving dozens dead, the poorest Americans suffer the hottest days with the fewest defenses. Air conditioning, once a luxury, is now a matter of survival.
As Phoenix weathered its 27th consecutive day above 110 degrees Wednesday, the nine who died indoors didn’t have functioning air conditioning, or it was turned off. Last year, all 86 heat-related deaths indoors were in uncooled environments.
“To explain it fairly simply: Heat kills,” said Kristie Ebi, a University of Washington professor who researches heat and health. “Once the heat wave starts, mortality starts in about 24 hours.”
It’s the poorest and people of color who are far more likely to face grueling heat without air conditioning, according to a Boston University analysis of 115 U.S. metros.
“The temperature differences ... between lower-income neighborhoods, neighborhoods of color and their wealthier, Whiter counterparts have pretty severe consequences,” said Cate Mingoya-LaFortune of Groundwork USA, an environmental justice organization. “There are these really big consequences like death. ... But there’s also ambient misery.”
Some have window units that can offer respite, but “in the dead of heat, it don’t do nothing,” said Melody Clark, who stopped Friday to get food at a nonprofit in Kansas City, Kan., as temperatures soared to 101, and high humidity made it feel like 109. When the central air conditioning at her rental house went on the fritz, her landlord installed a window unit. But it doesn’t do much during the day.
So the 45-year-old wets her hair, cooks outside on a propane grill and keeps the lights off indoors. She’s taken the bus to the library to cool off. At night she flips the box unit on, hauling her bed into the room where it’s located to sleep.
As far as her two teenagers, she said: “They aren’t little bitty. We aren’t dying in the heat. ... They don’t complain.”
While billions in federal funding have been allocated to subsidize utility costs and the installation of cooling systems, experts say they often only support a fraction of the most vulnerable families and some still require prohibitive upfront costs. Installing a centralized heat pump system for heating and cooling can easily reach $25,000.
President Joe Biden announced steps on Thursday to defend against extreme heat, highlighting the expansion of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which funnels money through states to help poorer households pay utility bills.
While the program is critical, said Michelle Graff, who studies the subsidy at Cleveland State University, only 16 percent of the nation’s eligible population is actually reached. Nearly half of states don’t offer the federal dollars for summer cooling.
“So people are engaging in coping mechanisms, like they’re turning on their air conditioners later and leaving their homes hotter,” Graff said.
While frigid temperatures and high heating bills birthed the term “heat or eat,” she said, “we can now transition to AC or eat, where people are going to have to make difficult decisions.”
As temperatures rise, so does the cost of cooling. And temperatures are already hotter in America’s low-income neighborhoods like Gallegos’ Denver suburb of Globeville, where people live along stretches of asphalt and concrete that hold heat like a cast-iron skillet. Surface temperatures there can be roughly 8 degrees hotter than in Denver’s wealthier neighborhoods, where a sea of vegetation cools the area, according to the environmental advocacy group American Forests.
This disparity plays out nationwide. Researchers at the University of San Diego analyzed 1,056 counties and in over 70 percent, the poorest areas and those with higher Black, Hispanic and Asian populations were significantly hotter.
About one in 10 U.S. households have no air conditioning, a disparity compounded for marginalized groups, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Less than 4 percent of Detroit’s White households don’t have air conditioning; it’s 15 percent for Black households.
At noon on Friday, Katrice Sullivan sat on the porch of her rented house in Detroit. It was hot and muggy, but even steamier inside the house. Even if she had air conditioning, Sullivan said she’d choose her moments to run it to keep her electricity bill down.
The 37-year-old factory worker pours water on her head, freezes towels to put around her neck, and sits in her car with the air conditioner on. “Some people here spend every dollar for food, so air conditioning is something they can’t afford,” she said.
Shannon Lewis, 38, lived in her Detroit home for nearly 20 years without air conditioning. Her bedroom was the only place with a window unit, so she’d squeeze her teenager, 8-year-old and 3-year-old-twins into her bed to sleep, eat meals and watch TV.
“So it was like cool in one room and a heat stroke in another,” Lewis said. For the first time, Lewis now has air conditioning through a local nonprofit, she said. “We don’t have to sleep or eat in the same room, we are able to come out, sit at the dining room table, eat like a family.”
After at least 54 died during a 2021 heat wave, mostly older people without air conditioning, in the Portland area, Oregon passed a law prohibiting landlords from placing blanket bans on air conditioning units. By and large, however, states don’t have laws requiring landlords to provide cooling.
In the federal Inflation Reduction Act, billions were set aside for tax credits and rebates to help families install energy-efficient cooling systems, but some of those are yet to be available. For people like Gallegos, who doesn’t pay taxes, the available credits are worthless.
The law also offers rebates, the kind of state and federal point-of-sale discounts that Amanda Morian has looked into for her 640-square-foot home.
Morian, who has a 13-week-old baby susceptible to hot weather, is desperate to keep her house in Denver’s Globeville suburb cool. She bought thermal curtains, ceiling fans and runs a window unit. At night she tries to do skin-to-skin touch to regulate the baby’s body temperature. When the back door opens in the afternoon, she said, the indoor temperature jumps a degree.
“All of those are just to take the edge off, it’s not enough to actually make it cool. It’s enough to keep us from dying,” she said.
She got estimates from four different companies for installing a cooling system, but every project was between $20,000 and $25,000, she said. Even with subsidies she can’t afford it.
“I’m finding that you have to afford the project in the first place and then it’s like having a bonus coupon to take $5,000 off of the sticker price,” she said.
(Jesse Bedayn, ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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Carlos Reyes sought shade under a tree in the Bronx on a day that felt like it was over 100 degrees because of the heat and humidity.
“It’s not like when you were younger, you were playing around,” said the 56-year-old who runs a day care center. “Now it’s like you got the humidity. It makes you kind of not breathe the same way. So when you walk, you get a little more tired, a little more exhausted.”
Reyes was one of nearly 200 million people in the United States, or 60 percent of the U.S. population, under a heat advisory or flood warning or watch since Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
Dangerous heat engulfed much of the eastern half of the United States on Friday as extreme temperatures spread from the Midwest into the Northeast and mid-Atlantic where some residents saw their hottest temperatures of the year.
Although much of the country does not cool much on normal summer nights, night temperatures are forecast to stay hotter than usual, prompting excessive heat warnings from the Plains to the East Coast.
From Thursday to Friday, the number of people under a heat advisory rose from 180 to 184 million and the number of people under a flood warning or watch dropped from 17 million to 10 million.
Moisture moved into the Southwest, cooling somewhat the southernmost counties of California and parts of southern Arizona, but excessive heat warnings remain for much of the region.
On top of the heat, severe thunderstorms are forecast for multiple regions of the country. There are forecasts with flash flood warnings for Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, west to the Middle Missouri Valley through this morning. There are severe thunderstorm warnings with a chance of quarter-sized hail Friday night for the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.
Tornado watches are posted in Wisconsin and New Hampshire, in addition to the heat advisories and potential for severe storms.
The prediction for continued excessive heat comes as the World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service declared July 2023 the hottest month on record this week.
Scientists have long warned that climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, by deforestation and by certain agricultural practices, will lead to more and prolonged bouts of extreme weather.
On Thursday, heat and humidity in major cities along the East Coast, including Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City, made it feel hotter than 100 degrees. Temperatures Friday were 10 to 15 degrees above average.
The “dangerous” heat wave, as the National Weather Service called it, may begin to subside today as thunderstorms and a cold front from Canada progress through the region. It seems the hottest temperatures happened on Friday.
“By Sunday, the high temperature is going to be 86,” he said, “so that’s more typical weather you would expect in July.”
The Salvation Army in the Bronx was one of hundreds of cooling centers open in New York City to give people a respite from the scorching heat.
“It’s very hot every year. This year, it started last week, becoming very hot,” said Robert Ciriaco, a corps officer with The Salvation Army. “(It’s) very dangerous for people. Some people die. So that’s why we open to offer people (a place) to come to be comfortable.”
Philadelphia declared a heat health emergency as temperatures soared into the 90s, and city authorities opened cooling centers.
But some residents took the heat in stride. Alexander Roman, who brought his children to play in the fountain at the city’s iconic Love Park, said he is not worried about heat stroke as long as his family can cool down. “A lot of water with ice and it will be OK,” he said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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WASHINGTON, DC - July has been so hot thus far that scientists calculate that this month will be the hottest globally on record and likely the warmest human civilization has seen, even though there are several days left to sweat through.
The World Meteorological Organization and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service on Thursday proclaimed July’s heat is beyond record-smashing. They said Earth’s temperature has been temporarily passing over a key warming threshold: the internationally accepted goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Temperatures were 1.5 degrees warmer than pre-industrial times for a record 16 days this month, but the Paris climate accord aims to keep the 20- or 30-year global temperature average to 1.5 degrees. A few days of temporarily beating that threshold have happened before, but never in July.
July has been so off-the-charts hot with heat waves blistering three continents — North America, Europe and Asia — that researchers said a record was inevitable. The U.S. Southwest’s all-month heat wave is showing no signs of stopping while also pushing into most of the Midwest and East with more than 128 million Americans under some kind of heat advisory Thursday.
“Unless an ice age were to appear all of sudden out of nothing, it is basically virtually certain we will break the record for the warmest July on record and the warmest month on record,” said Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo.
Scientists say that such shattering of heat records is a harbinger for future climate-altering changes as the planet warms. Those changes go beyond just prolonged heat waves and include more flooding, longer-burning wildfires and extreme weather events that put many people at risk.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres pointed to the calculations and urged world leaders, in particular of rich nations, to do more to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases. Despite years of international climate negotiations and lofty pledges from many countries and companies, greenhouse gas emissions continue to go up.
“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” Guterres told reporters in a New York briefing. “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
Buontempo and other scientists said the records are from human-caused climate change augmented by a natural El Niño warming of parts of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide. But Buontempo said ocean warming in the Atlantic also has been so high — though far away from the El Niño — that’s there’s even more at play. While scientists long predicted the world would continue to warm and have bouts of extreme weather, he said he was surprised by the spike in ocean temperatures and record-shattering loss of sea ice in Antarctica.
“The climate seems to be going crazy at times,” Buontempo said.
Copernicus calculated that through the first 23 days of July, Earth’s temperature averaged 16.95 degrees Celsius (62.5 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s nearly one-third of a degree Celsius (almost 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than the previous record for the hottest month, July 2019.
Normally records are broken by hundredths of a degree Celsius, maybe a tenth at most, said Russell Vose, climate analysis group director for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Usually records aren’t calculated until a week or longer after a month’s end. But Vose, who wasn’t part of the research, his NASA record-keeping counterpart Gavin Schmidt and six other outside scientists said the Copernicus calculations make sense.
Buontempo’s team found that 21 of the first 23 days of July were hotter than any previous days in the database.
“The last few weeks have been rather remarkable and unprecedented in our record” based on data that goes back to the 1940s, Buontempo said.
Both the WMO-Copernicus team and an independent German scientist who released his data at the same time came to these conclusions by analyzing forecasts, live observations, past records and computer simulations.
Separate from Copernicus, Karsten Haustein at Leipzig University did his own calculations, using forecasts that show at best the warming may weaken a tad at the end of month, and came to the conclusion that July 2023 will pass the old record by 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit).
“It’s way beyond everything we see,” Haustein said in his own press briefing. “We are in absolutely new record territory.”
Haustein said even though records only go back to the middle of the 19th century, using tree rings, ice cores and other proxies he calculates that this month is the hottest in about 120,000 years, which Buontempo said makes sense. Other scientists have made similar calculations.
“The reason that setting new temperature records is a big deal is that we are now being challenged to find ways to survive through temperatures hotter than any of us have ever experienced before,” University of Wisconsin-Madison climate scientist Andrea Dutton said in an email. “Soaring temperatures place ever increasing strains not just on power grids and infrastructure, but on human bodies that are not equipped to survive some of the extreme heat we are already experiencing.”
It’s no accident that the hottest July on record has brought deadly heat waves in the U.S. and Mexico, China and southern Europe, smoke-causing wildfires and heavy floods worldwide, said Imperial College of London climate scientist Friederike Otto.
The average temperature being measured is like “the fever temperature that we measure for our planet,” Otto said.
When it comes to factors besides global warming that may also be worsening heat waves, scientists have been examining potential changes in the jet streams, the rivers of air that influence weather systems around the planet.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the differences in temperature between the Arctic and the equator keep the subtropical jet stream moving. As humans warm the planet, those temperature differences are narrowing, which could be causing the jet stream to weaken and hot spells to last longer.
So far, however, the evidence for this is inconclusive, said Tim Woollings, a professor of physical climate science at the University of Oxford. “It’s really not clear that the jet has been getting weaker,” he said.
In a study published in April, Woollings and four other scientists found that human-caused warming might have shifted the jet streams in both hemispheres toward the poles in recent decades. More research is needed to understand this potential shift, he said. But if it continues, it could make subtropical regions susceptible to greater heat and drought, he said.
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS; WASHINGTON POST )
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MANILA, Philippines - Typhoon Doksuri lashed northern Philippine provinces with ferocious wind and rain Wednesday, leaving at least six people dead and displacing thousands of others as it blew roofs off houses, flooded low-lying villages and triggered dozens of landslides, officials said.
The typhoon slammed into Fuga Island before dawn and later smashed into another island in Cagayan province, where nearly 16,000 people were evacuated from high-risk coastal villages, and schools and workplaces were shut as a precaution as the storm approached.
Tens of thousands of people were affected by flooding and other problems caused by the typhoon, which has a 435-mile-wide band of wind and rain, disaster response officials said.
Doksuri weakened slightly but remained dangerous with sustained winds of 109 mph Wednesday night.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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The water temperature around the tip of Florida hit triple digits — hot tub levels — two days in a row. Meteorologists say it could be the hottest seawater ever measured, although some questions about the reading remain.
Scientists are already seeing devastating effects from prolonged hot water surrounding Florida — coral bleaching and even the death of some corals in what had been one of the Florida Keys’ most resilient reefs. Climate change has set temperature records across the globe this month.
The warmer water is also fuel for hurricanes.
Scientists were careful to say there is some uncertainty with the reading. But the buoy at Manatee Bay hit 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit Monday evening, according to National Weather Service meteorologist George Rizzuto. The night before, that buoy showed an online reading of 100.2 degrees.
“That is a potential record,” Rizzuto said.
“This is a hot tub. I like my hot tub around 100, 101. That’s what was recorded yesterday,” Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters said Tuesday.
If verified, the Monday reading would be nearly 1.5 degrees higher than what is regarded as the prior record, set in the waters off Kuwait three summers ago, 99.7 degrees.
“We’ve never seen a record-breaking event like this before,” Masters said.
The consequences for sea corals are serious. NOAA researcher Andrew Ibarra, who took his kayak out to the area, “found that the entire reef was bleached out. Every single coral colony was exhibiting some form of paling, partial bleaching or full out bleaching.”
Some coral even had died, he said. This comes on top of bleaching seen last week by the University of Miami, when NOAA increased the alert level for coral.
Until the 1980s, coral bleaching was mostly unheard of. But “now we’ve reached the point where it’s become routine,” said Ian Enochs, lead of the coral program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. Bleaching, which doesn’t kill coral but weakens it and can lead to death, occurs when water temperatures exceed the upper 80s, Enochs said.
Masters and University of Miami tropical meteorologist Brian McNoldy said while the hot temperatures do fit with what’s happening around Florida, Monday’s reading may not be accepted as a record because the area is shallow, has sea grasses in it and may be influenced by warm land in the nearby Everglades National Park.
Still, McNoldy said, “it’s amazing.”
The fact that two 100-degree measurements were taken on consecutive days lends credence to them, McNoldy said. Water temperatures have been in the upper 90s in the area for more than two weeks.
There aren’t many coral reefs in Manatee Bay, but elsewhere in the Florida Keys, scientists diving at Cheeca Rocks found bleaching and even death in some of the Keys’ most resilient corals, said Enochs.
“This is more, earlier than we have ever seen,” Enochs said. “I’m nervous by how early this is occurring.”
This all comes as sea surface temperatures worldwide have broken monthly records for heat in April, May and June, according to NOAA. And temperatures in the north Atlantic Ocean are off the charts — as much as 9 to 11 degrees warmer than normal in some spots near Newfoundland, McNoldy said.
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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RHODES, Greece - Deadly fires raging in Greece and other European countries advanced on Wednesday, destroying homes and threatening nature reserves during a third successive wave of extreme temperatures.
The summer wildfires have struck countries across the region, prompting the European Union to expand its support, sending two Spanish firefighting planes to Tunisia after wildfires in neighboring Algeria left at least 34 people dead in recent days.
More wildfires broke out Wednesday in the central mainland of Greece, with the most serious near the city of Volos, where outlying villages and a nearby industrial zone were ordered evacuated. The fire service said there were no immediate reports of people trapped in factory buildings.
It said two people were found dead following fires in the surrounding area — an older woman burned to death in a caravan and a shepherd who had gone to save his flock. Volos residents were urged to stay indoors due to the smoke inhalation hazard.
Farther south, a wildfire triggered a precautionary evacuation order for some outskirts of the town of Lamia.
New evacuations were ordered overnight on the islands of Corfu, Evia and Rhodes, where thousands of tourists were moved to safety over the weekend.
Authorities said the charred remains of a missing farmer were found in southern Evia — a discovery made following the death of two Greek firefighting pilots, in a crash during a low-altitude water drop.
The heat wave in Greece has pushed temperatures back above 104 degrees Fahrenheit while strong winds hampered firefighting efforts. The fire on Rhodes has damaged an inland nature reserve.
In Italy, meanwhile, the bodies of two people were found in a home that had been consumed by flames near the Palermo airport, on the island of Sicily, which had been closed temporarily because of the encroaching flames, according to Italian news reports.
Firefighters battled wildfires across southern Italy as searing temperatures continued to scorch Sicily, Sardinia and Calabria, where dozens of fires broke out and multiple evacuations were ordered.
To the west, more than 500 firefighters continued to combat a blaze close to Lisbon, Portugal. The fire forced the evacuation of 90 people from their homes along with 800 farm animals.
The blaze near the coastal town of Cascais, 19 miles west of Lisbon, was brought under control early Wednesday, helped by cooler temperatures. Firefighters remained in the area to watch for any further flare-ups as temperatures as winds rose again Wednesday. Fears rose that it might spread deep into the nearby Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. No injuries were reported.
Water-dropping planes, helicopters and firefighters were also deployed to a forest blaze Wednesday near the district of Beykoz, in Istanbul, where temperatures reached 109.4 degrees. The cause of the wildfire on the Asian side of the city wasn’t immediately known and it wasn’t clear if residential areas were under threat.
Teams were also battling two fires near the towns of Kinik and Odemis in the western coastal province of Izmir, Anadolu said. At least three villages near Kinik were evacuated as a precaution.
In a bit of good news, Tunisia’s interior minister, Kamel Fekih, said Wednesday that the wildfires that broke out in the country in recent days are now under control, signaling an end to the immediate danger.
He said a “few fire pockets” in the northwestern areas of Malouleh and Ain Sobh were being addressed but “no longer pose any danger.” Earlier in the week, a school principal in the northwestern town of Nefza died of asphyxiation because of heavy smoke from the flames.
(Petros Giannakouris & Derek Gatopoulos, ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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RHODES, Greece - A Greek air force water-dropping plane crashed while diving into a wildfire in southern Greece on Tuesday, killing both pilots, as authorities battled blazes that have been raging for days across the country amid a return of heat wave temperatures.
Summer wildfires blamed on climate change have also struck other Mediterranean countries, leaving at least 34 people dead in Algeria in recent days and two people dead in Italy on Tuesday.
Video showed the bright yellow CL-215 aircraft releasing its load of water on the island of Evia before its wingtip apparently snagged in a tree branch. Moments later it disappeared into a deep fold in the ground from which a fireball erupted.
The air force said the pilots both died in the crash.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis canceled a planned visit to Cyprus for today, and Greece’s armed forces declared three days of mourning.
A third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 104 degrees Fahrenheit Tuesday amid a string of evacuations from fires that have raged for days, whipped on by strong winds.
It's still unclear how they started, although tinder-dry conditions and the summer heat mean the slightest spark can ignite a blaze.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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SANTA FE, NM - The U.S. Forest Service’s own prescribed burn started a sprawling 2022 wildfire that nearly reached Los Alamos, N.M., the agency acknowledged Monday in a report published after a lengthy investigation.
The Cerro Pelado fire burned in dry, windy conditions across more than 60 square miles [38,400 acres] and crept within a few miles of the city of Los Alamos and its companion U.S. national security lab. As the fire approached, schools closed and evacuation bags were packed before the flames tapered off.
Investigators traced the wildfire to a burn of piles of forest debris commissioned by the Forest Service. The burn became a holdover fire, smoldering undetected under wet snow, with no signs of smoke or heat for months, said Southwestern Regional Forester Michiko Martin.
The revelation prompted immediate rebukes against the Forest Service by New Mexico political leaders, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. She said she was “outraged over the U.S. Forest Service’s negligence that caused this destruction.” Episodes of extremely hot and dry weather in recent years have triggered concerns about prescribed burns as techniques for clearing forest debris, concerns that Grisham echoed.
The federal government already has acknowledged that it started the largest wildfire in state history that charred more than 530 square miles [339,200 acres] of the Rocky Mountain foothills.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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Wildfires raging across Algeria have killed 25 people, including 10 soldiers trying to get the flames under control in the face of high winds and scorching summer temperatures, government ministries said Monday.
At least 1,500 people were evacuated, the Interior Ministry said, without providing details.
The Interior Ministry announced 15 deaths and 24 injuries.
In addition, the Defense Ministry later announced 10 soldiers were killed and 25 injured as they fought fires in the resort area of Beni Ksila east of the capital Algiers.
It wasn’t immediately clear over what period of time the casualties happened, but the fires have been burning for several days.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES )
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Wildfires raging across the popular Greek vacation island of Rhodes prompted authorities to evacuate 19,000 tourists and residents from danger zones, in what officials described as the largest ever preventive fire evacuation in the country’s history.
At least 164 fires burned in 58 places on the island in the past 24 hours, Greece’s fire service said Sunday, as residents were forced to leave their homes and summer vacations morphed into chaotic nightmares. No casualties had been reported, according to officials at the country’s Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection.
Nine people went to the hospital for respiratory issues, it added. The ministry said 266 firefighters, 49 engines, hundreds of volunteers, 10 aircraft and eight helicopters were part of the emergency response on Sunday.
The fires come as parts of southern Europe swelter under a heat wave that has forced many nations, including Greece, to issue warnings, with temperatures of more than 104 Fahrenheit.
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Power plants are churning across the United States and China, the world’s leading emitters of greenhouse gases, struggling to meet air-conditioning demand. Wildfires are raging in Southern Europe and Canada, with more than a month of peak fire season left. Explosive thunderstorms, torrential monsoons and extreme heat are sowing destruction and threatening lives across three continents.
And there is little relief in sight, from the mountains and megacities of Asia to the lakes and rivers of Europe or the plains, forests and suburbs of North America. In the short-term, meteorologists predicted more intense heat and extreme weather over the next month.
In the long-term, scientists say, climate change is making heat waves hotter, more frequent and longer; making wildfires bigger and more intense; affecting air quality, rainfall and droughts — reaching every corner of Earth, driven by the burning of fossil fuels by humans.
“The hard part isn’t over,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece said Thursday. In his country, wildfires have burned scores of homes and thousands of acres of forestland over the last week, and temperatures are forecast to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday in the central region of Thessaly.
A fire service spokesperson, Ioannis Artopios, said that the intensely dry heat was creating “even more difficult” conditions for Greek firefighters. Similarly parched conditions have fueled the record fire season in Canada, where more than 25 million acres have burned so far this year.
Given the expectation that the heat will persist, parts of Southern Europe are bracing for the next wave even as the temperatures have ebbed — albeit just slightly — over the past couple of days.
Italian hospitals have reported a rise in heat-related emergencies as temperatures crept toward 100 degrees. Unions, government officials and businesspeople met to discuss how to protect workers from the heat, which is creating dangerous conditions on construction sites, tarmacs and city streets. One business leader compared the heat’s impact on workers with the COVID-19 pandemic and called for “extraordinary measures” in response.
In Spain, authorities officially declared an end to the heat emergency Thursday. But the nation’s weather monitor warned people not to “lower our guard,” given that the risk of wildfires in the hot, dry conditions remains high in much of the country.
Across Europe, the searing temperatures have taken a particular toll on older people, with southern European nations being joined by others as far north as Belgium in putting heat-relief plans in place, many aimed at safeguarding older populations.
Summer heat waves in Europe last year may have killed 61,000 people across the continent, according to a recent study.
In Asia, the extremely high temperatures have been compounded by an intense monsoon season that has already taken more than 100 lives in India, South Korea and Japan, with the full death toll likely to be considerably higher.
Severe rainfall has replaced the intense heat in India in recent weeks, particularly in the Himalayan states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The intense downpours have caused massive landslides and flash floods, killing at least 130 people in the past 26 days in northern India.
Another heat wave continued to bake much of China on Friday, shattering records across the country.
The far western region of Xinjiang has been particularly hard hit. Temperatures on Sunday at a remote desert township hit 126 degrees, reportedly breaking the record for the highest temperature in China. Parts of Xinjiang were expected to keep seeing three-digit temperatures, according to official media, and authorities said they were on alert for potential wildfires.
Chinese power stations have recently seen their own broken records for generating electricity — burning more coal, an important contributor to global warming, to meet energy air-conditioning demand — and Chinese leaders rebuffed a U.S. overture this week to commit to tougher climate action.
There was similar demand for electricity in the United States, where more than a quarter of the population was experiencing dangerous heat this week, according to a New York Times analysis of daily weather and population data.
Late Thursday, the operator of California’s power grid issued an emergency alert urging people to conserve electricity as high temperatures strained the system. In Phoenix, the temperature hit 115 degrees Friday, extending the city’s record streak to 22 straight days with temperatures of 110 degrees or higher.
Forecasters said the current heat wave was expected to last through the weekend in the Deep South and Southeast and into next week for the Southwest. Nearly 80 million Americans are expected to face temperatures above 105 in the next few days, the National Weather Service said.
(Gerry Mullany, Delger Erdenesanaa & Aaron Boxerman, NEW YORK TIMES )
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San Clemente has authorized spending more than $8.5 million on repairs expected to take as long as one year on the landslide that stopped train traffic for weeks between San Diego and Orange counties.
City officials said they hope to start the work as soon as possible because the slope is still slowly sliding, and the historic Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens at the top is in danger of falling to the railroad tracks below.
“It’s extremely tenuous right now,” said Kevin Colson, vice president of the San Clemente consulting firm LGC Geotechnical, Inc., in a presentation this week to the San Clemente City Council.
The heavily traveled coastal line is San Diego County’s only railroad link to Orange County, Los Angeles and other points across the United States.
Casa Romantica was built in 1927 by San Clemente founder Ole Hanson on 2.5 acres that today is owned by the city. Soil samples show the buildings are constructed on sand that became saturated with water during the unusually heavy rains of the past winter.
“It’s teetering on failure, in simplified terms,” Colson said. “We have two clay beds dipping out of the slope that are extremely weak. There’s water in there. It wants to keep moving.”
The City Council voted unanimously to approve emergency contracts with LGC Geotechnical for consulting and with Alliance Diversified Enterprises, Inc., of Escondido for construction “immediately to secure the building and site to protect life and property prior to the upcoming winter rain season.”
The work will involve installing four sets of “tiebacks” or anchors drilled horizontally 100 feet into the slope from top to bottom to reach the layers of clay and bedrock beneath the sand.
The tiebacks will be connected to a concrete wall at the surface that will be covered with soil and a reinforcement fabric called a “geogrid,” and then landscaped when the stabilization is finished.
Money for the work will come from delaying for a few years a planned capital improvement project, construction of the city’s Mariposa Beach Trail Bridge replacement, said Kiel Koger, public works director and city engineer. That project was budgeted for $8 million. Meanwhile, the city will pursue state and federal grants that could cover the costs.
The stabilization project could take up to a year to complete, but the goal is to have the tiebacks installed before the winter rains begin, Koger said.
Also threatened by the slide is the Reef Gate condominium building on the slope below and slightly north of Casa Romantica. About 30 of the 72 condominiums there were evacuated for almost a month after the initial slide pushed mud and debris up against the building.
Several Reef Gate residents at the meeting Tuesday praised the city and its contractor for their response so far, and urged them to continue the work as quickly as possible.
“The approach to this is solid,” said Chuck Hartman, an engineer and longtime resident, and the work should be finished before rain activates the slide again.
Passenger rail travel resumed Monday between San Diego and Orange counties after the completion of a 12-foot-tall barrier wall along the tracks beneath the San Clemente slide, ending a suspension of nearly six weeks. During the suspension, Amtrak passengers could ride a bus to make the connection between the stations at Oceanside and Irvine.
Trains initially stopped April 27 because of the Casa Romantic landslide. Service resumed in late May after some grading and repairs, but trains were halted again June 5 after additional sliding occurred in the same place.
Before that, a different coastal slope failed in September 2021 and again in 2022 two miles south of the current trouble spot. Repairs there cost more than $13.7 million and kept passenger trains suspended for about six months.
(Phil Diehl, SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE )
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A tornado caused extensive damage to a Pfizer drug manufacturing site in Rocky Mount, N.C., on Wednesday, threatening critical supplies for hospitals across the country.
The company estimated that one-fourth of the injectable medications it supplies to U.S. hospitals were made at the Rocky Mount property, including drugs used during surgeries and other procedures to help block pain, keep patients sedated and fight infections.
Though the company on Thursday had yet to disclose the extent of the storm’s impact, video footage of the site and interviews with the Nash County sheriff and with people briefed on the damage indicated that the tornado caused the worst damage at the company’s warehouse.
On Thursday, Pfizer declined to comment on the drugs affected or the proportion of its supply destroyed in the tornado, which could be considerable given that a lot of these medications required careful production and handling to ensure sterility.
It was also unclear how deeply the destruction would exacerbate existing national drug shortages, which have reached a 10-year high in recent months. Hospitals are on high alert because low-cost generic products manufactured at the site, such as the sedative propofol, are already among the most shortage-prone on the market.
“From a health care practitioner point of view, I’m just holding my breath,” said Michael Ganio, a senior director at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
The tornado ripped through a 16-mile strip of the Rocky Mount area, about 50 miles east of Raleigh, at about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. It snapped trees at the base and tossed homes 20 yards from their foundations, according to a summary by the National Weather Service. The tornado reached wind speeds up to 150 mph before it ripped off large pieces of the metal roof of a Pfizer building and flipped big-rig trucks in the parking lot. Sixteen people were injured.
Several people said the tornado caused the most damage to a company warehouse; the impact to the manufacturing plant — and its ability to continue producing medicines — is not yet clear, according to Mittal Sutaria, a senior vice president of pharmacy contracts at Vizient, which provides contracting for medications to hospitals.
She said Pfizer and the Food and Drug Administration had teams on-site to assess the damage.
Many Pfizer medicines were already in short supply before the tornado: About 130 products marketed to hospitals were listed as “depleted” and about 100 more were in “limited supply,” according to the company’s list of 660 products.
Pfizer has other manufacturing plants in Kansas, New York, Massachusetts and Wisconsin where the company could possibly shift some production to ease any shortages resulting from the Rocky Mount destruction.
(NEW YORK TIMES )
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Temperatures have peaked at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit the entire month of July in Phoenix. Air conditioning, which made modern Phoenix even possible, is a lifeline.
When a cloudless sky combines with outdoor temperatures over 100 degrees, your house turns into an “air fryer” or “broiler,” as the roof absorbs powerful heat and radiates it downward, said Jonathan Bean, co-director of the Institute for Energy Solutions at the University of Arizona. Bean knows this not only from his research, he also experienced it firsthand this weekend when his air conditioner broke.
“This level of heat that we are having in Phoenix right now is enormously dangerous, particularly for people who either don’t have air conditioning or cannot afford to operate their air conditioner,” said Evan Mallen, a senior analyst for Georgia Institute of Technology’s Urban Climate Lab.
Yet some are cutting back on AC, trying to bear the heat, afraid of the high electricity bills that will soon arrive.
Camille Rabany, 29, has developed her own system to keep herself and her 10-month-old St. Bernard Rigley cool during the Arizona heat wave. Through trial and error, Rabany found that 83 degrees is a temperature she is willing to tolerate to keep her utility bill down.
By tracking the on-peak and off-peak schedule of her utility, Arizona Public Service, with the help of her NEST smart thermostat, Rabany keeps her home that hot from 4 to 7 p.m., the most expensive hours. She keeps fans running and has a cooling bed for Rigley, and they both try to get by until the utility’s official peak hours pass.
“Those are the hours that I have it at the hottest I’m willing to have it because I have a dog,” she said. Last month, Rabany said her utility bill was around $150.
Emily Schmidt’s home cooling strategy in Tempe, Ariz., also centers around her dog. Air conditioning is “constantly a topic of conversation” with her partner, too, she said.
“Sometimes I wish I could have it cooler, but we have to balance saving money and making sure the house isn’t too hot for our pets.”
With the unrelenting heat of the recent weeks, “I’m honestly afraid what the electric bill will be, which makes it really hard to budget with rent and other utilities.”
Katie Martin, administrator of home improvements and community services at the Foundation for Senior Living, said she sees the pet issue, too. Older people on limited incomes are making dangerous trade-offs and often won’t come to cooling centers when they don’t allow pets.
“In recent years we are finding that most of the seniors we serve are keeping their thermostat at 80 degrees to save money,” she said.
Many also lack a support network of family or friends they can turn to in case of air conditioner breakdowns.
Breakdowns can be dangerous. Models from Georgia Tech show that indoors can be even hotter than outdoors, something people in poorly insulated homes around the world are well acquainted with. “A single-family, one-story detached home with a large, flat roof heats up by over 40 degrees in a matter of hours if they don’t have air conditioning,” Mallen said.
The Salvation Army has some 11 cooling stations across the Phoenix area. Lt. Col. Ivan Wild, commander of the organization’s southwest division, said some of the people visiting now can’t afford their electricity bills or don’t have adequate air conditioning.
“I spoke to one elderly lady and she said that her air conditioning is just so expensive to run. So she comes to the Salvation Army and stays for a few hours, socializes with other people, and then goes home when it’s not as hot,” he said.
While extreme heat happens every summer in Phoenix, Wild said that a couple of Salvation Army cooling centers have reported seeing more people than last year. The Salvation Army estimates that since May 1, they have provided nearly 24,000 people with heat relief and distributed nearly 150,000 water bottles in Arizona and southern Nevada.
Marilyn Brown, regents professor of sustainable systems at Georgia Tech, said that high air conditioning bills also force people to cut spending in other areas. “People give up a lot, often, in order to run their air conditioner ... they might have to give up on some medicine, the cost of the gasoline for their car to go to work or school,” she said.
“That’s why we have such an alarming cycle of poverty. It’s hard to get out of it, especially once you get caught up in the energy burden and poverty,” Brown added.
(Isabella O'Malley, ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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A tornado heavily damaged a major Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina on Wednesday, while torrential rain flooded communities in Kentucky and an area from California to south Florida endured more scorching heat.
Pfizer confirmed that the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount, but said in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries.
Parts of roofs were ripped open atop its massive buildings. The Pfizer plant stores large quantities of medicine that were tossed about, said Nash County Sheriff Keith Stone, adding, “I’ve got reports of 50,000 pallets of medicine that are strewn across the facility and damaged through the rain and the wind.”
The plant produces anesthesia and other drugs as well as nearly 25 percent of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website. Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said the damage “will likely lead to long-term shortages while Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuilds.”
Elsewhere, an onslaught of searing temperatures and rising floodwaters continued to lash other parts of the U.S., with Phoenix breaking an all-time temperature record and rescuers pulling people from rain-swamped homes and vehicles in Kentucky. Forecasters said little relief appears in sight after days of extreme weather.
In Kentucky, meteorologists warned of a “life-threatening situation” in the communities of Mayfield and Wingo, which were inundated by flash flooding from waves of thunderstorms. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency in those areas Wednesday as more storms threatened.
Forecasters expect up to 10 inches of rain could yet fall on parts of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri near where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers converge.
Meanwhile, Phoenix broke an all-time record Wednesday morning for a warm low temperature at 97 degrees Fahrenheit, raising the threat of heat-related illness for residents unable to cool off adequately overnight. The previous record was 96 degrees in 2003, the weather service reported.
Phoenix had set a separate record Tuesday among major U.S. cities by marking 19 straight days of temperatures of 110 degrees or more. It topped 110 degrees again Wednesday.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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PHOENIX, AZ - In a city used to blazing summers, a historic heat wave set a new benchmark Tuesday: Temperatures reached 110 degrees on a 19th consecutive day here.
And then they kept climbing: The mercury hit 116 less than two hours later, breaking a record for Tuesday’s date, and rose as high as 118, according to preliminary National Weather Service data. The hot streak is not expected to end soon, meaning old records will be shattered. High temperatures are forecast to reach 115 degrees or hotter for at least the next week.
“With the rapid population growth of Phoenix and how many people have been moving here, it is very likely that these are the highest temperatures that many Phoenicians have ever experienced,” said David Hondula, director of the city’s Office of Heat Response and Mitigation.
It comes during what has already been a summer of extreme heat for the southern tier of the United States, from California to Texas to Florida. Some 58 million people in the United States were expected to experience triple-digit temperatures this week, along with many millions of others enduring heat waves in southern Europe, the Middle East and China.
In Phoenix, residents such as Tonyea Warren say that while they are used to heat, the current stretch of weather is a test. Warren’s primary source of income is driving for Uber, but one scorching day this week, she could handle only two hours in the car.
“I’m prepared,” said Warren, 29, who has lived in Phoenix her entire life. “But it’s different. I ain’t ever felt this heat. This is a different type of heat.”
Nights are providing little relief from the heat — Tuesday morning was a record ninth in a row at Sky Harbor during which temperatures didn’t drop below 90 degrees. Monday morning, temperatures bottomed out at 95 degrees, the highest daily minimum temperature for the date and second-warmest recorded on any day.
The heat is the product of an unusually strong and persistent area of high pressure that has remained over the Southwest for weeks, allowing the region to bake under sunny skies. Other heat domes are fueling extreme temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean, southern Europe and northern Africa, and southern Asia.
Across the Southwest, heat has been nearing or breaking all-time records this summer. El Paso has endured 33 consecutive days at or above 100 — 10 days longer than its old record streak. Reno, NV, hit 108 degrees Sunday, tying that city’s all-time record. Las Vegas reached 116 Sunday, one degree shy of its record high.
Climate change has brought a steady increase in average temperatures, and the rapid development of the global climate pattern El Niño, known to increase planetary temperatures, has provided even more fuel.
(WASHINGTON POST )
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A powerful 6.5 magnitude earthquake in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of El Salvador shook much of Central America from Nicaragua to Guatemala on Tuesday, sending residents in some cities streaming into the streets.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the epicenter was 27 miles south of Intipuca, El Salvador, at a depth of 43 miles. That point is outside the Gulf of Fonseca where Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua all share coastline.
In El Salvador’s capital, residents ran into the streets as the ground shook. In Nicaragua, the quake was felt strongly in the capital and all along the Pacific coast.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES )
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A blistering heat wave that has settled over the region is expected to linger for at least another week so people without access to air conditioning may look to escape by visiting one of the designated Cool Zone sites across San Diego County.
The Cool Zone program is a network of free, air-conditioned locations — such as libraries or community centers — where people can relax and find relief. The program was created in 2001 to help seniors and those with disabilities and health concerns who are vulnerable during extended periods of hot weather.
There are 110 Cool Zone sites throughout the county, including inland and backcountry areas, where temperatures are soaring to near-record highs. The program operates each year from June 1 to Oct. 31.
The County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency manages the program.
The county does not keep an active count on the number of people who take advantage of the program but “over the years, we are seeing a big increase in people wanting to find a Cool Zone,” said Kimberly Gallo, supervisor of the county’s Aging and Independence Services Department.
Another factor, Gallo said, is the rising expense of high utility bills for people on fixed incomes who “don’t have the financial resources to be able to run their air conditioners 24 hours a day.”
During the current heat wave, some Cool Zones have extended their hours. The Fallbrook Community Center, for example, was open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. last Saturday and Sunday when temperatures started climbing.
“It’s a great place to cool off,” said Amber Blackman, the Fallbrook Community Center’s recreation supervisor. “There’s Wi-Fi here, and if people want more privacy we have another room for them.”
A handful of community centers with Cool Zones allow pets, including the Valley Center Community Hall and Park.
“We allow dogs on leash, that’s mostly what we see here, but if you have a cat in a carrier, those are allowed in the room,” said Darcy Lahaye, the hall’s parks recreation supervisor.
A complete list of all 110 Cool Zone sites can be found on the county’s website at https://www.sandiegocounty.gov/hhsa/programs/ais/cool_zones/
People who are unable to drive to a Cool Zone can call 211, where they can be connected to a transportation or ride-sharing service for free.
San Diego Gas & Electric partners with the country on the program. The utility provides free electric fans to individuals who qualify, provided they are 60 years or older or disabled, living on limited incomes and unable to travel to Cool Zone locations. To request a fan, call Aging and Independence Services at (800) 339-4661.
Access to Cool Zones may take on greater urgency as forecasters from the National Weather Service predict no immediate letup from a heat wave that has blanketed the San Diego region since Friday.
“Right now, it looks like we’re really going to be holding in the same pattern for at least the next week, with above-normal temperatures persisting pretty much everywhere, including the coast,” said Elizabeth Adams, NWS San Diego meteorologist. “Once we get, probably, more than five or so miles inland is when the temperatures are really going to rise.”
Forecasters say places such as Escondido, Valley Center and Lakeside can expect to see highs in the upper 90s to near 100 degrees though much of the next week. Through Saturday, highs in the lower deserts are expected to range between 110 to 118 degrees.
An Excessive Heat Warning for the mountains and deserts remains in effect through 8 p.m. Saturday.
“High temperatures are generally going to range about 5 to 10 degrees above normal everywhere, with a few spots potentially seeing highs up to 15 degrees above normal, especially across our inland valley,” Adams said.
Borrego Springs last Saturday came within 1 degree of tying its all-time high for July 15 of 117 degrees.
The “heat dome” has settled over nearly all of California, as well as neighboring states.
Phoenix set a record of 19 consecutive days of temperatures of at least 110 degrees on Tuesday. Sacramento reached a high of 109 degrees last Sunday, breaking the previous record for that day, which was set in 1935.
The federal government’s Climate Prediction Center forecasts don’t provide much for a break. Its eight- to 14-day outlook for the county calls for above-normal temperatures and its three- to four-week outlook calls for more of the same.
“A lot of times we’ll be seeing some relief, where temperatures fall a little bit closer to normal, but this time we’re really just seeing those temperatures remaining elevated,” Adams said. “This is a pretty long-duration event.”
(Rob Nikolewski, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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A relentless heat wave that has sent temperatures into the triple digits is expected to continue to envelope the Southwest, the Southeast and South Florida and put roughly a quarter of the U.S. population under a heat advisory, according to the National Weather Service.
The stifling heat brought Phoenix its 18th consecutive day of high temperatures at or above 110 degrees Monday, tying a record set in 1974, officials said.
More than 70 million people across the country were facing dangerous levels of heat on Monday, according to a New York Times analysis of weather service advisories and LandScan population data.
The highest temperature recorded on Earth was 134 degrees Fahrenheit, a reading taken at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, near the border of Nevada and California, in 1913, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s World Weather and Climate Extremes Archive.
On Sunday, the temperature there reached 126 degrees at the visitors center at Furnace Creek, according to the weather service. As of 5 p.m. Monday, the temperature reached 123.4 degrees. The temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport reached 116 degrees, the weather service said, tying the hottest temperature recorded at that location, in 2005.
Record-breaking heat is expected through midweek from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley, according to the weather service.
In South Florida, the weather service on Monday warned of high temperatures in the low 90s, with the heat index expected to approach 105 to 110 degrees. The heat index measures how hot it feels outside, accounting for temperature and humidity.
For those seeking to cool off, there will be little opportunity to do so in the places hit hardest by the high temperatures, with particularly high daily minimum temperatures.
San Diego County will continue to see above-average temperatures, but an onshore flow is expected to bring more low clouds and fog along the coast early today and Wednesday [sic].
Heat can be particularly devastating to people who are already suffering from health conditions.
In the Phoenix area, for example, there have been 12 reported heat-related deaths this year through mid-June, and 40 more open cases where heat is being investigated as a factor, according to the Maricopa County medical examiner. In Texas, more than a dozen heat-related deaths have been recorded so far this year.
In the coming days, temperatures will be highest in the desert of the Southwest, where highs could be in the 110s and lows only in the 80s and 90s.
Aside from the heat, other parts of the country are facing additional severe weather alerts, notably for rain.
“Severe storms and bouts of heavy rain to occur from the Nation’s Heartland to the Ohio Valley and Northeast through Tuesday,” the weather service warned.
The Northeast already saw heavy rainfall and flash flooding over the weekend.
In Pennsylvania, sudden rains struck parts of Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, killing at least five people and trapping others in their cars. Authorities drew on 100 people, drones and cadaver dogs in their search for two missing children whose family’s car was swept away in the flooding.
Officials described the search for missing Matilda Sheils, 2, and her 9-month-old brother, Conrad, as a “massive undertaking” along a creek that drains into the Delaware River. The children are members of a Charleston, S.C., family that was visiting relatives and friends when they got caught in the flash flood Saturday.
The children’s father, Jim Sheils, grabbed their 4-year-old son, while the children’s mother, Katie Seley, and a grandmother grabbed the other children, said Upper Makefield Township Fire Chief Tim Brewer. Sheils and his son made it to safety, but Seley and the grandmother were swept away.
The grandmother survived, but Seley, 32, was among those killed by the floods.
Meanwhile, smoke from wildfires in western Canada drifted across the Midwest and the Northeast of the United States on Monday, blanketing dozens of cities with unhealthy air that triggered warnings to limit time spent outdoors.
It was the second time in less than a month that the borderless impact of climate change could be felt with a breath. In June, heavy smoke from Quebec wafted into the East Coast, and blew from New York City, past Washington, as far west as Minnesota.
This week, as nearly 900 wildfires burned across Canada, the smoke came from fires in the western part of the country, billowing into its southern neighbor across a wide trail.
By 4 p.m. PDT, nearly 70 million people in 32 states and the District of Columbia were affected by the shifting, migrating smoke, according to estimates based on information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the LandScan database.
“Unfortunately, the wildfire smoke will begin to make a return to the region to start the new week,” according to the National Weather Service in the Philadelphia area.
Air quality alerts, ranging from moderate to very unhealthy, were issued by government agencies from Montana to the Dakotas and parts of other states, including Nebraska, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, North Carolina and along the Northeast.
Residents were advised to take precautions, from limiting outdoor activities to covering up with masks. In Chicago, where the air quality deteriorated through the weekend, Mayor Brandon Johnson warned children, older residents and those with heart or lung disease to limit outdoor activity.
“We are acutely aware that the recent weather events prominently impacting our city this summer are the direct result of the climate crisis,” he said.
Air quality advisories were also in effect across parts of Massachusetts.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued air quality health advisories for Monday in New York. The air quality in parts of upstate New York was expected to reach unhealthy levels for all residents, while conditions in the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island were expected to be unhealthy only for sensitive groups. Air quality across the region worsened Monday evening with parts of the city and state clocking more than 100 on the air quality index.
The index runs from 0 to 500; the higher the number, the greater the level of air pollution.
An AQI 101 or more is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups, and 201 or more is considered very unhealthy for anybody.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; NEW YORK TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS )
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Canada deployed its military to help overwhelmed local authorities and emergency workers fight intensifying wildfires, which have burned nearly 25 million acres in the country this year.
The Canadian armed forces and coast guard will head to British Columbia in the west after the Canadian government approved the province’s request for federal assistance, the government said Sunday. Canadian provinces submit formal requests for federal assistance when an emergency “overwhelms or threatens to overwhelm” them, the government said, adding that British Columbia is “currently experiencing a challenging wildfire season.”
The deployment of military personnel, aircraft and other resources comes as Canada struggles with wildfires that climate change has made more frequent, intense and far-reaching.
Officials say this year’s wildfire season is unprecedented. As of late Sunday, there were 883 active fires in Canada, of which 581 were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center. Most of the out-of-control wildfires were in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec.
Two military reconnaissance teams were deployed to British Columbia on Sunday, the Canadian Press reported, citing British Columbia’s Ministry of Emergency Management. A “land force team” is expected to arrive in Prince George, in central British Columbia, and an air force team in Kamloops, the outlet said.
The military has been called in to help with wildfire management before, including in May, when members of the armed forces were deployed to Alberta. That deployment lasted a month.
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Wildfires outside Athens forced thousands to flee seaside communities, closed highways and gutted vacation homes Monday, as high winds pushed flames through hillside scrub and pine forests parched by days of extreme heat.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for at least six seaside communities as two major wildfires edged closer to summer resort towns and gusts of wind hit 45 mph.
The army, police special forces and volunteer rescuers freed retirees from their homes, rescued horses from a stable and helped monks flee a monastery threatened by the flames.
Water-dropping planes and helicopters tackled the flames near Lagonisi. The second large wildfire broke out in a wooded area near the resort town of Loutraki.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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ROME, Italy - Italian health officials intensified heat warnings Monday as southern Europe began a brutally hot week with temperatures expected to top 40 degrees Celsius — or 104 degrees Fahrenheit — on a continent already sizzling under the sun and overburdened by tourists.
Countries with borders on the Mediterranean Sea weren’t alone in suffering. Authorities in North Macedonia extended a heat alert for the next 10 days with predicted temperatures topping 109 degrees, while Kosovo also issued heat warnings.
“Never in my life have I experienced heat like this before in Pristina,” Artan Kelani, a 22-year-old student, said in Kosovo’s capital, where it reached 94 Monday and was expected to get hotter starting Wednesday.
The Italian Ministry of Health urged regions to beef up house-call services so older people don’t have to go out if they need medical care and to set up dedicated heat stations at hospitals to treat emergency cases. Rome braced for temperatures as high as 107 today.
The Italian capital’s civil protection office, volunteers and officials from the local water company plan to be at 28 locations, including the ancient Colosseum and open-air produce markets, to guide residents and tourists to fountains and to distribute bottled water.
The city government said that having volunteers fan out through the city would help hasten the arrival of medical help for people who seem to be suffering ill effects from the heat.
The culprit is a high-pressure anticyclone dubbed Cerberus after the multi-headed dog in Greek mythology that guards the gates to the underworld. Europe’s third heat wave in a month was expected to affect much of the Mediterranean region and last until Wednesday.
“The bubble of hot air that has inflated over southern Europe has turned Italy and surrounding countries into a giant pizza oven,” Hannah Cloke, a climate scientist and physical geographer at the University of Reading, said in a statement. “The hot air which pushed in from Africa is now staying put, with settled high pressure conditions meaning that heat in warm sea, land and air continues to build.”
The mercury in Rome hit 102 by 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Power outages were hitting parts of the city as electric grids sputtered under heavy demand from air conditioners.
While the Italian capital’s hot spell was tough on tourists trekking through the cobblestone streets, tourist industry workers sweated through it.
Prince Mack, who is from Liberia, kept hydrated as he hawked tickets to open-top tour buses near central Rome’s Piazza Venezia. “I drank about six of these (water bottles) since this morning, and I’m still going to drink more,” he said at midday.
The Ministry of Health issued 10 recommendations to protect older adults, vulnerable people and and pets from the heat. The guidance included staying indoors and avoiding strenuous exercise during the hottest hours of the day.
Local celebrities went on state-run RAI television to read the recommendations and get the message out.
Besides Rome, several other cities, in particular on the southern islands of Sicily and Sardinia, were expected to exceed triple-digit temperatures today.
Spain’s Aemet weather agency said the heat wave this week “will affect a large part of the countries bordering the Mediterranean.”
(Nicole Winfield, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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WASHINGTON CROSSING, PA - Heavy rains pounded an already saturated Northeast on Sunday for the second time in a week, spurring another round of flash flooding, canceled airline flights and power outages.
In Pennsylvania, a sudden flash flood late Saturday afternoon claimed at least five lives.
Officials in Bucks County’s Upper Makefield Township in Pennsylvania said torrential rains occurred around 5:30 p.m. Saturday in the Washington Crossing area, sweeping away several cars. At least five people died and two children, a 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister, remained missing, authorities said.
Other parts of the East Coast were experiencing heavy rain, including Vermont. Authorities there said landslides could become a problem as the state copes with more rain following days of flooding.
“There are flash-flood warnings throughout the state today. Remain vigilant and be prepared,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said.
Sunday’s strong storms led to hundreds of flight cancellations at airports in the New York City area, according to the tracking service FlightAware.
More than 350 flights were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey alone, while more than 280 flights were canceled at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Hundreds of flights were delayed.
The National Weather Service issued flash-flood warnings and tornado watches for parts of Connecticut, western Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire. A tornado warning was issued for an area along the Massachusetts-New Hampshire border.
Thousands of power outages also were reported.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul urged people to stay home Sunday until the storms passed.
“Here comes the rain. It just seems unrelenting this year,” she said. “You have to avoid unnecessary travel. ... A flash flood doesn’t give you warning ... and in those moments your car can go from a place of safety to a place of death.”
Hochul said 5 inches of rain fell within two hours in Suffolk County on Long Island. The state saw $50 million in damages from last week’s storms. Disaster declarations will cover more than a dozen New York counties.
Manchester, N.H., the largest city in northern New England, opened its emergency operations center in response to severe weather. Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and other officials urged residents to stay inside.
Flooding forced Tweed-New Haven Airport in Connecticut to close Sunday. The small airport, which offers daily commercial flights from one carrier, Avelo Airlines, said in a Twitter post that the terminal was closed until further notice. Several flights were delayed.
Flash flooding was reported in New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury and other Connecticut towns, leaving many roads impassible. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said he was headed to Bristol, home of ESPN, to view flooding.
In northern New Jersey, some roads were closed Sunday as crews worked to repair stretches of concrete that buckled under heavy rain and flooding. Local creeks washed over passageways and a rockslide blocked Route 46. Thoroughfares were a mess of water and rocks covered in brown sludge.
In Pennsylvania, a sudden, torrential downpour turned deadly in Upper Makefield Township.
Fire Chief Tim Brewer told reporters the area got up to 7 inches of rain in 45 minutes.
“In my 44 years, I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said. “When the water came up, it came up very swiftly.”
About 4 to 5 feet of water washed over the road and three of an estimated 11 cars were swept away. All three were later recovered and no one was found inside, Brewer said. Eight people were rescued from the cars and two from the creek, he said.
The two children who remained missing Sunday are part of a Charleston, S.C., family visiting family and friends. They were on their way to a barbecue when their vehicle got stuck in the flash flood, Brewer said.
“As they tried to escape the fierce floodwaters, Dad took his 4-year-old son while the mother and the grandmother grabbed the two additional children, aged 9 months and 2 years,” he said. The father and son were “miraculously” able to get to safety.
“However, the grandmother, the mother, and the two children were swept away by the floodwaters,” Brewer said. The mother was among those later found dead.
“We continue to look for the two children. We are not going to give up,” Brewer said.
About 150 people were searching the creek during the night and 100 were involved Sunday. Brewer said earlier that officials were treating the effort as a rescue “but we are fairly certain we are in a recovery mode at this time.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro vowed aid from state emergency and transportation officials.
“All hands are on deck,” Shapiro said.
In North Carolina, floodwaters were blamed for the death of a 49-year-old woman whose car was swept off a road in Alexander County late Saturday night. A man who was in the car with her was rescued.
And as far south as Miami, soccer fans sought shelter from a torrential downpour as they waited for an event presenting international superstar Lionel Messi one day after the team signed him through the 2025.
Meanwhile, recovery efforts were under way in Vermont from recent days of heavy precipitation.
The Vermont Agency of Transportation said 12 state roads remained closed while 12 were partially open to one lane of traffic and 87 have been reopened that were previously closed.
The agency said 211 bridge inspections have been completed this week in damaged areas and there are four state bridges closed and four town structures closed.
Rail lines throughout Vermont were also damaged, the transportation agency said. The agency said it reopened 57 miles of rail lines, and 64 miles of rail line remained closed.
“Our crews have been working tirelessly all week to repair the damaged state roads and bridges, and to restore the state’s transportation infrastructure for Vermonters and visitors,” Transportation Secretary Joe Flynn said.
Heavy precipitation was not the only extreme weather plaguing the U.S. A scorching heat wave across the Southwest has put roughly one-third of Americans under some type of heat watch or warning. That included brutal temperatures in the hottest place on Earth — Death Valley, where the high temperature reached 128 on Sunday.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted air quality alerts for several states stretching from Montana to Ohio on Sunday because of smoke blowing in from Canadian wildfires. Hochul said she expected air quality alerts to be issued for northern and western parts of New York state today because of the wildfires.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean rescuers on Sunday pulled nine bodies from a flooded tunnel where around 15 vehicles were trapped in muddy water, as days of heavy rain triggered flash floods and landslides and destroyed homes across the country, officials said.
A total of 37 people have died and thousands have been evacuated since July 9, when heavy rain started pounding South Korea's central regions.
Nearly 900 rescuers including divers were searching the tunnel in the central city of Cheongju, where the vehicles, including a bus, were swamped by a flash flood Saturday evening, Seo Jeong-il, chief of the city’s fire department, said in a briefing.
Fire officials estimated that the tunnel filled with water in as little as two or three minutes.
Photos and video from the scene showed rescue workers establishing a perimeter and pumping brown water out of the tunnel as divers used rubber boats to move in and out of the area.
Yang Chan-mo, an official from the North Chungcheong provincial fire department, said it could take several hours to pump out all the water from the tunnel, which was still filled with 4 to 5 meters (13 to 16.4 feet) of water dense with mud and other debris. Workers were proceeding slowly to prevent any victims or survivors from being swept out, Yang said.
Nine survivors were rescued from the tunnel and around 10 others were believed to be missing based on reports by families or others, but the exact number of passengers trapped in vehicles wasn’t immediately clear, Seo said.
More than 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) of rain was measured in the South Chungcheong provincial towns of Gongju and Cheongyang since July 9. Cheongju, where the tunnel is located, received more than 54 centimeters (21.2 inches) during the same period.
The Korea Meteorological Administration said the central and southern parts of the country could still get as much as 30 centimeters (12 inches) of additional rain through Tuesday.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Firefighters in Riverside County made progress in battling four wildfires Sunday as a heat wave broke records across the state and sent residents scrambling for relief.
The largest of the fires, the Rabbit fire, burning in Lakeview south of Moreno Valley, had consumed 7,600 acres and was 10 percent contained, authorities said Sunday. The blaze threatened more than 150 structures, and steep terrain had made it slow going, but CalFire spokesperson Rich Cordova said firefighters had made “great progress” overnight.
One woman suffered severe burns and was taken by helicopter to a burn center, Cordova said. She was rescued near where the fire started on Gilman Springs Road, he said.
It was not immediately clear what sparked the Rabbit fire, which began Friday, or others burning in Riverside County, but Cordova said heavy winter rains resulted in abundant grasses and “any little spark could cause the devastation of a wildfire.”
“Residents need to be more cautious” when pursuing recreation or even landscaping activities, he said, because “any little spark, and a fire will take off.”
Firefighters were also making progress against other fires burning near Moreno Valley. The Reche fire, which burned 437 acres in an unincorporated area north of town had reached 60 percent containment early Sunday, officials said. Video from the scene showed at least one structure engulfed in flames, but it was unclear whether any others had been damaged.
The Highland fire, which has been burning in the Beaumont-Banning area, was 70 percent contained and had burned 105 acres. Evacuations in that area have been lifted. And the Gavilan fire, which burned 338 acres, was 50 percent contained.
Temperatures on Sunday were expected once again to exceed triple digits in the San Fernando Valley and reach 110 degrees in the Antelope Valley, while portions of San Luis Obispo County were forecast to hit 105, said Mike Wofford, meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s office in Oxnard.
“All the interior areas of California are going to be super hot,” he said.
In Los Angeles, city leaders designated four Recreation and Parks facilities to serve as community “cooling centers” until 9 p.m. Sunday: Highland Park Recreation Center in Highland Park, Mid Valley Senior Center in Panorama City, Canoga Park Senior Center in Canoga Park and Fred Roberts Recreation Center in South L.A.
Inside the Highland Park Recreation Center it was a brisk 72 degrees — or at least it was until the power went out about 12:15 p.m. A downed power line a block away had knocked out the electricity to the recreation center and to the nearby Highland Park Public Library, which also had been serving as a cooling center.
“So much for our cooling center!” said Benjamin Newman, standing in the center’s darkened indoor basketball court, where he had been playing with his son, 4-year-old Brayden Hutchens.
Newman, whose apartment has a single window A/C unit, said city officials have not opened up enough cooling centers to serve the population, particularly the elderly.
The city also needs to do more to publicize them, said Newman, who learned that his neighborhood had such a resource only after a television news crew approached him and his son on the nearby playground earlier in the day to ask them about it.
(Jessica Garrison, David Zahniser & Daniel Miller, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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CHICAGO, IL - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency posted air quality alerts for several states stretching from Montana to Ohio on Sunday because of smoke blowing in from Canadian wildfires.
“Air Quality alerts are in place for much of the Great Lakes, Midwest, and northern High Plains,” the National Weather Service said. “This is due to the lingering thick concentration of Canadian wildfire smoke over these regions. While the concentration of smoke in the atmosphere should begin to wain by Monday, there is still enough smoke to support unhealthy air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups in parts of these regions into the start of the upcoming week.”
The U.S. EPA’s AirNow air quality page rated the air in Chicago as “unhealthy” as of 9 a.m. CDT Sunday. And in Michigan, state environmental officials said the air “is unhealthy for sensitive groups.”
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services advised people in the state to check the Air Quality Index regularly to decide if they should be participating in outdoor activities.
The Indianapolis Office of Sustainability issued a Knozone Action Day for Sunday, saying people throughout central Indiana should avoid time spent outdoors as much as possible, especially active children, the elderly, anyone who is pregnant, and those with asthma, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), emphysema, heart disease or COVID-19.
Sensitive groups should remain indoors Sunday and refrain from activities that degrade indoor air quality, including burning candles and vacuuming.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday that unhealthy air from the wildfires in Canada was expected to hit parts of New York state again Monday, mostly in northern and western parts of the state. She said the air quality index was forecasted to be 100 to 150 in those areas, when 0 to 50 is the norm. Her comments came at a news conference about heavy rain and flooding.
“As if the rain coming out of the sky isn’t enough, if you start looking up tomorrow you’re going to see a similar situation to what we had a couple of weeks ago because of the air quality degradation resulting from the wildfires in Canada,” she said. “We’re likely to be issuing a air quality alert for portions of our state. It seems to be projected to be mostly around western New York and the North Country at this time. But as we saw, it can shift very quickly and start developing in more populated areas.”
Health officials have recommended people can stay safe by taking steps such as wearing a mask, staying indoors and keeping indoor air clean.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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DEATH VALLEY, CA - Long the hottest place on Earth, Death Valley put a sizzling exclamation point Sunday on a record warm summer that is baking nearly the entire globe by flirting with some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded, meteorologists said.
Temperatures in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada, reached 128 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday at the aptly named Furnace Creek, the National Weather Service said.
The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 134 in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognized as keeper of world records. Temperatures at or above 130 have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley.
“With global warming, such temperatures are becoming more and more likely to occur,” Ceverny, the World Meteorological Organization’s records coordinator, said in an email. “Long-term: Global warming is causing higher and more frequent temperature extremes. Short-term: This particular weekend is being driven by a very very strong upper-level ridge of high pressure over the Western U.S.”
Furnace Creek is an unincorporated community within Death Valley National Park. It’s home to the park’s visitor center, which includes a digital thermometer popular with tourists. On Sunday afternoon, dozens of people gathered at the thermometer — some wearing fur coats as a joke — hoping to snap a picture with a temperature reading that would shock their friends and family.
That digital thermometer hit 130 degrees at one point on Sunday, but it’s not an official reading. The National Weather Service said the highest temperature recorded on Sunday was 128.
A few miles away at Badwater Basin — the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level — tourists took selfies and briefly walked along the white salt flats ringed by sandy-colored mountains as wisps of clouds crawled overhead. Meteorologists say that thin cloud cover most likely kept temperatures from reaching potential record highs.
William Cadwallader lives in Las Vegas, where temperatures reached 116 on Sunday, nearing the all-time high of 117 degrees. But Cadwallader said he’s been visiting Death Valley during the summer for years just to say he’s been to the hottest place on Earth.
“I just want to go to a place, sort of like Mount Everest, to say, you know, you did it,” he said.
The heat wave is just one part of the extreme weather hitting the U.S. over the weekend. Five people died in Pennsylvania on Saturday when heavy rains caused a sudden flash flood that swept away multiple cars. A 9-month-old boy and a 2-year-old girl remained missing. In Vermont, authorities were concerned about landslides as rain continued after days of flooding.
Death Valley’s brutal temperatures come amid a blistering stretch of hot weather that has put roughly one-third of Americans under some type of heat advisory, watch or warning. Heat waves are not as visually dramatic as other natural disasters, but experts say they are more deadly. A heat wave in parts of the South and Midwest killed more than a dozen people last month.
Temperatures in Phoenix hit 114 on Sunday, the 17th consecutive day of 110 degrees or higher. The record is 18 days, set in June 1974. Phoenix is on track to break that record on Tuesday, said Gabriel Lojero, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
(John Locher, Adam Beam & Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The roughly 750,000 people who live east of Interstate 15 in San Diego County will be under an excessive heat warning through Tuesday night due a stubborn heat wave that could topple temperature records and lower air quality, the National Weather Service said.
Temperatures rose significantly on Friday. Through 4 p.m. San Diego International Airport hit 77 while Santee got to 91 and Borrego Springs reached 113.
Forecasters said the heat wave will peak today and Sunday when Ramona hits 101-102 degrees, Valley Center jumps to 97-98, Julian climbs to 96-99, Poway and Mt. Laguna reach 93-94, and Escondido gets to 91-92.
Farther east, Ocotillo Wells could reach 120 on both days while Borrego Springs is anticipated to hit 119. Forecasters say there is a small chance that Borrego Springs will rise to its all-time high of 122, a number reached on June 25, 1999, and June 20, 2016.
Palm Springs is forecast to reach 121 today and El Centro is expected to reach 117.
Nearly a third of Americans were under extreme heat advisories, watches and warnings on Friday. The blistering heat wave throughout the Southwest was forecast to get worse this weekend for Nevada, Arizona as well.
Meteorologists in Las Vegas warned people not to underestimate the danger. “This heatwave is NOT typical desert heat due to its long duration, extreme daytime temperatures, & warm nights. Everyone needs to take this heat seriously, including those who live in the desert,” the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said in a tweet.
Phoenix marked the city’s 15th consecutive day of 110 degrees or higher temperatures on Friday, hitting 116 degrees Fahrenheit by late afternoon, and putting it on track to beat the longest measured stretch of such heat. The record is 18 days, recorded in 1974.
“This weekend there will be some of the most serious and hot conditions we’ve ever seen,” said David Hondula, Phoenix’s chief heat officer. “I think that it’s a time for maximum community vigilance.”
The heat was expected to continue well into next week as a high pressure dome moves west from Texas.
The California Independent System Operator, which handles about 80 percent of the state’s electric grid, has not issued Flex Alerts for the weekend. And San Diego Gas & Electric said in a statement Friday that, “Our region is well-positioned to meet customer demand thanks to new energy storage projects coming online and a mix of locally generated and imported electricity.”
A wildfire advisory is not expected because winds are predicted to be light.
“The heat will come from a very strong high-pressure system centered over central and Southern California,” said Miguel Miller, a weather service forecaster. “We don’t have the summer monsoon inland to tamp down temperatures a bit.”
Temperatures will be cooler at and near the coast due to a sea breeze that is expected to arrive from the south and the west throughout the weekend. Forecasters say the temperature is expected to be about 74 at 10 a.m. today when the annual San Diego Pride Parade begins in Hillcrest.
The onshore winds will pick up a little chill from the ocean, where the temperature will be in the 65- to 68-degree range, which is below average for this time year. The surf is expected to be small, and rip currents will be modest.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Rescuers in boats evacuated 14,000 people over the past several days after floodwaters from two rivers swollen by monsoon rains inundated dozens of villages in eastern Pakistan, officials said Friday.
Monsoon rains began lashing the South Asian country in late June and since then, at least 91 people have died in weather-related incidents across the country.
Mohsin Naqvi, a top official in eastern Punjab province, tweeted Friday that he visited flood-hit areas. The evacuations began earlier this week after neighboring India diverted waters from dams into the Ravi River, which flows from India into Pakistan. An overflowing Sutlej River has also inundated villages in various parts of the province. Heavy rain is expected to continue.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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An already warming Earth steamed to its hottest June on record, smashing the old global mark by nearly a quarter of a degree, with global oceans setting temperature records for the third straight month, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.
June’s 61.79-degree global average was 1.89 degrees above the 20th-century average, the first time globally a summer month was more than a degree Celsius hotter than normal, according to NOAA. Other weather monitoring systems, such as NASA, Berkeley Earth and Europe’s Copernicus, had already called last month the hottest June on record, but NOAA is the gold standard for record-keeping with data going back 174 years to 1850.
The increase over last June’s record is “a considerably big jump” because usually global monthly records are so broad-based that they often jump by hundredths of a degree, not quarters, said NOAA climate scientist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo.
“The recent record temperatures, as well as extreme fires, pollution and flooding we are seeing this year, are what we expect to see in a warmer climate,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald. “We are just getting a small taste for the types of impacts that we expect to worsen under climate change.”
Both land and ocean were the hottest a June has seen. But the globe’s sea surface — which is 70 percent of Earth’s area — has set monthly high temperature records in April, May and June, and the North Atlantic has been off-the-charts warm since mid-March, scientists say. The Caribbean region smashed previous records, as did the United Kingdom.
The first half of 2023 has been the third-hottest January through June on record, behind 2016 and 2020, according to NOAA.
NOAA says there’s a 20 percent chance that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, with next year more likely, but the chance of a record is growing and outside scientists such as Brown University’s Kim Cobb are predicting a “photo finish” with 2016 and 2020 for the hottest year on record. Berkeley Earth’s Robert Rohde said his group figures there’s an 80 percent chance that 2023 will end up the hottest year on record.
That’s because it’s likely to only get hotter. July is usually the hottest month of the year, and the record for July and the hottest month of any year is 62.08 degrees, set in both July 2019 and July 2021. Eleven of the first dozen days in July were hotter than ever on record, according to an unofficial and preliminary analysis by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. The Japanese Meteorological Agency and the World Meteorological Organization said the world has just gone through its hottest week on record.
NOAA recorded water temperatures around Florida of 98 degrees on Wednesday near the Everglades and 97 degrees on Tuesday near the Florida Keys, while some forecasters are predicting near-world-record-level temperatures in Death Valley of around 130 degrees this weekend.
NOAA global analysis chief Russ Vose said there are two main reasons for the record hot June: long-term warming caused by heat-trapping gases spewed by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which is then boosted by a natural El Niño, which warms parts of the Pacific and changes weather worldwide, adding extra heat to already rising global temperatures. He said it’s likely most of June’s warming is due to long-term human causes, because so far this new El Niño is considered weak to moderate.
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Torrential rain fell for several hours Thursday in central Mississippi, flooding roads, homes and businesses in Winston County and Louisville, where the mayor declared a state of emergency.
“Please do not travel anywhere in Louisville or Winston County unless it is an absolute emergency,” Mayor Will Hill said Thursday morning on Facebook. “This is not a typical flash flood and like no thing we’ve experience(d) in our area, maybe ever.”
Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh said law enforcement officers rescued at least eight people from vehicles and removed several others from homes as the water rose.
Swift water washed one car into a ditch, but the driver escaped before it submerged. The man stood knee-deep in the floodwater on top of his car as officers rescued him, Pugh told The Associated Press.
No deaths or serious injuries had been reported in the county by the evening, the mayor said.
“We are on the opposite end of the storm now with blue skies and calm weather and the water has subsided,” Hill said. “But what we experienced was not just a 100-year flood, but a 1,000-year flood.” He added that 12 inches of rain had fallen “in a very short time.”
The mayor said the immediate focus was on safety and he and others had just gotten a first look around the city of about 6,000. He estimated that a couple hundred homes had water damage, as well as some businesses.
He added that officials were contending with debris, drainage problems, erosion and damage to streets and homes, with some taking on about 2 feet of water.
Pugh said the last time he can recall this type of rapid rainfall in the area was in 1977, when he was a child. “There are streets in Louisville that are flooded that I’ve never seen flooded,” he said.
Gov. Tate Reeves said on Facebook that some roads were impassable and that a highway was closed. He also said a shelter was open for residents seeking higher ground.
“We’re standing ready to help support the residents there,” Reeves said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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At least one tornado hit a suburb of Canada’s capital Thursday, damaging more than 100 homes, authorities said.
Kim Ayotte, general manager of emergency and protective services for the city of Ottawa, said 125 homes were damaged in Half Moon Bay.
He said most damage involved roofs being ripped, windows broken or damage inflicted by falling trees.
He said only one minor injury had been reported involving someone whose foot was cut.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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CHICAGO, IL - A tornado touched down Wednesday evening near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, prompting passengers to take shelter and disrupting hundreds of flights. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
A confirmed tornado was on the ground around 7 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Chicago.
“This tornado has been touching the ground intermittently so far and is moving east. There are additional circulations along the line south of O’Hare. Seek shelter if in the warned area,” it said.
By 8 p.m. the weather service said the Chicago forecast area was “currently tornado warning free.” It said the storm was moving east toward Michigan, where tornado warnings were issued.
Video from TV stations showed hundreds of people taking shelter in an O’Hare concourse. Some 169 flights were canceled and nearly 500 were delayed, according to the flight tracking service FlightAware.
The National Weather Service issued two tornado warnings for portions of the city Wednesday evening. Tornado sirens sounded at least twice across Chicago.
Lynn Becker, a longtime Chicago resident, posted video to Twitter with the sirens sounding out across the city’s iconic skyline.
“I’m in a 60-story apartment building so my options are somewhat limited,” he said. “We have to, I assume, go into the core of the building.”
Becker said news of the storm was featured across local media.
“There’s a certain panic when you’re watching a TV screen and everything is in red … but the hope is that the damage is minimal,” he said.
The weather service quoted an unidentified emergency manager as saying a roof was blown off in the community of Huntley in McHenry County and a trained weather spotter saying trees were uprooted and roofs blown off in Cook County, where Chicago is located.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ANDOVER, VT - Volunteers pulled out their snow shovels Wednesday to clear inches of mud after torrential rain and flooding inundated communities across Vermont, trapping people in homes, closing roadways and littering streets and businesses with debris.
The water drained off most of the streets in the state capital, Montpelier, where the swollen Winooski River flooded basements and ground floors, destroying merchandise and furniture across the picturesque downtown. Other communities were cleaning up as well from historic floods that were more destructive than Tropical Storm Irene in many places. Dozens of roads remained closed, and thousands of homes and businesses are damaged.
But with people still being rescued, high water still blocking some roads and new flash flood warnings issued with more rain on the way, the crisis is far from over, according to state Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison.
“Vermonters, keep your guard up, and do not take chances,” she said.
Morrison said urban search and swift water rescue teams came to the aid of least 32 people and numerous animals Tuesday night in northern Vermont’s Lamoille County, bringing the total to more than 200 rescues since Sunday, and more than 100 evacuations.
Volunteers turned out in droves to help flooded businesses in Montpelier, a city of 8,000, shoveling mud, cleaning, and moving damaged items outside. “We’ve had so much enthusiasm for support for businesses downtown that most of the businesses have had to turn folks away,” said volunteer organizer Peter Walke.
Similar scenes played out in neighboring Barre and in Bridgewater, where the Ottauquechee River spilled its banks, and in Ludlow, where the Black River sent floodwaters surging into several restaurants co-owned by chef Andrew Molen. He said Sam’s Steakhouse is likely closed for good after the water inside reached nearly 7 feet high.
“The only thing that’s probably gonna be salvageable is the silverware, and even then, after being in that muck for so long, you wash everything, do you really want to put that on the table? It’s pretty intense what happened,” Molen said.
Gov. Phil Scott toured the disaster areas with Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, whose teams began aerial and on-the-ground damage assessments a day after President Joe Biden declared an emergency and authorized federal disaster relief.
The total cost of the damage could be substantial. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, even before these floods, this year has seen 12 confirmed weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion in the United States.
“I think we all understand we are now living through the worst natural disaster to impact the state of Vermont since (the flood of) 1927,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said. “What we are looking at now are thousands of homes and businesses which have been damaged, sometimes severely. We’re looking at roads and bridges, some of which have been wiped out and will need basic and fundamental repairs.”
Scott said floodwaters surpassed levels seen during Tropical Storm Irene, which killed six people in Vermont in August 2011, washing homes off their foundations and damaging or destroying more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highway.
New York’s Hudson River Valley also was hit hard, along with towns in southwest New Hampshire and western Massachusetts.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey got a bird’s eye view in a helicopter ride to the small town of Williamsburg on Wednesday, where roads were washed out and some people had to be rescued from their homes. Even after two days of receding waters, the Connecticut River retained a muddy brown hue and farmland along the river remains saturated, she said.
Much of that water was carrying debris including entire trees, boulders and even vehicles south through Connecticut to Long Island Sound. Major waterways including the Connecticut River overflowed their banks, and were expected to crest Wednesday at up to 6 feet above flood stage, closing roads and riverside parks in multiple cities.
By mid-day Wednesday, all the rivers in Vermont had crested and water levels were receding, although at least one was 20 feet above normal, said Peter Banacos, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Thunderstorms, gusty winds and hail were forecast for today and Friday in Vermont, but Banacos said they’ll blow through quickly enough that more flooding isn’t likely.
(Lisa Rathke, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The heat wave that began to grip San Diego County this week could intensify enough to push temperatures close to 120 degrees on Sunday in the local deserts, including Ocotillo Wells and Borrego Springs, according to the National Weather Service.
“It got up to 119 at Ocotillo Wells last July, so we do get these kind of readings this time of year,” said Phil Gonsalves, a weather service forecaster.
The weather service also said the temperature could reach 102 degrees along Interstate 8, along the border of San Diego and Imperial counties. Motorists were advised to make sure their vehicle’s air conditioning system is in good shape before traveling in that area.
San Diego Gas & Electric reported a pair of power outages Wednesday afternoon but had not determined if they were related to hot weather.
Some 589 customers in the Santee and Carlton Hills area lost power at 1:59 p.m., with the utility expecting service to be restored at 5 p.m. In the Spring Valley area, 151 customers at 12:48 p.m. lost power, with service expected to come back by 4 p.m.
Fortunately, the hot weather has not been accompanied by high winds, which can raise the risk of wildfire. SDG&E’s meteorology center that monitors 222 weather stations that measure wind speed, temperatures and humidity every 10 minutes showed gusts in the normal range for locations in the backcountry Wednesday afternoon.
The temperatures will rise to the mid-to-upper 70s through Sunday at the coast, and into the 80s and 90s across inland valleys, with some spots hitting 100 or more, forecasters said.
(Gary Robbins, Rob Nikolewski, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Amtrak and Metrolink passenger service will resume Monday between San Diego and Orange counties after the completion of a temporary barrier wall to protect the tracks from falling debris during repairs to a landslide in San Clemente.
The wall along the tracks on the beach below the slide is 250 feet long and 12 feet high, supported by piles set 32 feet into the ground, according to a news release Tuesday from the LOSSAN Rail Corridor Agency. The agency oversees the 351-mile rail route between San Diego, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo.
“The rail line is being reopened in time for the popular summer tourist season ... including the Comic-Con Convention, which runs July 20-23 in San Diego, and the return of thoroughbred horse racing at the Del Mar Fairgrounds beginning July 21,” the release states.
Amtrak will provide 10 daily round trips between San Diego and Los Angeles, transit officials said, and no bus connection will be needed between Oceanside and Irvine. Also, Metrolink service will return to Oceanside, which is the southernmost point of the Metrolink service area.
Metrolink and the Orange County Transportation Authority worked together to build the wall on an emergency basis to restore train service as quickly as possible, it states. The city of San Clemente continues to work on the long-term stabilization of the slope.
Passenger trains were initially halted April 27 after the slope collapsed beneath the city’s historic Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, the former home of San Clemente’s founding father. Service resumed in late May after some initial repairs, but was halted again June 5 after additional sliding occurred.
The coastal line is San Diego County’s only railroad link to Orange County, Los Angeles and other points across the United States.
Coaster commuter trains run by North County Transit District between Oceanside and San Diego were not affected by the suspension. Amtrak continued to run some trains between San Diego and Oceanside and from Irvine to northern destinations such as Los Angeles and elsewhere, with bus service to make the connection around the slide between the stations at Oceanside and Irvine.
Freight trains have continued to travel through San Clemente during most of the repair work, usually at night and slowed to between 10 and 15 mph.
The slow-moving landslide continued to creep for weeks after its discovery. Engineers have said the soils in the area are poor and that steel anchoring devices may be needed to help secure the upper slope for the long-term.
Before the Casa Romantica slide, a different coastal slope failed in September 2022 just 2 miles to the south near San Clemente State Park. Repairs there cost more than $13.7 million and kept passenger trains suspended for about six months.
San Clemente is one of several areas where the LOSSAN corridor is threatened by sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Local, state and federal officials have said the only long-term solution may be to reroute vulnerable segments of the track away from the beach.
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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ANDOVER, VT - A storm that dumped up to two months of rain in two days in Vermont and other parts of the Northeast brought more flooding Tuesday to communities marooned by water, including the inundated state capital, where officials kept a close eye on river levels at a dam just upstream.
There were signs of hope as some Vermont rivers crested Tuesday and floodwaters began to recede, allowing officials to begin assessing the damage and the scope of the cleanup ahead. The flooding has already caused tens of millions of dollars in damage throughout the state.
Muddy brown water from the Winooski River flowed through the capital, Montpelier, obscuring vehicles and all but the tops of parking meters along picturesque streets lined with brick storefronts whose basements and lower floors were flooded. Some residents of the city of 8,000 slogged their way through the waist-high water; others canoed and kayaked along main streets to survey the scene. Shopkeepers took stock of damaged or lost goods.
“It’s heartbreaking because you know all these businesses are losing inventory, and this person just clearly just lost their car,” said state Sen. Anne Watson, noting a parked vehicle inundated with water. Similar scenes played out in neighboring Barre and in Bridgewater, where the Ottauquechee River spilled its banks.
Montpelier city officials were monitoring the dam on the Winooski upstream and said water levels there were holding steady. But they didn’t rule out releasing some water, which would inundate low-lying areas of the city.
“Floodwaters continue to rise in some places, like our capital city, and have surpassed the levels seen during Tropical Storm Irene,” Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said. Irene killed six people in Vermont in August 2011, washing homes off their foundations and damaging or destroying more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highway.
There have been no reports of injuries or deaths related to the flooding in Vermont, where swift-water rescue teams aided by National Guard helicopter crews have done more than 100 rescues, Vermont Emergency Management said Tuesday.
The sun was out Tuesday and more sunshine was expected today. More rain was forecast Thursday and Friday, but Peter Banacos, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the state will be spared any further torrential downpours.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A landslide tore apart luxury homes on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula on Monday, leaving a confused jumble of collapsed roofs, shattered walls, tilted chimneys and decks dangling over an adjacent canyon.
The slide in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates began Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground. Twelve homes were red-tagged as unsafe, and residents were given just 20 minutes to evacuate.
The pace of destruction increased through the weekend and into Monday.
“It is moving quickly,” said Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who represents the area. “You can actually hear the snap, crackle and pop every minute when you’re there as each home is shifting, is moving.”
It was initially believed that all of the red-tagged homes were sliding, but Assistant City Manager Alexa Davis clarified Monday afternoon that 10 were actively moving. An additional 16 were being monitored but had not required evacuation, Davis said in an email.
The cause of the landslide was not known.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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ANDOVER, VT - Rescue teams raced into Vermont on Monday after heavy rain drenched parts of the Northeast, washing out roads, forcing evacuations and halting some airline travel. One person was killed in New York’s Hudson Valley as she tried to escape her flooded home.
Mike Cannon of Vermont Urban Search and Rescue said crews from North Carolina, Michigan and Connecticut were among those helping to get to towns that have been unreachable since torrents of rain belted the state. The towns of Londonderry and Weston were inaccessible, Cannon said, and rescuers were heading there to do welfare checks. Water levels at several dams were being closely monitored.
Flooding hit Vermont’s state capital, with Montpelier Town Manager Bill Fraser estimating Monday night that knee-high waters had reached much of downtown and were expected to rise a couple more feet during the night. Montpelier had largely been spared during Tropical Storm Irene, which struck the region in 2011.
During Irene, Vermont got 11 inches of rain in 24 hours. Irene killed six in the state, washed homes off their foundations and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles of highway.
There have been no reports of injuries or deaths related to the latest flooding in Vermont, according to state emergency officials.
The slow-moving storm reached New England in the morning after hitting parts of New York and Connecticut on Sunday. Additional downpours in the region raised the potential for flash flooding; rainfall in certain parts of Vermont had exceeded 7 inches, the National Weather Service in Burlington said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A weekend of heavy rains and flooding has left destruction across large swaths of northern India, killing at least 23 people and causing landslides and flash floods that washed away bridges and buildings, officials said.
Most of the deaths over the weekend appear to have been in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh, which received more than 10 times its average rainfall for this time of year. The wreckage stemming from the deluge forced authorities there to shut down schools and advise residents to leave their homes only if necessary. Dozens of people in total have been killed in the state since the monsoon season began in June.
Torrential rain continued to lash many states Monday, including the capital region of Delhi, where roads in several areas were submerged in knee-deep water and court hearings had to be suspended or shifted online, away from flooded courthouses.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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A minor volcanic eruption began Monday afternoon in an uninhabited area on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, the country’s weather officials said.
The eruption, which began at 4:40 p.m. UTC, was described as small and posing “no immediate risks to communities or infrastructure,” the Icelandic Met Office said.
It is in a zone that rests between the Fagradalsfjall and Keilir volcanic mountains, roughly 20 miles from the country’s capital, Reykjavik, the office said.
Lava was emerging as “a series of fountains” and flowing south from a fissure on the slope of a hill called Litli Hrútur, officials said. Toxic gas and steam emissions from the fissure were drifting to the northwest, according to officials.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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ORLANDO, FL - Record global ocean heating has invaded Florida with a vengeance.
Water temperatures in the mid-90s are threatening delicate coral reefs, depriving swimmers of cooling dips and adding a bit more ick to the Sunshine State’s already oppressive summer weather. Forecasters are warning of temperatures that with humidity will feel like 110 degrees by week’s end.
If that’s not enough, Florida is about to get a dose of dust from Africa’s Sahara Desert that’s likely to hurt air quality.
The globe is coming off a week of heat not seen in modern measurements, the World Meteorological Organization said Monday, using data from Japan’s weather agency to confirm unofficial records reported nearly daily last week by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. Japan reported the global average temperature on Friday was half a degree warmer than its past record hottest day in August 2016.
Global sea surface temperatures have been record high since April, and the North Atlantic has been off-the-charts hot since mid-March, meteorologists report as climate change is linked to more extreme and deadly events.
“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall,” said WMO director of climate services Christopher Hewitt. “This is worrying news for the planet.”
Now it’s Florida’s turn.
Water temperature near Johnson Key came close to 97 degrees Monday evening, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy. Another buoy had a reading close to 95 near Vaca Key a day earlier. These are about 5 degrees warmer than normal this time of year, meteorologists said.
“That’s incredible,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Orrison. “The water is so warm you really can’t cool off.”
While the 95- and 96-degree readings were in shallow waters, “the water temperatures are 90 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit around much of Florida, which is extremely warm,” said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. He said his 95-degree pool doesn’t cool him — it just leaves him wet.
Water temperatures across the Gulf of Mexico and Southwest Atlantic are 4 to 5 degrees warmer than normal, Orrison said. Because the water is so warm, the air in Florida gets more humid and “that’s making things tougher or more oppressive for people who are going to be out and about,” he said.
The heat dome that baked Texas and Mexico for much of the early summer has oozed its way to Florida with sunshine, little to no cooling clouds or rain, but humidity worsened by the hot oceans, Orrison and McNoldy said.
Not only will it stick around for a while as weather patterns seem stuck — a sign of climate change, some scientists contend — “it may actually tend to get a little bit worse,” Orrison said, with extra heat and humidity that has NOAA forecasting a heat index around 110 by weekend.
It could be worse. Air temperatures of 110 are forecast for the U.S. Southwest, including Arizona, New Mexico and southeast California, Orrison said. Death Valley should see highs of 120 to 125 by the end of the week, and possibly a highly unusual 130.
At Hollywood Beach, south of Fort Lauderdale, Monday’s 91 degrees were about average and Glenn Stoutt said the breeze made him fine to do lunges with a 15-pound weighted ball and calisthenics — though he wore shoes on the blazing sand.
“It’s funny to watch the new people and the tourists get about halfway out and realize their feet are getting scorched,” Stoutt said. “They start running, but it doesn’t matter how fast you run, you need to get them in the water.”
Scientists worry about the coral in that warmed-up water.
“There’s a good chance of heat stress accumulating very early in the season so we could be looking at nasty bleaching,” said International Coral Reef Society’s Mark Eakin, a retired top NOAA coral reef scientist. Bleaching weakens coral; it takes extended heat to kill it.
“We are already receiving reports of bleaching from Belize, which is very alarming this early in the summer,” said scientist Liv Williamson of the University of Miami’s Coral Reef Futures Lab. She said global projections give a 90 percent chance for major bleaching on many reefs, including in Pacific Islands along the Equator, the eastern tropical Pacific in Panama, the Caribbean coast of Central America, and in Florida.
“This is only July, this heat will just keep accumulating and these corals will be forced to deal with dangerously warm conditions for much longer than is normal,” Williamson said in an email.
Coral bleaching and die-offs are becoming more frequent with climate change, especially during an El Niño, with Australia’s Great Barrier Reef losing half its coral during the last supersized El Niño in 2016, Williamson said.
Scientists say a new El Niño is part of the reason for the current heat, along with ever-increasing warming from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.
Then there’s that Sahara dust.
With little rain to keep the soil grounded, it’s common this time of year for plumes of dust particles from the Sahara Desert to blow across the Atlantic on upper-level winds. It takes strong winds to push them all the way to Florida so it doesn’t happen often.
One plume settled over South Florida on Monday, and the next plume was expected later in the week, said Sammy Hadi, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami. The plumes typically stay two to three days, and dry the atmosphere so there are fewer of the afternoon rains that are typical for Florida summers.
(Seth Borenstein & Mike Schneider, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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BERLIN, Germany - Scientists say crushing temperatures that blanketed Europe last summer may have led to more than 61,000 heat-related deaths, highlighting the need for governments to address the health impacts of global warming.
In their study, published Monday in the journal Nature Medicine, researchers examined official mortality figures from 35 European countries and found a marked increase in deaths between late May and early September last year compared with the average recorded over a 30-year period.
The increase in heat-related deaths was higher among older people, women and in Mediterranean countries, they found. But the data also indicated that measures taken in France since a deadly heat wave two decades ago may have helped prevent deaths there last year.
“In the pattern of summer mean temperatures in Europe during the summer of 2022, we don’t see borders,” said co-author Joan Ballester of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. The highest temperatures were recorded across a swath of the southwestern Europe, from Spain to France and Italy.
“But when we look at the heat-related mortality, we start to see borders,” said Ballester. While France had 73 heat-related deaths per million inhabitants last summer, Spain’s rate was 237 and Italy’s was 295, the study found.
“Possibly France drew lessons from the experience of 2003,” he said.
France’s warning system includes public announcements with advice on how to stay cool and encouraging people to drink water and avoid alcohol.
Not all of the heat-related deaths calculated across Europe last summer were linked to climate change. Some would have occurred even if summer temperatures had stayed in line with the long-term average. But there is no doubt that the intense heat in 2022 — which saw numerous European records tumble — led to higher mortality rates, as other studies on heat deaths have also shown.
The authors calculated that there were more than 25,000 more heat-related deaths last summer than the average from 2015 to 2021.
Without appropriate prevention measures, “we would expect a heat-related mortality burden of 68,116 deaths on average every summer by the year 2030,” the authors said. They forecast that figure would rise to more than 94,000 by 2040 and more than 120,000 by mid-century.
Governments in Spain and Germany recently announced new measures to address the effects of hot weather on their populations. In Switzerland, a group of seniors is citing the danger posed to older women by intense heat in a court case seeking to force the government to take tougher climate action.
“In an ideal society, nobody should die because of heat,” said Ballester.
One difficulty for researchers is that heat-related deaths are often happening in people with pre-existing conditions, such as cardiovascular disease, said Matthias an der Heiden of Germany’s Robert Koch Institute, who was not involved in the study. This means that heat is not the underlying cause of deaths and therefore not recorded in the cause of deaths statistics. This can cloak the significant impact that heat has on vulnerable people, with up to 30 percent more deaths in certain age groups during periods of hot weather.
“The problem is going to get more acute due to climate change and medical systems need to adjust to that,” he said.
(Frank Jordans, ASSOCIATED PRESS; NEW YORK TIMES)
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NEW YORK, NY - Heavy rain spawned extreme flooding in New York’s Hudson Valley that killed at least one person, swamped roadways and forced road closures on Sunday night, as much of the rest of the Northeast U.S. geared up for a major storm.
Rescue teams were attempting to retrieve the body of a woman in her 30’s who drowned after being swept away while trying to evacuate her home. Two other people escaped.
The force of the flash flooding dislodged boulders, which rammed the woman’s house and damaged part of its wall, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus told The Associated Press.
“Her house was completely surrounded by water. The family tried to escape,” he said.
“She was trying to get through (the flooding) with her dog,” he added, “and she was overwhelmed by tidal-wave type waves.”
The extent of the destruction won’t be known until after sunrise, as residents and officials begin surveying the damage. But officials said the storm had already wrought tens of millions of dollars in damage.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed to WCBS radio that several people were missing and one home had been washed away.
The rains have hit some parts of New York harder than others, but officials said communities to the east of the state should brace for torrential rains and possible flash flooding.
Officials urged residents in the line of the storm to stay off the roads.
“The amount of water is extraordinary and it’s still a very dangerous situation,” Hochul said.
“We’ll get through this,” she said, but added that “it’s going to be a rough night.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Earth’s average temperature set another unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record and what one prominent scientist says could be the hottest in 120,000 years.
But it’s also a record with some legitimate scientific questions and caveats, so much so that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has distanced itself from it. It’s grabbed global attention, even as the number — 63 degrees Fahrenheit — doesn’t look that hot because it averages temperatures from around the globe.
Still, scientists say the daily drumbeat of records — official or not — is a symptom of a larger problem where the precise digits aren’t as important as what’s causing them.
“Records grab attention, but we need to make sure to connect them with the things that actually matter,” climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Imperial College of London said in an email. “So I don’t think it’s crucial how ‘official’ the numbers are, what matters is that they are huge and dangerous and wouldn’t have happened without climate change.”
Thursday’s planetary average surpassed the 62.9-degree mark set Tuesday and equaled Wednesday, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. Until Monday, no day had passed the 62.6-degree mark in the tool’s 44 years of records.
Now, the entire week that ended Thursday averaged that much.
Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, called the 63-degree mark “an exceptional outlier” that is nearly 6 degrees warmer than the average of the last 120,000 years.
“It is certainly plausible that the past couple days and past week were the warmest days globally in 120,000 years,” University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann said. He cited a 2021 study that says Earth is the warmest since the last [ice] age ended, and said Earth likely hasn’t been as warm dating all the way to the ice age before that some 120,000 years ago.
Climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the tech company Stripe and Berkeley Earth temperature monitoring group said he wouldn’t be surprised if it is the warmest in 120,000 years. But he said long-term proxy measurements like tree rings aren’t precise.
This week’s average includes places that are sweltering under dangerous heat — like Jingxing, China, which checked in at almost 110 degrees Fahrenheit — and the merely unusually warm, like Antarctica, where temperatures across much of the continent were as much as 8 degrees above normal this week.
Temperatures were so brutally hot Thursday in Adrar, Algeria, that the temperature never got below 103.3 degrees, even at night. That was the hottest ever nighttime low for Africa, according to weather historian and climatologist Maximiliano Herrera.
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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LOS ANGELES, CA - Southern California Edison and two other companies have paid $22 million to settle U.S. government claims that they caused a 2016 wildfire that burned thousands of acres of national forest, it was announced Friday.
The money covers damage from the Rey fire as well as the costs of fighting the blaze, which was sparked by a fallen Edison power line, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
“This settlement will compensate the public for the expense of fighting the Rey fire and restoring these federal lands that are enjoyed by all Americans,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph T. McNally said in a statement.
The companies agreed to pay without admitting wrongdoing or fault, according to the DOJ.
The Aug. 18, 2016, fire north of Santa Barbara burned more than 50 square miles (32,000 acres) of land, much of it in Los Padres National Forest.
The government said the fire began when a tree fell onto Edison power lines and communications lines owned by Frontier Communications. The government sued the two companies along with Utility Tree Service, a tree-trimming company that contracted with Edison, alleging that they knew of the danger and failed to maintain equipment or to take action to prevent it.
The parties later agreed to dismiss the suit and entered into a settlement, which was approved by the DOJ in May, with all of the money being received by this week, according to the department.
California utilities have been blamed for starting some of the state's largest and deadliest wildfires in recent years through neglect of power lines and other equipment. That has prompted huge fines and settlement payments and even criminal charges.
In May, a judge dismissed all charges against Pacific Gas & Electric in connection to a 2020 fatal wildfire sparked by its equipment that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed four people, including an 8-year-old.
The utility also reached a $50 million settlement agreement with the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office.
Last year, former PG&E executives and directors agreed to pay $117 million to settle a lawsuit over devastating 2017 and 2018 wildfires sparked by the utility’s equipment.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Wildfires raging across Canada have broken records for total area burned and the number of people forced to evacuate their homes, and the fire season is only halfway finished, officials said Thursday.
As of Wednesday, there were 639 active fires burning in Canada with 351 of them out of control. So far this year there have been 3,412 fires, well above the 10-year average of 2,751, said a fire service official.
The fires have burned 27.7 million acres, surpassing the 18.7 million acres burned in 1989, have forced an estimated 155,856 evacuees, the highest number in the last four decades.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The average monthly temperature in San Diego in June was below average for the eighth straight month, the longest streak of its kind since the early 1960s, when John F. Kennedy was president, the National Weather Service said.
The city’s average temperature in June was 65.3 degrees, which was 1.9 degrees below average.
Forecasters derive the figure by adding up the average daily temperatures and dividing the total by the number of days in the month.
The weather service said the long cool streak was caused by an unusually wet winter that effectively lasted into spring, because the jet stream continued to sag south and delivered moisture that deepened and spread out the marine layer.
July also has gotten off to an unusually cool start. The average temperature for the first four days of the month was 67.0, which was 2.6 degrees below normal. Forecasters said that the daytime high won’t rise above 70 through Sunday. The seasonal high is 74.
Temperatures are expected to rise starting early next week. But at the moment, there’s no indication that the region will receive the sort of humid monsoonal moisture that is common during summer.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The planet’s temperature spiked on Tuesday to its hottest day in decades and likely centuries, and Wednesday could become the third straight day Earth unofficially marks a record-breaking high. It’s the latest in a series of climate-change extremes that alarm but don’t surprise scientists.
The globe’s average temperature reached 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a common tool based on satellite data, observations, and computer simulations and used by climate scientists for a glimpse of the world’s condition.
On Monday, the average temperature was 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit, setting a record that lasted only 24 hours.
“A record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future,” said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was not part of the calculations.
On Wednesday, 38 million Americans were under some kind of heat alert, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Sarah Kapnick.
Even normally cooler communities are feeling the heat. In North Grenville, Ontario, the city turned ice-hockey rinks into cooling centers as temperatures Wednesday hit 90 degrees, with humidity making it making it feel like 100.4 degrees.
“I feel like we live in a tropical country right now,” city spokesperson Jill Sturdy said. “It just kind of hits you. The air is so thick.”
University of Maine climate scientist Sean Birkle, creator of the Climate Reanalyzer, said the daily figures are unofficial but a useful snapshot of what’s happening in a warming world. Think of it as the temperature of someone who’s ill, he said: It tells you something might be wrong, but you need longer-term records to work like a doctor’s exam for a complete picture.
While the figures are not an official government record, “this is showing us an indication of where we are right now,” Kapnick said. And NOAA indicated it will take the figures into consideration for its official record calculations.
Even though the dataset used for the unofficial record goes back only to 1979, Kapnick said that given other data, the world is likely seeing the hottest day in “several hundred years that we’ve experienced.”
Scientists generally use much longer measurements — months, years, decades — to track the Earth’s warming. But the daily highs are an indication that climate change is reaching uncharted territory.
With many places seeing temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the new average temperatures might not seem very hot. But Tuesday’s global high was nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (a full degree Celsius) higher than the 1979-2000 average, which already tops the 19th- and 20th-century averages.
High-temperature records were surpassed this week in Quebec and Peru. Beijing reported nine straight days last week when the temperature exceeded 95 degrees. Cities across the United States from Medford, OR, to Tampa, FL, have been hovering at all-time highs, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Alan Harris, director of emergency management for Seminole County in Florida, said that they’ve already exceeded last year in the number of days they’ve had their extreme weather plan activated, a measure initiated when the heat index will be 108 degrees or greater.
“It’s just been kind of brutally hot for the last week, and now it looks like potentially for two weeks,” Harris said.
In the U.S., heat advisories include portions of western Oregon, inland far northern California, central New Mexico, Texas, Florida and the coastal Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center. Excessive heat warnings are continuing across southern Arizona and California.
Higher temperatures translate into brutal conditions for people all over the world. When the heat spikes, humans suffer health effects — especially young and elderly people, who are vulnerable to heat even under normal conditions.
NOAA’s Kapnick said the global heat is from a natural El Niño warming of the Pacific that heats up the globe as it changes worldwide weather on top of human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas.
In June, scientists declared that the phenomenon — which encourages the atmosphere to trap more heat — was back after a four-year hiatus.
“Not all records are meant to be broken. In almost every corner of our planet, people are facing the brunt of unprecedented heat waves,” said United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen. “We ignore science at our own peril. ... It is the poorest and most vulnerable that continue to suffer from our inaction.”
The highs come after months of “truly unreal meteorology and climate stats for the year,” such as off-the-chart record warmth in the North Atlantic, record low sea ice in Antarctica and a rapidly strengthening El Niño, said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado.
Wednesday may bring another unofficial record, with the Climate Reanalyzer again forecasting record or near-record heat. Antarctica’s average forecast for Wednesday was a whopping 8.1 degrees warmer than the 1979-2000 average.
Because humanity hasn’t stopped pumping heat-trapping gases into the air, future generations will look back at the summer of 2023 as “one of the coolest of the rest of your life,” said Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler.
Unless action is taken to combat carbon emissions, experts agree that temperatures are likely to get even hotter.
“When’s the hottest day likely to be? It’s going to be when global warming, El Niño and the annual cycle all line up together. Which is the next couple months,” said Myles Allen, a professor of geosystem science at Oxford University, in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s a triple whammy.”
Tuesday’s record-breaking temperature is partly explained by climate change causing the world to heat up, Allen said, adding that global temperatures are already 1.25 degrees Celsius (2.25 degrees Fahrenheit) above their preindustrial average.
“It’s warming 0.25 degrees Celsius a decade,” he said. “That’s why we see records broken continuously, rather than just as one-offs.”
Last year, a report from a United Nations panel of 278 top climate experts warned that the planet was on track to surpass the globally agreed target of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit).
Beyond that threshold, scientists fear that people will not be able to adapt to climate-induced disasters such as heat waves, famines and infectious diseases.
An analysis by The Washington Post of more than 1,200 scenarios for climate change shows some 230 different paths that would leave Earth below 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the 21st century.
The best-case scenarios, however, require the world to go well beyond any “net zero” goal for fossil fuel emissions and to begin removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it puts in.
“The solution to the problem is actually rather simple,” Allen said.
“Capturing carbon dioxide, either where it is generated or recapturing it from the atmosphere and disposing of it back underground. If we did this, we would definitely use much less fossil fuel,” he said.
(Melina Walling & Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS; WASHINGTON POST)
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Firefighters in southwestern Washington were working Tuesday to extinguish a wildfire that has destroyed 10 homes and burned more than 530 acres since it broke out Sunday, authorities said.
The fire was only 5 percent contained Tuesday, two days after it was first reported near Underwood, a small town in Skamania County, Wash., near the state’s border with Oregon.
Hot, windy conditions Sunday helped fuel the fire’s spread through a hillside community overlooking state Route 14 and the Columbia River, which divides Washington and Oregon, fire officials said.
By Monday morning, officials had issued evacuation orders for people within a 2-mile radius of the fire, which has been named the Tunnel Five fire.
There were no reports of injuries or missing people in connection with the fire as of Tuesday, officials said.
The National Weather Service in Portland, OR, warned of potential wildfire conditions through tonight in a region encompassing parts of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest northwest of the Tunnel Five fire.
Officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
Last year, Washington state, like California, had a relatively quiet wildfire season compared with record-setting seasons in 2020 and 2021, The Seattle Times reported. But officials feared persistent dry weather conditions this year could lead to a busier fire season, which typically begins in June and ends in September.
An estimated 250 homes were threatened by the Tunnel Five fire, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center, which helps monitor wildfires and facilitates coordination between agencies across Oregon and Washington.
An emergency shelter for evacuees was set up at the county fairgrounds, officials said, and residents in a neighboring county to the east of the fire were advised to prepare for potential evacuations.
Authorities mobilized five crews, 31 fire engines and a total of 189 emergency workers, along with multiple aircraft. Firefighting aircraft were scooping water from the nearby river to help put out the flames, authorities said, and heavy equipment and additional fire engines were expected to arrive to aid in the fight.
The Skamania County Sheriff’s Office asked residents “to do everything possible” to avoid starting new fires and to “carefully consider” their use of fireworks.
“This is not the way we expected to spend July Fourth, especially for those who had to leave their homes or are still worried about having to evacuate,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Hood River, OR, which is across the river from White Salmon, canceled its July Fourth fireworks show because of the fire.
(Orlando Mayorquin & Amanda Holpuch, NEW YORK TIMES)
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As the first heat wave of summer plunges California into yet another wildfire season, some environmental groups are taking aim at a commercial fire retardant that most residents have grown all too familiar with during recent, devastating fire years.
Phos-Chek, that neon-pink goo that airplanes dump over wildfires, is a sticky slurry of ammonium phosphate designed to coat vegetation and other fuels to deprive advancing flames of oxygen. Fire authorities swear by the product, calling it indispensable.
But critics argue that officials are overlooking the product’s ecological risks. Studies have shown the retardant can harm plants, fish and other species, including steelhead trout and Chinook salmon. It can also act as a fertilizer that grows more vegetation, which can later act as fuel for fires.
“Fire retardant has more adverse effects on endangered species than any other thing the federal government does, and there’s not even a close second,” said Andy Stahl, executive director of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, an advocacy group that recently sued the U.S. Forest Service over its use of aerial retardant.
Now, the manufacturer is marketing a new, colorless retardant that is intended to be sprayed on private lawns, roadsides and institutional landscapes in advance of fire season. The product has many of the same ingredients as the aerial spray, and is intended to remain on vegetation until the first major rainfall.
Experts say the idea of preventive spray is compelling, particularly given the severity of the West’s worsening wildfire crisis, but worry that there’s “no such thing as a free lunch.”
“This is one proposed solution to that problem — at least a partial solution — which is to render the vegetation less flammable, and that’s pretty cool,” said Hugh Safford, a researcher at UC Davis and former ecologist with the Forest Service.
“But given that we know that ammonium phosphate has effects, particularly in aquatic systems, and given that we don’t know much, if anything, about turning this into a roadside application that then lasts on the vegetation for a year, I would assume that anyone who has issues with aerial application is going to have the same issues with roadside spray.”
Perimeter Solutions, the Clayton, Mo.-based manufacturer, said its newest product, Phos-Chek Fortify, offers long-term protection against wildfires. In promotional videos, crews are seen spraying the material along roadsides and on the grounds of the Santa Barbara County ranch and “Western White House” of former President Ronald Reagan.
Jeff Emery, the company’s president of global fire safety, said in an email that ground-applied roadside use has “proven to measurably reduce the frequency of new ignitions, preventing fires in high-risk areas while also protecting potential evacuation routes away from impacted communities.”
“The use of ground applications for retardant allows more precise delivery to ensure avoidance of waterways when applying this life-saving tool along roadways,” Emery said. “Perimeter Solutions is proud of the role we are serving to protect vulnerable communities from risk and to act as stewards to the environment to minimize the impact of fire on our forests, wildlife, and communities.”
Critics aren’t convinced.
When it comes to preventive spraying along roadsides, Timothy Ingalsbee, a former wildland firefighter and executive director of the nonprofit Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics and Ecology, argued that resources would be better spent hardening homes and communities and conducting controlled burns, which are “more effective and actually less damaging than chemical warfare.”
Ingalsbee has long been critical of how fire authorities use air-dropped retardant in wilderness areas, saying the material is overused and frequently deployed in areas where its effectiveness is limited. The new product, he said, will only help the manufacturer earn even more profits. He calls the use of both materials “a government boondoggle.”
“It is true that a lot of ignitions do start along roads, but how many roads do we have?” he said.
Stahl, of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, said the product’s fertilizer qualities also made it a particularly bad choice for such applications.
“Although you may retard an ignition or a fire spread for this season, what you’ve done is grown a lot more biomass to burn in the next year,” he said.
The debate over the environmental effects of retardant reached a fever pitch recently when a Montana judge ruled partly in favor of the FSEE on its charges that the Forest Service was violating the Clean Water Act with its use of aerial retardant. The Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of pollutants into U.S. waters without a permit.
The judge instead ordered the Forest Service to obtain a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to cover its discharge of retardant into waterways, a process that could take up to three years. The Forest Service must provide the court with status reports on its progress toward that permit every six months, but can continue to use the retardant in the meantime.
Many who fight fires said banning the use of retardant would be catastrophic for California and the West, where wildfires are burning larger, hotter and faster than ever before.
“Retardant plays a key role,” he said. “It’s just one of the tools in the toolbox for fighting fires, but it’s an integral piece.”
Indeed, crews in California are increasingly turning to the material. Over the last three years, Cal Fire dropped 45 million gallons of aerial retardant, compared with 32 million gallons of water, according to agency data.
Safford, of UC Davis, said longer-term studies are needed to fully understand the ecological effects of the roadside spray. Though Phos-Chek’s negative effects on aquatic environments are well established, less is known about its effect on microbiology, insects, soils and plants, including the ability of leaves to photosynthesize or transpire water while covered in the material, he said.
Still, the ability to apply the product with some precision is a benefit. “Many, many ignitions start in dry vegetation next to roads,” he said. “Spraying on and around powerlines and telephone poles is a great idea, because telephone poles and powerlines and telephone systems go down when fire burns through them.”
When asked whether the products encouraged grasses and other vegetation to grow, Emery said the amount of phosphate included in Phos-Chek is “not as high as what you would find in a direct fertilizer application,” and is further diluted after it rains.
He noted that all Phos-Chek retardants are included on the U.S. Forest Service Qualified Product List, meaning “the product has gone through stringent testing protocols administered by the Forest Service and that it meets all performance, mammalian and fish toxicity and environment safety requirements.”
Meanwhile, dozens of California government organizations, as well as private and commercial landowners have begun using Phos-Chek Fortify.
The California Department of Transportation is currently conducting a study of the roadside spray as a “potential tool for future use,” the agency said.
In 2019, Phos-Chek Fortify was sprayed along a 4-mile stretch of Route 118 in the Santa Susana Mountains, near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, where 37 wildfires were recorded the year prior, Emery said. No fires were recorded there in 2019.
In 2021, it was applied along a roadway in San Luis Obispo County, where “no fires were recorded in the treated area the rest of the summer,” he said.
And last year, the retardant was applied along the roadside in Wildcat Canyon in East County, where a wildfire did ignite. “What was projected to be a half-acre to 1-acre fire was reduced in size 99 percent due to the proactive application of Phos-Chek,” he said.
That application came soon after the San Diego County Board of Supervisors awarded a contract to Perimeter Solutions to apply Phos-Chek Fortify along 260 miles of roads in key evacuation corridors.
San Diego resident Sandra Martinez expressed concern about the decision during the board meeting.
“Water does make things run downhill,” she said. “The toxicity will affect things that are not in the area where it is deposited, and possibly end up in our oceans, affecting our ocean life, so it will affect everything in its pathway.”
Chuck Westerheide, a spokesman for the county, said San Diego is continuing the program this year and has already applied Phos-Chek Fortify to 20 miles of roads, with plans for 20 more. The material is not applied within 100 feet of any waterways, he said.
“The mix may not stop a fire from starting, but it will slow the growth of the fire, allowing Cal Fire crews more time to arrive and contain it,” he said.
(Hayley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The U.K. sweltered through its hottest June since records began in 1884, the country’s weather agency said Monday, adding that climate change means such unusual heat will become more frequent in the next few decades.
The average temperature for June in the U.K. hit 15.8 degrees Celsius (60.4 Fahrenheit) — 0.9 C hotter than the joint previous record of 14.9 C in 1940 and 1976, according to the Met Office’s provisional figures.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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A tornado that struck near a town in the Canadian province of Alberta wrecked homes and killed livestock, but caused no serious injuries, authorities said Sunday.
Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a warning at 1:50 p.m. local time Saturday for a tornado near Didsbury, a town located about 145 miles south of Edmonton, Alberta.
RCMP said they received reports of a large tornado along a major highway. The tornado’s width was about a mile.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Excessive heat warnings remain in place in many areas across the U.S. and are expected to last at least through today.
In Arizona’s largest metro area, Phoenix and surrounding communities flirted with a high of 115 degrees on Sunday.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix is forecasting 116 degrees for today, just two degrees off the record high for that date set in 1907, before temperatures drop a few degrees for the next three days.
In Nevada, the first excessive heat warning of the summer runs through tonight for the Las Vegas metro area. Daytime cooling centers are open across the region.
It was 102 degrees Friday at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, ending a 294-day stretch of temperatures staying below 100.
The high in central Las Vegas was near 112 degrees Sunday, with 113 predicted for today, according to the National Weather Service.
A heat wave baking much of interior California was expected to push the mercury past 105 degrees across the agricultural heart of the state.
A record of 111 degrees was marked Saturday in Paso Robles, surpassing a high of 107 set in 2013.
In Southern California, excessive heat warnings and advisories were extended through today for inland areas east of Los Angeles.
The warning is now in effect until tonight in the Santa Clarita Valley, the Antelope Valley and the foothills, according to the National Weather Service, which warned of the potential for heat-related illnesses.
Lancaster and Palmdale reached 105 degrees Sunday, with Santa Clarita reaching 99 and Valencia 97, the National Weather Service reported.
Temperatures were in the mid-90s in the San Fernando Valley and the upper 80s in the San Gabriel Valley.
In San Diego County, highs reached the 90s across inland valleys, the upper 80s in the mountains and the 110-degree range in the deserts, including Borrego Springs, the National Weather Service said.
A heat advisory is in effect for the valleys and mountains through tonight. A heat warning will be in effect in the desert during the same period.
Elsewhere, the heat and severe weather remained a concern throughout the Southeast.
Heat advisories remained in effect throughout that region Sunday while a severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until 8 p.m. for parts of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee. Thunderstorm warnings were issued throughout the region on Sunday afternoon.
Authorities said 31 cows died in the northern Alabama town of Berlin during Saturday’s severe weather when lightning struck the tree they were hiding under.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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CHICAGO, IL - Heavy rains flooded Chicago streets Sunday, trapping cars and forcing NASCAR officials to cancel the last half of an Xfinity Series race set to run through the city’s downtown.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for multiple counties in the Chicago area, saying up to 6 inches of rain had already fallen in suburban Cicero and Berwyn by midday. The NWS website warned the flooding could be “life-threatening” through 3 p.m., with numerous impassable roads, overflowing creeks and streams and flooded basements.
The Illinois State Police said parts of Interstate 55 and Interstate 290 have been closed because of flooding, with at least 10 cars trapped in water on Interstate 55 near Pulaski Road, a major north-south thoroughfare in the city, WLS-TV reported. Trains were stopped in some parts of the city as well.
NASCAR officials had planned to complete the last half of an Xfinity Series race through the city’s downtown on Sunday morning after suspending action on Saturday due to lightning. They announced around midday Sunday they had decided to cancel the race because of the rain and declared Cole Custer the winner.
Ricky Castro, a meteorologist in the NWS’ Chicago office in suburban Romeoville, said a storm system was pinwheeling over the area rather than moving east, giving it time to pull moisture from the atmosphere and leading to heavy rainfall. All of the concrete in the metropolitan area contributes to the flooding, he said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A strong undersea earthquake shook parts of Indonesia’s densely populated main island of Java, causing panic Friday as it killed at least one person, injured two others and damaged dozens of houses.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 5.8.
Abdul Muhari, spokesperson for Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency, said a 67-year-old woman in Bantul died when she fell while fleeing in panic.
The quake damaged at least 93 houses as well as other buildings, such as schools, health centers, houses of worship and government facilities, in Yogyakarta and its neighboring provinces of Central Java and East Java, Muhari said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Beatriz strengthened Friday to a hurricane as it spun along Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, threatening heavy rain for several southern states.
The storm was located 60 miles west-southwest of Lazaro Cardenas and had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
Beatriz’s center was expected to move near or over parts of the coast today before beginning to weaken as it moves away Sunday and Monday.
The storm could dump three to five inches of rain with up to eight inches forecast in some locations from Guerrero north to Sinaloa.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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As dangerous heat and humidity smothered parts of the South and Midwest on Thursday, local governments and charities worked to protect poor and elderly residents by opening cooling stations and delivering donated air conditioners.
In Florida, where heat index levels of up to 112 degrees are forecast over the next several days, the Christian Service Center set up an “extreme heat cooling center” in Orlando for homeless people and others who don’t have access to air conditioning.
“You or I complain about the heat or have to deal with it as we walk from our car to the grocery store or from our car to the air-conditioned office, but for the people we see here on campus, they wake up to that every day,” Bryan Hampton of the Christian Service Center told WESH-TV.
The heat wave has contributed to at least 13 deaths in Texas and one in Louisiana. Forecasters said temperatures could rocket up to 20 degrees above average in some areas as a heat dome that has taxed the Texas power grid spread eastward.
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee for Thursday and today. Less urgent heat advisories covered a wider area that included parts of Missouri, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. The heat index, which indicates how hot it feels outdoors based on the temperature and relative humidity, was expected to reach 115 degrees in several cities.
It was an added weather-related woe for some some Tennessee residents who still had no power after storms Sunday knocked down trees and power lines.
To get some relief, John Manger, 74, and his wife were sitting in shady spots outside their sweltering home in the Memphis suburb of Bartlett and taking cold showers.
“I just suck it up, with a washcloth, towel, whatever. I just sit in my chair by the window, and maybe get a breeze,” said Manger, who is retired.
Their house was among more than 20,000 homes and business in Shelby County that were without electricity as of Thursday morning. Local utility Memphis Light, Gas and Water said dozens of crews were working to restore power.
The heat could also be dangerous for pets, officials warned. And for zoo animals.
“Obviously, we have some animals that love the heat and have no problems with 100 degrees at all,” said Sean Putney, director of the Kansas City Zoo. Those with less tolerance were led into shaded or air conditioned areas, he said.
Louisiana already has been plagued by hot weather over the past month. Between May 12 and May 24, more than 680 went to the hospital for heat-related illness, based on the most recent figures from the state Department of Health.
“This is very real and we need people, to not only take care of themselves, but also to look after their neighbors — especially those who are older,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday.
In St. Louis, where smoke from Canadian wildfires has combined with the heat and humidity to worsen air quality, volunteers were taking donated window air conditioners to the elderly and needy, said Gentry Trotter, who runs Cooldownstlouis.org.
Trotter recently went into the home of an 83-year-old woman, measured the indoor temperature and found it was 105 degrees. Still, she refused to accept an air conditioner.
“Somebody needs to convince her that if she doesn’t have a blasting air conditioner, she’s going to die,” Trotter said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Mexican health authorities say there have been at least 112 heat-related deaths so far this year, acknowledging the deadliness of a recent heat wave that the president previously said was being overblown by journalists.
The report, released late Wednesday, also shows a significant spike in heat-related fatalities in the last two weeks. So far this year, the overall heat-related deaths are almost triple the figures in 2022.
The deaths reached a peak in the week of June 18-24, with 69 deaths in one week nationwide, an unprecedented number. Temperatures in some parts of Mexico have risen to over 105 degrees in recent weeks.
(U-T NEWS SERIVCES)
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In Detroit, where air pollution was worse than any other city in the world Thursday, a basement coffee shop became a bunker from the smoke. One Washington summer camp forbade children from an outdoor pool and kept them inside. On a third-straight day of heavy haze in Chicago, an improvement in air quality meant it was merely “unhealthy” to venture outside, rather than “very unhealthy.”
The latest disruptions made it all the more clear: Record-setting, out-of-control Canadian wildfires will not be put out any time soon, meaning more Americans than ever face continuing threats of dangerously poor air quality this summer.
Put differently: The United States could be in for a summer of smoke.
“The number of people that are exposed is unprecedented in the modern era,” said Michael Wara, an energy and climate policy expert at Stanford University.
Air quality alerts covered all or parts of 23 U.S. states Thursday, from Colorado to Vermont, Wisconsin to Georgia. And while residents of Western states have grown accustomed to adjusting their lives to wildfire smoke, Easterners are still adapting to the reality that sooty skies can be a repeated hazard.
As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of wildfires worldwide, unrelenting spring heat and dry weather have fueled Canada’s worst fire season ever observed. That means northerly summer breezes that would normally bring a break from heat waves will carry noxious smoke across the northern U.S. border as long as the fires continue to burn.
“The air quality is worse than Beijing,” said Liz Alford, 36, a federal worker who found refuge in Coffee Down Under, a basement coffee shop in downtown Detroit. “On my way in, I couldn’t even see the cell towers.”
Above ground, the air was dark and thick, and many older residents wore N95 masks.
Hundreds of large fires are burning, half of which the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center lists as “out of control,” with 31,000 square miles already torched this year.
Air quality is forecast to begin to improve for most of the country today and into the weekend, as the flow of smoky air into the eastern U.S. from the north and northwest is replaced by cleaner air coming from the south and southwest. With that will also come increased humidity and daily thunderstorm chances.
But more smoke could blow in before long, and there is no sign that Canadian wildfires will let up before snow arrives, Wara said.
“There could be some very smoky days ahead,” he said. “This is the future, unfortunately.”
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Canadian wildfires will send worsening smoky air across the country and neighboring United States in coming days after recent heavy rains failed to fall in areas of Quebec where the fires are most active, officials said Wednesday.
Drifting smoke from the wildfires has lowered curtains of haze on broad swaths of Canada and the United States, pushing into southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and moving into parts of West Virginia. The smoke has even been reported as far away as Europe.
Canadian officials say it is the nation’s worst wildfire season ever and they expect air quality to remain a concern through the summer, as long as the fires continue.
It started early on drier-than-usual ground and accelerated very quickly, exhausting firefighting resources across the country, fire and environmental officials said.
Environment and Climate Change Canada Meteorologist Steven Flisfeder said smoke will migrate across Quebec and Ontario over the next few days, and that air quality will deteriorate as a result.
“As long as the fires are burning and the smoke is in the atmosphere it is going to be a concern not just for Canadians but Americans as well,” Flisfeder said.
Flisfeder said the smoky, hazy skies will persist unless rainfall provides sufficient help to firefighters in controlling the blazes. “It’s important to note that the highest amounts of rain were not received in those areas where most active forest fires are,” Flisfeder said.
The Detroit area woke up Wednesday to some of the worst air quality in the United States as smoke from Canada’s wildfires settled over most of the Great Lakes region and unhealthy haze spread southward, as far as Missouri and Kentucky.
Meanwhile, NASA is reporting that smoke from wildfires in northern Quebec has reached Europe. The American space agency said satellite imagery showed smoke extending across the North Atlantic Ocean to the Iberian Peninsula, France and other parts of Western Europe.
There are 490 fires burning nationally, with 255 of them considered to be out of control. Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency is reporting 110 active fires.
Canada has already surpassed the record for area burned. Nearly every province in Canada has fires burning. A record 30,000 square miles of Canada has burned, an area nearly as large as South Carolina, according to the Canadian government.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Adrian became the first hurricane of the eastern Pacific hurricane season Wednesday off Mexico’s western coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Adrian had sustained winds of 80 mph. The storm was expected to weaken again to a tropical storm by the weekend and keep heading out to sea.
On Wednesday afternoon, the storm’s center was about 370 miles southwest of the Pacific coast seaport of Manzanillo, Mexico.
The hurricane center said Adrian was moving west at about 6 mph, and that general motion was expected to continue.
(U-T NEWS SEVICES)
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Scorching heat blamed for at least 13 deaths in Texas and another in Louisiana blanketed more of the Southeast on Wednesday, stretching government warnings of dangerous, triple-digit temperatures eastward into Mississippi and Tennessee.
California, meanwhile, was facing its first major heat wave of the year, and the National Weather Service warned that the dry, hot, windy conditions were ripe for dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.
Mid-week temperatures were forecast to surpass 100 degrees in much of the Southeast and high humidity was expected to push heat index values above 115 degrees in some areas.
Lingering power outages after weekend storms compounded the heat-related misery in Arkansas. More than 10,000 residents were still without power in the central part of the state. In Cabot, northeast of Little Rock, a local senior center provided cool air and a place to charge cellphones and tablets for those without electricity.
“Usually I just come at noon for the meal,” Clint Hickman, still waiting for his power to come back on, said in a phone interview Wednesday. “It’s kind of nice to have a little cool air, so I came a little earlier.”
The unusually high temperatures were brought on by a heat dome that has taxed the Texas power grid and brought record highs to parts of the state, according to meteorologists.
That dome is spreading eastward and by the weekend is expected to be centered over the mid-South, said meteorologist Bryan Jackson with the National Weather Service in College Park, Md.
Texas temperatures should then begin to drop from highs above 100 degrees to daily temperatures in the 90s, Jackson said.
“It’s relief from the extreme heat,” Jackson said. “It’s not really an end to a heat wave; it’s just an end to the extreme part of the heat wave.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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CHICAGO, IL - Drifting smoke from the ongoing wildfires across Canada is creating curtains of haze and raising air quality concerns throughout the Great Lakes region and in parts of the central and eastern United States.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow.gov site showed parts of Illinois, lower Michigan and southern Wisconsin had the worst air quality in the U.S. on Tuesday afternoon, and Chicago, Detroit and Milwaukee had air quality categorized as “very unhealthy.”
In Minnesota, a record 23rd air quality alert was issued Tuesday through late tonight across much of the state, as smoky skies obscure the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Michigan’s Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy issued an air quality alert for the entire state. Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources also issued an air quality advisory for the state.
In Chicago, officials urged young people, older adults and residents with health issues to spend more time indoors.
“Just driving into the zoo ... you could just see around the buildings, kind of just haze,” said Shelly Woinowski, who was visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
Some day care centers in the Chicago area told parents that their children would remain indoors due to the poor air quality, while one youth sports club says it adjusted its activities to add more time indoors.
“As these unsafe conditions continue, the city will continue to provide updates and take swift action to ensure that vulnerable individuals have the resources they need to protect themselves and their families,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a release.
In the Milwaukee area, Flight for Life Wisconsin was unable to respond to a motorcycle-van crash because the Federal Aviation Administration requires 2 miles of visibility, and the visibility was reduced to three-quarters to 1.5 miles because of the hazy skies, Executive Director Leif Erickson said.
Fires in northern Quebec and low pressure over the eastern Great Lakes are sending smoke through northern Michigan, and across southern Wisconsin and Chicago, said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Jackson added that a north wind would push the smoke further south, moving into Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky overnight.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday that 29,393 square miles of land has burned across Canada since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 29,187 square miles, according to the National Forestry Database.
Nationally, there are currently 490 fires burning, with 255 of them considered to be out of control.
Even recent rainfall in Quebec likely won’t be enough to extinguish the wildfires ravaging the northern part of that province, but the wet weather could give firefighters a chance to get ahead of the flames, officials said Tuesday.
(Melina Walling, Melissa Winder & Trisha Ahmed, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Adrian, the first tropical storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, formed Tuesday off Mexico’s western Pacific coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Adrian had sustained winds of 45 mph. The storm was expected to strengthen, but keep heading out to sea.
On Tuesday, the storm’s center was about 280 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Adrian was expected to build to hurricane strength today, but would likely weaken again to a tropical storm by the weekend.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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A scorching early summer heat wave that has baked much of Texas and Oklahoma for the past week spread across the Gulf Coast on Tuesday, with dangerous heat forecasts reaching all the way to the Florida Keys.
“In the South, we’re resilient, but it still hurts,” said Kevin Ardoin, who grows watermelons on a family farm about 40 miles north of Lafayette, LAt5, where the heat index — a measure of how the air feels that takes into account both temperature and humidity — had climbed to 107 degrees Fahrenheit before noon.
Temperatures have been brutal lately, Ardoin said as he stood under a tent in a wide-brimmed straw hat. He and his brothers cope by starting their field work early and pausing during the hottest part of the day, before going back out in the afternoon. “We definitely respect the heat, because it’s dangerous,” he said.
More than 55 million people in the United States were under some form of heat advisory, watch or warning on Tuesday, according to New York Times estimates using National Weather Service advisories and LandScan population data.
In Austin, Texas, where the heat index climbed to 118 degrees last week — the highest on record in the city — officials were braced for daily high temperatures to remain above 100 “for the foreseeable future,” said Kevin Snipes, the city’s emergency management director.
As people across Texas sought to stay cool Tuesday, demand for power from the state’s independent electrical grid reached 80,144 megawatts, an unofficial high for June and just shy of the record of 80,148 megawatts set July 20, 2022. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the grid and had warned of potential problems during the heat, did not report any strain.
The unusual early summer temperatures — daily highs in the low 90s are more typical for much of the region in late June — are the result of a stubborn “heat dome” of high pressure that has lingered over much of Oklahoma, Texas and northern Mexico for days.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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A tornado struck an Indiana home, killing a man and injuring his wife, while two people died in Arkansas after a tree fell onto a house, as severe weather rumbled through several central states.
The tornado that hit the home Sunday evening was part of a storm system that pushed through a rural, wooded area of southern Indiana's Martin County.
The injured woman was flown by helicopter to a hospital, said Cameron Wolf, Martin County’s emergency management director. The newer, log cabin-style house was leveled as a storm that also had large hail and other strong winds raked the area about 85 miles southwest of Indianapolis.
Another tornado touched down Sunday afternoon in the suburban Indianapolis communities of Greenwood and Bargersville, officials said.
Bargersville Fire Chief Erik Funkhouser said at least 75 homes suffered moderate to severe damage as the latter tornado crossed Indiana State Road 135 in the area of Interstate 69. Crews did not find any deaths or injuries from the tornado, which officials estimated was on the ground for about 15 minutes.
In Arkansas, sheriff’s officials said two people were killed and a third was injured Sunday night in the central community of Carlisle when a tree fell onto a home, KTHV-TV reported.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency, citing downed power lines in the state. The National Guard said it was providing potable water to the community of West Helena after water service was knocked out overnight.
High winds also caused tens of thousands of homes and businesses to lose electricity in Arkansas, Michigan and Tennessee.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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As climate change intensifies severe rainstorms, the infrastructure protecting millions of Americans from flooding faces growing risk of failures, according to new calculations of expected precipitation in every county and locality across the contiguous United States.
The calculations suggest that 1 in 9 residents of the Lower 48 states, largely in populous regions including the mid-Atlantic and the Texas Gulf Coast, is at significant risk of downpours that deliver at least 50 percent more rain per hour than local pipes, channels and culverts might be designed to drain.
“The data is startling, and it should be a wake-up call,” said Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, a nonprofit organization focused on flood risk.
The new rain estimates, issued Monday by the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research group in New York, carry worrying implications for homeowners, too: They indicate that 12.6 million properties nationwide face significant flood risks despite not being required by the federal government to buy flood insurance.
The nation is set to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into new and improved roads, bridges and ports in the coming years under the infrastructure plan that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2021. First Street’s calculations suggest that many of these projects are being built to standards that are already out of date.
Matthew Eby, First Street’s executive director, said he hoped the new data could be used to make these investments more future-proof, “so that we don’t spend $1.2 trillion knowing that it’s wrong.”
The threats to infrastructure from intense rain have been on display in recent years. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, the remnants of Hurricane Ida overwhelmed drains and turned streets into rivers in 2021. In Houston and southeast Texas, flood after flood has shut down highways and stranded people away from their homes.
Every additional increment of global warming increases the likelihood of intense rain in many places for a simple reason: Hotter air can hold more moisture. But NOAA’s estimates of expected rainfall are only intermittently updated. And, as NOAA scientists described in a recent report prepared in collaboration with university researchers, the agency’s estimates assume that the intensity and frequency of extreme rain hasn’t increased in recent decades, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
The result, according to First Street, is that NOAA is substantially underestimating the risk of severe rain in some of the nation’s largest cities: Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington among them. Other places where there are large differences between First Street’s rainfall estimates and NOAA’s include the Ohio River Basin, northwestern California and parts of the Mountain West.
In other areas, including those east of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range, First Street finds that NOAA is overestimating the likelihood of intense rain, implying that resources there might not be best spent on upgrading flood infrastructure.
NOAA and its predecessor agencies have been publishing data on expected rain and snow for decades. Its latest estimates, covering nearly every part of the country, are contained in a publication called Atlas 14. (Another set of estimates, called Atlas 2, covers the Northwestern states.)
Pick any point on the map, and the NOAA atlases tell you the probabilities there of precipitation events — that is, a certain number of inches falling over a given span of time, from five minutes to 24 hours to 60 days.
But the atlas estimates are based on rain measurements collected over the past several decades, or, in some places, since the 19th century, “in a climate that just doesn’t exist anymore,” said Jeremy R. Porter, First Street’s head of climate implications research.
By contrast, First Street’s peer-reviewed methods for estimating precipitation use only rainfall records from this century, and only ones collected by the government’s most modern weather stations. (First Street plans to publish additional documentation on how it computed its new estimates July 31.)
NOAA is working on updating its atlas estimates to better account for the warming climate. But the agency says its first data for Atlas 15 might be ready only in 2026.
First Street’s rain estimates also raise questions about the federal government’s guidance on flood risks to homes.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency maps areas of the country that it calculates to be at significant risk in a 100-year flood, or one with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. FEMA’s maps guide decisions by builders, insurers and banks, and determine whether homeowners need to buy flood insurance.
But First Street’s data suggests that 17.7 million properties nationwide are at risk in a 100-year event. Of those, only about 5 million properties also fall into a FEMA flood-hazard zone. That means millions of other homeowners might be making decisions with an incomplete understanding of the true physical and financial risks they face.
In Houston, 145,000 properties lie in First Street’s 100-year flood zone but not in FEMA’s. New York has 124,000 such properties; Philadelphia, 108,000; and Chicago, 78,000.
In an emailed statement, FEMA said it welcomed outside efforts to improve the nation’s understanding of flood risk but cautioned that First Street’s assessments relied on data and methods that were different from its own.
“FEMA’s process is careful to neither understate nor overstate the current flood risk,” the statement said. “The accuracy of the flood data necessary to service the nation’s largest flood insurance program and the nation’s largest regulatory land use program is fundamentally different than the level of accuracy necessary to support First Street Foundation.”
NOAA began publishing Atlas 14 in 2004, which means that any drains, culverts and stormwater basins built since then might potentially have been sized according to standards that no longer reflect Earth’s present climate. But plenty of infrastructure was laid down even earlier, meaning it was designed to specifications that are probably even more obsolete, said Daniel B. Wright, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Certainly, updating Atlas 14 is something that needs to be done,” he said. “But the problem is huge, in the sense that there are trillions upon trillions of dollars of things that are based on horribly out-of-date information at this point.”
(Raymond Zhong, NEW YORK TIMES)
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A weather pattern that has brought unrelenting heat to Texas for more than a week is unlikely to end until at least early July, according to forecast models, with record-breaking heat expected to expand into nearby states this weekend.
“It feels like you stuck your head in an oven,” said Tom Decker, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in San Angelo, Texas, describing what it has been like when he stepped outside this week. The temperature recorded at his forecast office tied its record of 111 degrees Monday and shattered it again Tuesday and Wednesday with readings of 114 each day.
When it is this bad, Decker said, he spends most of his time in an air-conditioned office or home. But he is concerned for people who don’t have that luxury, such as the crews drilling for oil, and the ranchers and the farmers in his forecast region.
The heat will become more dangerous and potentially deadlier as it persists in the coming days, especially for people exposed to it repeatedly and for long durations, forecasters with the Weather Prediction Center warned.
“Not only are the daytime temperatures and dew points abnormally high, producing some record heat index readings, but the overnight lows are also close to or at record levels,” said Alex Lamers, a forecaster with the Weather Prediction Center.
Officials in Texas asked residents to conserve electricity amid concerns that several days of triple-digit temperatures could strain the power grid. On Friday, more than 100,000 homes and businesses were without power across Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, according to poweroutage.us, a website that tracks utilities.
According to New York Times estimates, on Friday more than 33 million people in the United States were expected to experience dangerous heat indexes — a measure of what the air feels like when considering both the air temperature and the humidity.
The population affected is expected to grow this weekend as the dome of high-pressure shifts to include places like New Orleans, which is often humid in the summer.
Extended periods of high daytime temperatures with little relief at night, such as those accompanying this heat wave, create cumulative physiological stress on the human body, according to the World Health Organization, exacerbating the top causes of death globally.
As the heat continues through the weekend, it will spread into Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas, where temperatures are likely also to exceed 100 degrees by the middle of next week.
Lamers and other forecasters said they were confident this weather pattern would persist through the Fourth of July.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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A line of severe storms produced what a meteorologist calls a rare combination of multiple tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail in west Texas, killing at least four people, injuring nine and causing significant damage around the town of Matador, a meteorologist said Thursday.
The storms produced strong winds that swept across Texas, from the Panhandle to Houston, causing damage north of the city, weather officials said.
Gov. Greg Abbott added six counties in the region to a disaster declaration on Thursday. The declaration was first issued June 16 and amended three times in response to severe weather. His statement said the declaration will help state authorities respond swiftly to devastated communities.
Storms were forming again Thursday afternoon, and National Weather Service meteorologist Alex Ferguson in Amarillo said they were possible into the night, with a chance of more large hail — up to 3 inches in diameter — and winds up to 70 mph. Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued Thursday afternoon in parts of Oklahoma and Texas while tornado warnings were issued in parts of Texas and Colorado.
About 8 p.m. Wednesday, a supercell developed near Amarillo before striking the small town of Matador, said senior forecaster Matt Ziebell with the National Weather Service in Lubbock. He called it “certainly rare to see all at the same time — killer tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail.”
The damage was concentrated on a 1-mile stretch with businesses and homes demolished along the west side of Matador, a town where “everybody knows everybody,” said Brandon Moore, Matador’s water superintendent who is also a volunteer firefighter.
“It was supposed to move east of us, and within a five-minute time span, it all changed and switched directions and came straight through Matador,” Moore said. “We probably had about two minutes of warning to get everybody together and get to safety. There’s a few people that didn’t make it out of the house, but we did rescue several people and they made it out all right.”
The storm produced 109 mph winds in Jayton, as well as hail more than 4 inches wide, Ziebell said. The weather service reported a 97 mph wind gust — the strongest recorded at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston since data collection began there in 1969.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tropical Storm Bret bore down on the eastern Caribbean on Thursday night as islands shut down and braced for torrential downpours, landslides and flooding.
A hurricane watch was issued for St. Lucia and local forecasters warned of a potential direct hit.
The storm was centered about 55 miles southeast of St. Lucia on Thursday night. It had maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, below the 74 mph threshold for a Category 1 hurricane.
Airports, businesses, schools and offices closed on St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique and other islands by midday. Residents across St. Lucia filled up their cars with gasoline and stocked up on water and canned food, hoping the storm wouldn't cause too much damage.
“You always have to be ready,” Ben Marcellin, who manages a guesthouse, said. “You never know. It can become serious.”
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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LOS ANGELES, CA - Prosecutors charged a onetime firefighter Tuesday with aggravated arson and other felonies that carry a potential life sentence for allegedly igniting the devastating Oak fire that destroyed 127 homes near Yosemite National Park.
Edward F. Wackerman, 71, was arrested Friday on suspicion of igniting the massive fire in July that also burned 66 outbuildings, forced a massive evacuation and consumed 19,244 acres of vegetation.
Mariposa County District Attorney Walter Wall said in the days leading up to the Oak fire that three separate fires were intentionally set in the Carstens Road area. The Oak fire was ignited in dry forest brush in the same area by an arsonist, who was eventually identified as Wackerman, Wall said.
Wall would not address Wackerman’s motive but Mariposa County Sheriff Jeremy Briese acknowledged that Wackerman was once a firefighter; he said he does not know for which agency he worked.
Wackerman owns a 44-acre property in the Carstens Road area not far from the source of the blaze, according to county property records.
“The arrest of the arson suspect Edward Wackerman is a step towards justice but it cannot undo the damage already done,” Briese told reporters outside the Mariposa County courthouse. He noted that the blaze — the worst fire in the county’s history — did $8 million in property damage and cost $100 million to eventually knock down.
Wall filed one felony count of aggravated arson and three other counts of arson against Wackerman, charges that carry a potential life sentence upon conviction.
No one was killed by the devastating blaze on July 22, but Cal Fire officials reported at least three firefighters were injured and thousands of people were evacuated.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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AUSTIN, TX - Texas’ power grid operator asked residents Tuesday to voluntarily cut back on electricity due to anticipated record demand on the system as a heat wave kept large swaths of the state and southern U.S. in triple-digit temperatures.
On the last day of spring, the sweltering heat felt more like the middle of summer across the South, where patience was growing thin over outages that have persisted since weekend storms and tornadoes caused widespread damage.
In the Mississippi capital, some residents said Tuesday that they had been without power and air conditioning for almost 100 hours, which is longer than the outages caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, said its crews had worked 16-hour shifts since Friday.
The request by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which serves most of that state’s nearly 30 million residents, was its first of the year to cut energy consumption. ERCOT said it was “not experiencing emergency conditions,” but it noted that the state set an unofficial June record on Monday for energy demand.
In the oil patch of West Texas, temperatures in San Angelo soared to an all-time high of 114 degrees on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
In Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers were eagerly awaiting the restoration of power and air conditioning following weekend storms.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday declared a state of emergency because of the weekend’s storms, citing damage from the weather and “numerous” downed power lines.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A scorching heat wave in two of India’s most populous states has overwhelmed hospitals, filled a morgue to capacity and disrupted power, forcing staff to use books to fan patients, as officials investigate a death toll that has reached nearly 170.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 119 people have died from heat-related illnesses over the last several days while neighboring Bihar state reported 47 fatalities, according to local news reports and health officials.
“So many people are dying from the heat that we are not getting a minute’s time to rest. On Sunday, I carried 26 dead bodies,” Jitendra Kumar Yadav, a hearse driver in Deoria town, told the AP. Other residents said they were scared of going outside after midmorning. Highs were around 110 degrees.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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New research from scientists in Nepal confirms that ice and snow in the world’s highest mountains are disappearing as a result of rising temperatures and at a faster pace than previously thought. The report from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu finds that glaciers in the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountain range region melted 65 percent faster from 2010 through 2019 than in the previous decade.
The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that the consequences of climate change are speeding up, and that some changes will be irreversible.
Nearly 2 billion people who live in more than a dozen countries within the mountain region or in the river valleys downstream depend on melting ice and snow for their water supply. Melting glaciers are destabilizing the landscape and raising the risk of hazards including floods and landslides. These rapid changes are squeezing much of the region’s unique wildlife into smaller and more precarious habitats. For some unlucky species, it’s too late.
“Things are happening quickly,” said Miriam Jackson, a cryosphere researcher at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and one of the authors of the report. “Just from two decades ago to the last decade, there’s been quite big changes. And I think that’s a surprise for lots of people, that things are just happening so fast.”
Jackson and her colleagues studied an area of about 1.6 million square miles that they call the Hindu Kush Himalaya, stretching from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. Their research was funded in part by the federal governments of several countries in the region, which are scrambling to understand how climate change is affecting their natural resources and how their citizens might adapt.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Tropical Storm Bret formed in the central Atlantic Ocean on Monday, with forecasters saying it could pose a hurricane threat to the eastern Caribbean by Thursday and the Dominican Republic and Haiti by the weekend.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Bret had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph at 5 p.m. Monday as it moved west across the Atlantic at 21 mph. Forecasters expect it to strengthen over the next two days, reaching Category 1 hurricane strength of 74 mph by Wednesday night as it nears the Lesser Antilles. Because of wind shear, the storm is not expected to strengthen into a Category 2 storm.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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LOUIN, MO - Multiple tornadoes swept through Mississippi overnight, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen, officials said Monday.
State emergency workers were still working with counties to assess the damage from storms in which high temperatures and hail in some areas accompanied tornadoes. The death and injuries were reported by officials in eastern Mississippi’s Jasper County.
The small, rural town of Louin bore the brunt of the damage. Drone footage and photos showed wide expanses of debris-covered terrain, decimated homes and mangled trees. At least one person was lifted from the wreckage in a stretcher.
Standing in front of his damaged home on Monday, Lester Campbell told The Associated Press that his cousin, 67-year-old George Jean Hayes, is the person who died. Reached by phone Monday, Jones County Coroner Don Sumrall said Hayes was pronounced dead at 2:18 a.m. from “multisystem trauma.”
Campbell fell asleep in his recliner Sunday evening. He was awakened around midnight after the lights went out. After he walked to the kitchen to grab something from the refrigerator, the tornado struck.
“It happened so fast,” Campbell said. “It was like a train sound, a ‘roar, roar, roar.’ ”
He dropped to the floor and crawled to his bedroom closet, where his wife had already taken shelter. By the time he reached the closet, the tornado had passed.
Campbell said he heard calls for help across the street, where Hayes lived in a trailer home. He emerged from his home to find emergency workers carrying his cousin, with a bloodied forehead and leg, into an ambulance. She was conscious and talking when he saw her but died before reaching the hospital, he said.
Most of the people injured in Jasper County, including Hayes, were transported to the South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel between 2 and 3 a.m., said Becky Collins, a spokesperson for the facility. About 20 people had bruises and cuts. Most were in stable condition Monday morning.
Eric Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, said an unseasonably strong jet stream blew through the area. A tornado emerged near Louin before traveling at least 7 miles south to Bay Springs.
Tornadoes typically hit Mississippi in early to mid-spring. Carpenter called the timing of the tornadoes, along with persistent thunder and hail as well as high temperatures, “a very unusual situation.”
“This is a whole different game here,” Carpenter said. “What we would typically see in March and April, we’re seeing in June.”
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said Monday’s tornadoes also struck Rankin County, which borders the capital city of Jackson.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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AUSTIN, TX - More than 300,000 customers in the southern U.S. remained without power Monday following damaging weekend storms, leaving residents searching for relief as sweltering temperatures continued to scorch the region.
At least one person in Oklahoma died due to the prolonged outages, officials said.
The bulk of outages were in Oklahoma, where heavy storms Saturday night carried winds as strong as 80 mph around Tulsa, according to the National Weather Service. About 165,000 customers around the city still had no power Monday as crews scrambled to repair more than 700 broken poles and downed wires, said Amy Brown, a spokesperson for Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
One person who used a respirator died because of the power outage, Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said at a city news conference.
Power providers warned that some outages may not be fixed until the end of the week, and Bynum urged residents to keep in mind family and neighbors who are reliant on electronic medical equipment. “Please check on them,” he said.
In all, Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana had more than 300,000 customers without electricity as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.
In Louisiana, officials closed nearly two dozen state offices Monday because of the risks of severe weather. On top of the outages, a heat wave continued bringing dangerous triple-digit temperatures to Texas, and some parts of the state were under excessive heat warnings that were set to continue through at least Wednesday.
“It’s been unbearable,” Leigh Johnson, a resident of Mount Vernon, Texas, told Dallas television station KXAS. She had not had power for about three days.
“It’s been horrible because it’s like, the heat index has been so bad that literally, we’re having to sit in the cold baths to cool ourselves down. Our animals as well, we’re having to stick them in the bathtub just to keep them from having a heat stroke, it’s been that bad,” she said.
About 4,000 customers were also still waiting for electricity to come back in the Texas town of Perryton after a devastating tornado ripped through last week.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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NEW DELHI, India - An unusually intense heat wave has swept across northern India in the last four days, with some hospitals in the state of Uttar Pradesh recording a higher-than-usual number of deaths. Doctors there are convinced there’s a link between the punishing temperatures and the deaths of their patients, but officials are investigating what role the dangerous combination of heat and humidity played in the rise in mortality.
In Ballia District, population about 3 million, the daily high temperature over the same period has hovered around 109 degrees Fahrenheit, nine degrees hotter than usual, alongside relative humidity as high as 53 percent. Dozens of deaths were recorded at hospitals there on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Dr. Jayant Kumar, the chief medical officer of Ballia District, near the state of Bihar, said that 23 people died in the district on Thursday. The next day, 11 more succumbed. “The number of deaths has been more than normal,” Kumar said.
He told the Press Trust of India, a news agency, that on average, eight people usually die per day. “Most of these are natural deaths,” he told The Times in a phone interview.
But Indian government officials have pushed back against linking the deaths too directly to the punishing heat.
Dr. Diwakar Singh, formerly the chief medical superintendent of Ballia District, told reporters on Friday night that 34 people had died of heatstroke at the main hospital under his oversight. The next day, he was reprimanded by the state government for prematurely drawing that conclusion and removed from his position.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Forecasters warned people celebrating Father’s Day outdoors to take precautions as triple-digit temperatures prompted heat advisories across much of the southern U.S., triggered thunderstorms that knocked out power from Oklahoma to Mississippi and whipped up winds that raised wildfire threats in Arizona and New Mexico.
A suspected tornado struck near Scranton, AR, early Sunday, destroying chicken houses and toppling trees onto homes, the National Weather Service said. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.
Meteorologists said that dangerous and potentially record-breaking temperatures would continue into midweek over southern Texas and much of the Gulf Coast. Storms producing damaging winds, hail and possibly tornadoes could strike the lower Mississippi Valley.
“If you have outdoor plans this #FathersDay, don’t forget to practice heat safety! Take frequent breaks, stay hydrated, NEVER leave people/pets alone in a car!” the weather service office in Houston said on Twitter.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency for north and central parts of his state after strong winds and severe weather caused widespread power outages on Saturday. On Sunday evening, more than 515,000 people were without electricity in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, according to PowerOutage.us.
Catherine Haley was hosting her six grandchildren, ages 7 to 13, in Shreveport, LA, when the storm knocked out electricity to her block and many surrounding neighborhoods. Haley, who has trouble breathing, said they draped damp towels around their necks to try to stay cool, but when the heat became unbearable the family took refuge at a cooling center set up by the city.
In Florida, the weather service issued another heat advisory Sunday, this time mainly for the Florida Keys. Forecasters said heat index readings — the combination of high temperatures and oppressive humidity — could reach between 108 degrees Fahrenheit and 112 degrees in places such as Key Largo, Marathon and Key West.
In the Southwest, where fire crews are battling multiple wildfires in Arizona and New Mexico, forecasters said triple-digit temperatures and gusty winds would lead to critical fire weather over the next couple of days.
(ASSOCIATE PRESS)
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Communities from Houston to New Orleans opened cooling centers to bring relief as steamy hot temperatures settled across a broad swath of the U.S. South on Saturday, and beachgoers fled a waterspout that swept ashore on a Florida beach.
Gov. Greg Abbott, meanwhile, visited Perryton in the Texas Panhandle, where officials said more than 1,000 customers were left without electricity after a tornado killed three people late Thursday. The Perryton Ochiltree Chamber of Commerce said it would open a cooling center in the town of 8,000 people, about 115 miles northeast of Amarillo, to help people cope with the high temperatures that followed the storm.
“At times of events like these, Texans come together,” Abbott told reporters as he signed a disaster declaration that he said would “trigger all the resources the state can bring to bear … to accelerate the ability to rebuild.”
The Republican governor said he was shocked to see how much of the town had been destroyed and praised what he called “non-stop heroic efforts by health care providers” who he said treated 160 injured people at the local hospital that has just 25 beds.
W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, warned that more severe weather was forecast for the area late Saturday, bringing rain, high winds and possibly more tornadoes.
The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings through Saturday night along the Gulf Coast from Brownsville, Texas, to Houston. It said heat indexes ranging from near 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Houston to near 120 degrees at Brownsville and Corpus Christi in Texas. Cooling shelters were set up in cities along the coast and farther inland for residents left without electricity.
“What’s really going is the humidity,” said Allison Prater, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth, Texas. “That’s making the heat index, or the ‘feels like’ temperature, really skyrocket.”
Two women and an 11-year-old boy died when the tornado slammed into Perryton. On Saturday, authorities upgraded the intensity of the twister to EF-3, saying it packed winds of up to 140 mph.
Ochiltree County Sheriff Terry Bouchard told KVII-TV in Amarillo that missing people had been located.
“It dropped down right on top of Perryton,” Bouchard said. “We’ve lost a lot of homes, businesses, rental properties. There’s just a lot of damage to our community and it’s going to take some time to get this cleaned up.”
In Louisiana, the National Weather Service projected daytime temperatures through Monday at about 94 degrees with high humidity and heat index values as high as 112 degrees.
The city of New Orleans opened cooling centers and hydration stations and advised residents to take extra precautions if they were spending time outside by wearing lightweight and loose-fitting clothing, taking frequent rest breaks in shaded or air-conditioned environments, and drinking lots of water.
Entergy New Orleans and the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans suspended electricity shut-offs for delinquent accounts through Tuesday.
In Florida, city officials in Clearwater said in an email that a waterspout came ashore Friday afternoon, “sending beach-related items flying into the air” and injuring two people from Kansas.
Authorities said the 70-year-old woman and 63-year-old man were treated for minor injuries at a local hospital. Their identities were not made public.
Waterspouts develop over water, usually during severe thunderstorms or tornadoes and dissipate rapidly when they make landfall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Some can cause significant damage and injuries.
(Ken Ritter, ASSOCIATE PRESS)
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PERRYTON, TX - States across the South were assessing storm damage on Friday after severe weather and a ferocious series of tornadoes swept across the region, killing at least five people, including three in Texas, authorities said.
Three people died and more than 75 others were injured in Perryton, a city in the Texas Panhandle where a mobile home park took a direct hit from a tornado, Fire Chief Paul Dutcher told NBC News. He told CNN that one person died in the trailer park and two others died downtown, and that one person was missing. About 200 homes and the town firehouse were destroyed, and infrared-equipped drones were surveying the damage, he said.
Officials in Perryton, about 115 miles northeast of Amarillo, Texas, could not immediately be reached for comment Friday. The Perryton Fire Department said on Facebook late Thursday that the fire station “took a direct hit,” but that its trucks and ambulances were still operable.
About 50 to 75 patients were treated at Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton, Kelly Judice, the hospital’s administrator, said by telephone. Their injuries ranged from cuts to traumas, she added, and 10 patients with life-threatening injuries were sent to larger facilities in Amarillo.
The tornado devastated a mobile home community in a northwestern section of the city, where it flipped over some mobile homes and split them in half. Residents combed through clothing and other personal belongings that had been caught in barbed wire that surrounded the trailer park.
One resident who hid in the back corner of her home’s bathroom with her two children, said the tornado lasted between two and five minutes.
Another person was killed in the Florida Panhandle on Thursday night when at least one confirmed tornado struck Escambia County, knocking a tree onto a home, county officials said in a statement.
And a man was killed in Madison County, Miss., when a tree fell on him Friday morning, a fire official there said.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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A huge mass of rock slid down a mountainside above a Swiss village that was evacuated last month, stopping just short of the settlement, which remained unscathed, relieved local officials said Friday.
Brienz was evacuated on May 12 after geologists warned that some 67 million cubic feet of the Alpine rock looming over the small village of about 100 residents could break loose.
About two-thirds of the rock — at an initial estimate, somewhere between 42.4 and 53 million cubic feet — appears to have come down the slope on Thursday night, stopping just short of the village, geologist Stefan Schneider said.
“This is very good news, because the danger ... to the village has become much smaller,” he added.
“We can say that today is one of the best days since the evacuation,” said Daniel Albertin, the head of the local council. “The wait for the mountain was long. But now the mountain has come down as we envisioned, and ... a great deal has come down, but nothing is damaged in the village and no inhabitants were harmed.”
However, officials couldn’t yet say when they might be able to end the evacuation — although they said the chances of a permanent return are very high.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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PERRYTON, TX - A tornado ripped through the Texas Panhandle town of Perryton on Thursday, killing three people, injuring dozens more and causing widespread damage as another in a series of fierce storms carved its way through Southern states.
The National Weather Service in Amarillo confirmed that a tornado hit the area Thursday afternoon. But there was no immediate word on its size or wind speeds, meteorologist Luigi Meccariello said. “There are still reports of ongoing rescues,” he said.
Perryton Fire Chief Paul Dutcher told reporters that three people were killed in the storm.
He said at least one person was killed in a mobile home park that took a “direct hit” from a tornado. Dutcher said at least 30 homes were damaged or destroyed. At 6 p.m., firefighters were rescuing people from the rubble.
First responders from surrounding areas and from Oklahoma descended on the town, which is home to more than 8,000 people and about 115 miles northeast of Amarillo, just south of the Oklahoma line.
Storm chaser Brian Emfinger told Fox Weather that he watched the twister move through a mobile home park, mangling homes and uprooting trees.
“I had seen the tornado do some pretty serious destruction to the industrial part of town,” he said. “Unfortunately, just west of there, there is just mobile home, after mobile home, after mobile home that is completely destroyed. There is significant damage.”
Nearly 50,000 customers were without electricity in Texas and Oklahoma, according to the poweroutage.us website.
Ochiltree General Hospital in Perryton on Facebook said, “Walking/wounded please go to the clinic. All others to the hospital ER.”
The hospital also said an American Red Cross shelter had been set up at the Ochiltree County Expo Center.
“We got slammed” by patients, said Kelly Judice, the hospital’s interim CEO.
“We have seen somewhere between 50 and 100 patients,” Judice said, including about 10 in critical condition who were transferred to other hospitals.
Patients had minor to major trauma, ranging from “head injuries to collapsed lungs, lacerations, broken bones,” she said.
Chris Samples of local radio station KXDJ-FM said the station was running on auxiliary power. “The whole city is out of power,” he said.
By evening, the weather front was moving southeast across Oklahoma. The weather service said a second round of storms would continue to move through that state and parts of Texas through the evening while the risk of severe weather, including tornadoes, remained for the metropolitan Oklahoma City area.
The storm system also brought hail and possible tornadoes to northwestern Ohio.
A barn was smashed and trees toppled in Sandusky County, Ohio, and power lines were downed in northern Toledo, leaving thousands without power. The weather service reported “a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado” over Bellevue and storms showing “signs of rotation” in other areas.
It was the second day in a row that powerful storms struck the U.S. On Wednesday, strong winds toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway from the eastern part of Texas to Georgia.
The storms were being fed by extreme heat and humidity that produced heat indexes of around 115 degrees Thursday afternoon in South Texas. Sauna-like conditions swelled as far north as Dallas which posted its highest humidity level on record.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS; WASHINGTON POST)
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A jury in Oregon says the electric utility PacifiCorp must pay punitive damages for causing devastating wildfires in 2020 — on top of an earlier verdict already expected to amount to billions of dollars.
The decision Wednesday came two days after the jurors found PacifiCorp liable for the fires and said it must pay for damage to property as well as emotional distress. The jury on Monday awarded $73 million to 17 homeowners named as plaintiffs in the case, with damages for a broader class involving the owners of nearly 2,500 other properties to be determined later.
PacifiCorp, owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Neb.-based investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, said it would appeal.
The Multnomah County Circuit Court jury in Portland found Wednesday that additional damages were warranted to punish the utility’s alleged indifference to the safety of others and to deter such conduct in the future. The jury determined the amount should be one-quarter of whatever is eventually awarded for property damage and emotional distress — meaning the punitive damages could reach hundreds of millions of dollars or more.
The fires over Labor Day weekend in 2020 were among the worst natural disasters in Oregon’s history. They killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes and other structures.
The property owners alleged that PacifiCorp negligently failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm, despite warnings from then-Gov. Kate Brown’s chief of staff and top fire officials, and that its power lines were responsible for multiple blazes.
Doug Dixon, an attorney for the power company, said the utility could face bankruptcy if punitive damages exceed its net worth of $10.7 billion.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Damaging winds and possible tornadoes toppled trees, damaged buildings and blew cars off a highway Wednesday as powerful storms crossed the South from Texas to Georgia.
The National Weather Service issued numerous tornado warnings, mainly in southeast Alabama and southwest Georgia, and cautioned that gusts of hurricane-force winds exceeding 90 mph were possible in parts of northeast Louisiana and central Mississippi. Some areas also were pelted with large hail.
Forecasters said severe storm threats could persist into today, with the greatest risk across southern Alabama and Georgia into the Florida Panhandle as well as Oklahoma and parts of northern Texas and southern Kansas.
Felecia Bowser, meteorologist in charge for the National Weather Service in Tallahassee, Fla., called the far-reaching inland storm system unprecedented for this time of year.
“In June, we’re usually gearing up more for tropical weather,” Bowser said. “This type of widespread, aggressive precipitation that we’re seeing today usually occurs more so in the spring.”
Video posted on social media showed a large funnel cloud churning on the horizon near the rural city of Blakely, Ga., and officials in nearby communities reported downed trees and snapped power lines.
In Alabama, the Eufaula Police Department said confirmed tornado damage was reported in the city near the Georgia state line. Eufaula Mayor Jack Tibbs told WSFA-TV that no injuries were immediately reported, but the storm damaged buildings and downed 30 or 40 trees.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A temporary wall will be built to protect the railroad tracks from the “still slowly creeping” landslide in San Clemente that has suspended passenger rail service between San Diego and Orange counties, a transportation executive said this week.
Amtrak and Metrolink again stopped passenger travel through the area June 5 after the slide was reactivated beneath the historic Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens. The new movement occurred less than two weeks after the end of a previous suspension in the same spot.
“The slide is still slowly creeping,” said Jim Beil, executive director of capital programs for the Orange County Transportation Authority.
Cracks in the slope show layers of clay and beach sand, so there’s “exceptionally low cohesiveness of the soil,” he said in a presentation Monday to the OCTA board of directors. There’s also water seeping from the slide, which is being investigated by San Clemente city officials.
No estimate was available of when passenger service might resume. Periodic freight trains continue through the area at speeds of 10 mph to 15 mph.
The coastal line is San Diego County’s only railroad link to Los Angeles and other points across the United States.
San Clemente owns Casa Romantica and the hillside down to the railroad right-of-way along the beach. The city did some remedial grading after the initial slide occurred in April, but more extensive work is needed.
“The city is conducting further geotechnical investigations and data collection, and is preparing a new plan for stabilization work,” Beil said.
The plan may include the immediate installation of soil nails at the top of the slope to protect the historic structure, while geologists work on a long-term plan to reconstruct the hillside.
“This is not something that will be implemented very quickly, and it may pose further risks to rail operations while it’s being constructed,” he said.
A temporary wall at the bottom of the slope within the railroad right-of-way would protect the track and trains from any additional debris that might fall during construction, Beil said. Preliminary costs for the wall are estimated at $5.2 million.
“Metrolink has begun the process to procure a design-build contractor to build the barrier wall as soon as possible,” he said.
The OCTA board of directors unanimously approved a motion to allow administrators to take emergency actions to safeguard the tracks.
“This is a necessary action given the instability that we face and the very quick changes in the situation,” said Director Andrew Do, who is also a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors.
“This is really important,” said Director Katrina Foley, also an Orange County supervisor. “We have to get that railroad back on track because it is the second-largest commuter travel system in America. We don’t always think of it that way, but it is.
“The barrier ... is our only hope because we are not going to be able to expeditiously get the slope repaired,” Foley said. “The tracks have been closed more than they have been open this year, since January. We want to make sure they have some kind of protection in place to make sure they stay open.”
Before the Casa Romantica slide, a different coastal slope two miles to the south failed in September 2022 near San Clemente State Park. Repairs there cost more than $13.7 million and kept passenger trains suspended for about six months.
Coaster commuter trains run by North County Transit District between Oceanside and San Diego have not been affected by the suspensions.
Amtrak continues to run some trains between San Diego and Oceanside and from Irvine to northern destinations such as Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Bus service for some Amtrak trains is available to make the connection between the stations at Oceanside and Irvine. However, last week the company announced it was temporarily reducing the number of trains with the so-called “bus bridge” as a budget-cutting measure.
Amtrak also has eliminated some services such as checked baggage and on-board cafe service for the duration of the San Clemente suspension.
The San Diego to Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo route traveled by Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner is known as the LOSSAN corridor. The corridor also is used by BNSF and Union Pacific freight trains.
San Clemente is one of several areas where the LOSSAN corridor is threatened by sea-level rise and coastal erosion. Local, state and federal officials have said the only long-term solution may be to reroute vulnerable segments of the track away from the beach.
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Pakistan’s army and civil authorities planned to evacuate 80,000 people to safety along the country’s southern coast before the arrival of Cyclone Biparjoy, and thousands living in low-lying regions of western India already have sought shelter from the tropical storm system, officials said Tuesday.
The cyclone forecast to slam ashore on Thursday is expected to be the most powerful to hit western India and Pakistan since 2021.
The cyclone was packing maximum sustained winds of 111 mph, according to the India Meteorological Department. It is projected to make landfall near Jakhau port in the Kutch district of India’s Gujarat state.
Residents living within 3 miles of the coast in Gujarat were evacuated, and those living within 6.2 miles may have to move out over the next two days, officials said.
C. C. Patel, director of relief in the Gujarat state government, said 20,580 people from Gujarat’s coastal districts already were moved “to relief camps where they will be provided with food, drinking water” and other essentials.
Authorities also banned gatherings on beaches and along shorelines during the cyclone. All ports, including two of India’s largest, Mundra and Kandla, were shut down as a precaution.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The extent of area burned in California’s summer wildfires increased about fivefold from 1971 to 2021, and climate change was a major reason, according to a new analysis. Scientists estimate the area burned in an average summer may jump again as much as 50 percent by 2050.
Days after wildfire smoke from Canada turned skies orange along the U.S. Eastern seaboard, the study is further confirmation of past research showing that higher temperatures and drier conditions in many parts of the world make wildfires more likely. Wildfires worsened by greenhouse gases tore through Australia in 2019 and 2020 and Siberia in 2020.
The peer-reviewed research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, finds that California wildfires scorch the most area when temperatures are high and less area when it’s cooler.
Marco Turco, a climate researcher at the University of Murcia in Spain, and colleagues designed the study to try to identify how much of the increase in the burned area of California fires was due to climate change, and how much to natural variability. They conducted a statistical analysis of temperature and forest-fire data for California summers in the period 1971 to 2021. They then drew on modeling that shows how the last several decades might have evolved without human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
The result: Burned area grew 172 percent more than it would have without climate change. Man-made effects began to overwhelm what would be expected without greenhouse gas pollution after 2001, the researchers concluded.
Many published studies have linked climate change and California forest fires. A key factor cited in them is the dryness of the air, which scientists call “vapor pressure deficit” — the difference between how much moisture is in the air and how much it can potentially hold at a certain temperature. But forest fires are complicated events, and other factors figure in, too, including trends in rain, spring snowpack, the frequency of extreme heat and poor forest management that leaves dried or otherwise combustible wood on the ground ready for a spark.
What Turco found was that one of those variables was far and away the most useful explanation of the data: temperature, or more specifically, the monthly average of daily peak temperature.
“This was quite surprising to me,” Turco said. “I ran a lot of tests in order to be sure that this really simple model works. For me, it was too easy, and too simple to have this strong results. But ultimately, he said, “the relationship is very strong.”
Glen MacDonald, a climate scientist and distinguished professor at UCLA who was not part of the study, said it is “another excellent paper that shows the relationship between anthropogenic climate change and drying the climate.” The link “is true in California, but it is true in the western United States in general and (is) increasing fires,” he said.
MacDonald in May led a large review of the current state of wildfire and climate science in California. The devil is in the details, he said, when it comes to understanding the dynamics for any particular fire. Ecosystems vary dramatically even within a state. Shrub-dominated Southern California requires different management than forests in central and northern parts of the state, which is what the new study looked at.
“We know what’s exacerbating fire risk, but how we handle that is going to differ from location to location,” MacDonald said.
(Eric Roston, BLOOMBERG)
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PORTLAND, OR - A jury in Oregon on Monday found the electric utility PacifiCorp responsible for causing devastating fires during Labor Day weekend in 2020, ordering the company to pay tens of millions of dollars to 17 homeowners who sued and finding it liable for broader damages that could push the total award into the billions.
The Portland utility is one of several owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Neb.-based investment conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. The property owners, suing on behalf of a class of thousands of others, alleged that PacifiCorp negligently failed to shut off power to its 600,000 customers during a windstorm, despite warnings from then-Gov. Kate Brown’s chief-of-staff and top fire officials, and that its power lines were responsible for multiple blazes.
There has been no official cause determined for the Labor Day fires, which killed nine people, burned more than 1,875 square miles [1.2 M acres] in Oregon, and destroyed upward of 5,000 homes and structures. The blazes together were one of the worst natural disasters in Oregon history.
In a written statement, lawyers for the plaintiffs called the decision historic and said it “paves the way for potentially billions of dollars in further damages for the class members.”
PacifiCorp immediately said it would appeal.
“Escalating climate change, challenging state and federal forest management, and population growth in the wildland-urban interface are substantial factors contributing to growing wildfire risk,” PacifiCorp said in an emailed statement after the verdict. “These systemic issues affect all Oregonians and are larger than any single utility.”
The Multnomah County Circuit Court jury awarded more than $73 million to 17 homeowners who sued PacifiCorp a month after the fires, with each receiving between $3 million and $5.5 million for physical damage to their property and emotional distress.
The jury also applied its liability finding to a larger class including the owners of nearly 2,500 properties damaged in the fires, which could push the price tag for damages well into the billions of dollars. Those damages will be determined later.
The jury heard testimony Monday afternoon over whether to make PacifiCorp pay punitive damages. Nick Rosinia, an attorney for plaintiffs, told the jurors they should award punitive damages totaling five times what they have already been awarded for the harm PacifiCorp caused.
Doug Dixon, an attorney for the power company, insisted no punitive damages were warranted. The company keeps working on safety and was not recklessly negligent, he said. And while lawyers for the property owners described PacifiCorp as deep-pocketed, the company is $9 billion in debt.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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India and Pakistan braced for the first severe cyclone this year expected to hit their coastal regions later this week, as authorities on Monday halted fishing activities, deployed rescue personnel and announced evacuation plans for those at risk.
From the Arabian Sea, Cyclone Biparjoy is aiming at Pakistan’s southern Sindh province and the coastline of the western Indian state of Gujarat. It is forecast to make landfall Thursday and could reach maximum wind speeds of up to 124 mph, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department.
Disaster management personnel have been deployed to densely populated regions and cities that will be in the storm’s path. The cyclone will likely affect Karachi in Pakistan as well as two of India’s largest ports, Mundra and Kandla, in Gujarat state.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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KHERSON, Ukraine - The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam was a fast-moving disaster that is swiftly evolving into a long-term environmental catastrophe affecting drinking water, food supplies and ecosystems reaching into the Black Sea.
The short-term dangers can be seen from outer space — tens of thousands of parcels of land flooded, and more to come. Experts say the long-term consequences will be generational.
For every flooded home and farm, there are fields upon fields of newly planted grains, fruits and vegetables whose irrigation canals are drying up. Thousands of fish were left gasping on mud flats. Fledgling water birds lost their nests and their food sources. Countless trees and plants were drowned.
If water is life, then the draining of the Kakhovka reservoir creates an uncertain future for the region of southern Ukraine that was an arid plain until the damming of the Dnieper River 70 years ago. The Kakhovka Dam was the last in a system of six Soviet-era dams on the river, which flows from Belarus to the Black Sea.
Then the Dnieper became part of the front line after Russia’s invasion last year.
“All this territory formed its own particular ecosystem, with the reservoir included,” said Kateryna Filiuta, an expert in protected habitats for the Ukraine Nature Conservation Group.
The short term
Ihor Medunov is very much part of that ecosystem. His work as a hunting and fishing guide effectively ended with the start of the war, but he stayed on his little island compound with his four dogs because it seemed safer than the alternative. Still, for months, the knowledge that Russian forces controlled the dam downstream worried him.
The six dams along the Dnieper were designed to operate in tandem, adjusting to each other as water levels rose and fell from one season to the next. When Russian forces seized the Kakhovka Dam, the whole system fell into neglect.
Whether deliberately or simply carelessly, the Russian forces allowed water levels to fluctuate uncontrollably. They dropped dangerously low in winter and then rose to historic peaks when snowmelt and spring rains pooled in the reservoir. Until Monday, the waters were lapping into Medunov’s living room.
Now, with the destruction of the dam, he is watching his livelihood literally ebb away. The waves that stood at his doorstep a week ago are now a muddy walk away.
Since the dam’s collapse Tuesday, the rushing waters have uprooted landmines, torn through caches of weapons and ammunition, and carried 150 tons of machine oil to the Black Sea. Entire towns were submerged to the rooflines, and thousands of animals died in a large national park now under Russian occupation.
Rainbow-colored slicks already coat the murky, placid waters around flooded Kherson, the capital of southern Ukraine’s province of the same name.
Ukraine’s Agriculture Ministry estimated 10,000 hectares (24,000 acres) of farmland were underwater in the territory of Kherson province controlled by Ukraine, and “many times more than that” in territory occupied by Russia.
Farmers are already feeling the pain of the disappearing reservoir. Dmytro Neveselyi, mayor of the village of Maryinske, said everyone in the community of 18,000 people will be affected within days.
“Today and tomorrow, we’ll be able to provide the population with drinking water,” he said. After that, who knows?
The long term
The waters slowly began to recede on Friday, only to reveal the environmental catastrophe looming.
The reservoir, which had a capacity of 18 cubic kilometers (14.5 million acre-feet), was the last stop along hundreds of kilometers of river that passed through Ukraine’s industrial and agricultural heartlands. For decades, its flow carried the runoff of chemicals and pesticides that settled in the mud at the bottom.
Ukrainian authorities are testing the level of toxins in the muck, which risks turning into poisonous dust with the arrival of summer, said Eugene Simonov, an environmental scientist with the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Working Group, a nonprofit organization of activists and researchers.
The extent of the long-term damage depends on the movement of the front lines in an unpredictable war. Can the dam and reservoir be restored if fighting continues there? Should the region be allowed to become arid plain once again?
Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrij Melnyk called the destruction of the dam “the worst environmental catastrophe in Europe since the Chernobyl disaster.”
(Lori Hinnant, Sam McNeil & Illia Novikov, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The Philippines’ most active volcano has begun spewing lava in a gentle eruption, putting thousands of people on heightened alert for the possibility of a violent explosion that would force them to suddenly evacuate from their homes, authorities said today.
More than 12,000 villagers have left their homes so far in mandatory evacuations from the mostly poor farming communities within a 4-mile radius of Mayon volcano’s crater in northeastern Albay province. Those evacuations began after the volcano begun showing signs of renewed restlessness last week.
Authorities cautioned that thousands more remain within the permanent danger zone below Mayon, which has long been declared off limits.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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MONTREAL, Canada - Canada on Friday was once again threatened by hundreds of wildfires that for weeks have displaced tens of thousands of people, consumed millions of acres and stoked alarm over the perils of climate change as hazardous smoke billowed into the United States.
The fires, which have stretched from British Columbia in the west to Nova Scotia in the east, have destroyed homes and livelihoods, diminished air quality and, at times, transformed part of the skies over Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto into a smoggy haze.
As the smoke poured into the United States, disrupting life around the Northeast, both countries were reminded that no border can stop a spreading environmental threat.
The haze began to lift around the Mid-Atlantic on Thursday, bringing relief to millions who had breathed dangerously polluted air for two days. But conditions there and in Pennsylvania on Friday were still among the worst in the country.
Hundreds of wildfires continued to blaze across Canada on Friday, as residents braced for what could be the worst wildfire season in recent memory — and one that is far from over.
Steven Flisfeder, a warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, predicted that the weekend could bring better air quality in Toronto, the country’s largest city and its financial capital, thanks to some rain and cloud cover near wildfire areas, with scattered rains expected in parts of southern Ontario on Sunday.
“That’s going to help flush out the contaminants from the air a little bit,” he said.
A contingent of 100 French firefighters landed in Canada and was en route to the fire region Friday. Hundreds more are expected to arrive from the U.S., Portugal and Spain in the coming days, and there should be about 1,200 people fighting fires in the province of Quebec by Monday, said Public Security Minister François Bonnardel.
As of Friday, the fires had forced more than 13,500 Canadians from their homes, many of them in the northern municipalities of Chibougamau and Lebel-sur-Quévillon. About 50 people were also evacuated from a detention center in Amos, Quebec, as a preventive measure, Bonnardel said.
Quebec’s forest fire prevention agency has described the current wildfire season as the worst on record. The province has reported a total of 444 wildfires so far this year, compared with an average of 207 at the same date during prior years.
Experts says the wildfires have been fueled by an unusually dry and warm period in spring, and no rains are expected until next week.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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While wildfires continued to burn across eastern Canada and send a polluting haze into the United States, the worst appeared to be over for now in the big cities along the mid-Atlantic, where for two days smoke had blotted out the sun and an acrid smell hung in the air.
A New York Times analysis of atmospheric computer models showed that poor air quality peaked in some major metro areas along the East Coast by late Wednesday or early Thursday, and conditions have been steadily improving in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
But smoke could remain dense in other parts of the Northeast through at least today. And the noxious air was covering a wider swath of the country as it spread further south and west, triggering air quality warnings as far west as Indiana and as far south as the Carolinas. On the other side of the Atlantic, aerosols were registering in Norway.
The polluted air disrupted life around the Northeast on Thursday, delaying flights and forcing the postponement of graduations and Pride events. Millions in the region woke up to unhealthy levels of air pollution, one day after New York City registered its worst air quality readings in decades. In Philadelphia, a major league baseball game was canceled and public schools were shifting to remote learning today.
New research from Stanford University scientists showed that Wednesday was by far the worst day on record in the United States for wildfire smoke since 2006, which means the largest number of Americans experienced a day when air quality was deemed to be unhealthy for all age groups. Tuesday was the fourth worst.
The source of the smoke was not abating, as a string of fires in eastern Canada continued to blaze, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes. About 250 wildfires burned out of control there as of early Thursday, the authorities said, about 150 of them in Quebec. Some have been burning for weeks.
The smoke that choked New York on Wednesday pushed southward on Thursday and was expected to spread west, into the Ohio River Valley, today, the National Weather Service said. It is expected to appear as a widespread haze that could dip as far south as Florida, and not the dense mass of smoke that affected New York on Wednesday.
A storm system swirling off the coast of Nova Scotia in recent days blew smoke from the fires south into the United States. Forecast models for Thursday showed that thick smoke could return to New York later in the day if sea breezes pushed smoke currently hovering off the coast back inland.
The effects of the fires are expected to be noticeable even on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Scientists at the Climate and Environmental Research Institute in Norway who are tracking the smoke through the atmosphere said it has moved over Greenland and Iceland since June 1, and observations in southern Norway have confirmed increasing concentrations of aerosols.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The study, in the journal Nature, found that the reduced stress on the fault from a significantly lesser amount of water may be delaying the next “big one.”
The San Andreas Fault is a roughly 800-mile-long fracture in Earth’s crust where the Pacific and North American tectonic plates meet. The two plates are slowly sliding by one another horizontally at a rate of almost 2 inches a year on average. The Pacific plate is on the west side of the fault moving roughly northwest and the North American plate is on the east side sliding southeast.
For the last 1,000 years, major earthquakes emanating from the southern San Andreas Fault, roughly running south from the San Bernardino Mountains to Bombay Beach in Imperial County, have coincided with periods when the basin that holds the Salton Sea filled with water to form the prehistoric Lake Cahuilla — a body of water six times the size of the present-day Salton Sea.
“One of the potential implications from the reduced stress on the fault is that it leaves the Southern San Andreas Fault ‘locked and loaded,’” Matt Weingarten, a geologist at SDSU and one of the researchers on the paper, told City News Service. “On the fault we see major earthquakes about every 180 years, but it has been 300 years since the last major seismic event. It seems to be correlated by the Colorado River filling the Salton Trough.”
The researchers investigated this relationship with computer modeling and found that when the Salton Sea basin filled, Lake Cahuilla’s weight bent the surrounding crust and its water penetrated deep underground, each of which altered the forces acting on the fault in ways that could help trigger a massive rupture and severe shaking.
The research, funded by the Southern California Earthquake Center, National Science Foundation, NASA, and the U.S. Geological Survey, suggests that the tight relationship between big-time seismic activity and the filling of the Salton Sea basin may also help explain why the southern section of the San Andreas Fault is long overdue for its next major shakeup.
The northern section of California’s San Andreas Fault caused the hugely destructive San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and the Loma Prieta quake of 1989, but the southern section has been relatively quiet.
Yuri Fialko, the study’s co-author and professor of geophysics at Scripps, described the southern San Andreas as “10 months pregnant,” with a big shake that could cause an estimated 1,800 deaths and $200 billion in damage if it strikes at a magnitude of 7.8, according to the institutions.
“From our results it looks like Salton Sea drying out has contributed to stabilizing the southern San Andreas, a fault that poses an enormous seismic hazard to millions of people,” said Ryley Hill, the study’s first author and a Ph.D candidate in the geophysics earthquake science and applied geophysics joint doctoral program between SDSU and Scripps. “It also means there could be more stress that has accumulated along the fault as a result, and extra stress will be released at some point in the future.”
To study the relationship between the Salton Trough filling and seismic activity, the team created complex models that took SDSU’s advanced supercomputer five days to run.
The research presents additional questions, such as how much human interaction with the Salton Sea has impacted the fault’s seismic activity and how it could do so in the future. A panel rejected a proposal to refill the Salton Sea with water from the ocean in 2022.
“Before anyone can do the engineering work required for these restoration projects, they have to know where active faults are located, their history of movement, what the geotechnical properties are of the sediment they’re building on, and so forth,” said Danny Brothers, a USGS research geophysicist and lead author of a related study in 2022. “This study lays out where many of the faults in the sea are located and begins to build a seismic history of this area — all of which are likely to have implications for any kind of Salton Sea restoration plan that’s proposed.”
Fialko said the model developed to better understand the southern San Andreas could also be applied to other places on Earth where there are large and sudden changes in hydrologic loads, such as reservoirs that are filled and emptied.
(CITY NEWS SERVICE)
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Experts on the expedition estimate they saw from 10 to 13 of the tiny, shy, elusive porpoises during nearly two weeks of sailing in the gulf last month.
That is a similar number to those seen in the last such expedition in 2021. Because they are so small and elusive, many of the sightings through powerful binoculars are categorized as probable or likely. The animals also emit “clicks” that can be heard through acoustic monitoring devices.
Experts from Mexico, the conservation group Sea Shepherd and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said they sighted at least one and probably two calves, as immature vaquitas are known, raising hopes for the survival of the world’s most endangered marine mammal.
They said there may be more vaquitas out there, since the voyage covered only part of the creature’s habitat in the gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez. It lives nowhere else, and the species cannot be captured, held or bred in captivity.
But it is far too soon to celebrate. Illegal gillnets have trapped and killed vaquitas for decades; the population has declined from nearly 600 vaquitas in 1997.
Fishermen set the nets to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch thousands of dollars per pound.
While the Mexican government has made some efforts to stop the net fishing — like sinking concrete blocks with hooks to snag nets — the fishermen still appear to have the upper hand, entering the protected area to fish on a daily basis and even sabotaging monitoring efforts.
According to the report, “fishermen have begun removing the acoustic devices (CPODs) used to record vaquita clicks. The data recorded on each device is lost, and it is expensive to replace the stolen CPODs.”
“Unless enforcement of the fishing ban is effective and the theft of equipment is stopped, acoustic monitoring cannot collect data as it has in the past,” the report stated.
Researcher Barbara Taylor called on Mexico to sink more concrete blocks to snag nets, because some of the vaquitas were seen outside the protected area.
The expedition took place May 10-26, and crisscrossed a corner of the gulf where the few remaining vaquitas had last been seen.
Alex Olivera, the Mexico representative for the Center for Biological Diversity, said “this is encouraging news and it shows that vaquita are survivors. But we still need urgent conservation efforts to save these tiny porpoises from extinction.”
Olivera, who was not part of the expedition, estimated that “even in a gillnet-free habitat, it will take about 50 years for the population to return to where it was 15 years ago,” adding “we need Mexico to urgently comply with existing regulations to prevent the vaquita from disappearing forever.”
(Mark Stevenson, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory detected a glow in the web camera of the Kilauea summit and said the volcano began erupting around 4:44 a.m. local time. Less than an hour later, the lava created a brilliant black-and-orange web across the crater’s floor. As dawn broke, a livestream showed lava bubbling but its surface beginning to harden.
“The spreading across the floor of the crater was just totally incandescent,” Ken Hon, the scientist in charge of the observatory, said in an interview. “The fountaining and everything is pretty incredible.”
In a statement, the observatory said it was elevating Kilauea’s volcano alert level to a watch from a warning, and its aviation color code to red from orange “as this eruption and associated hazards are evaluated,” adding that “the opening phases of eruptions are dynamic.”
The observatory said that the volcano activity was confined to Halema’uma’u, the volcano’s main crater, and that there were no major threats to infrastructure or human life. Hon said the only threat was the gas fumes coming off the volcano. In response, some areas of Hawaii Volcano National Park, which includes Kilauea, that are downwind of the eruption were closed, Hon said.
Kilauea is the smaller, younger sibling to Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, which began erupting last year for the first time in four decades but stopped in December. There has been “no significant activity” at Mauna Loa in the past month, the observatory said.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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West Coasters who have long lived with the danger of wildfires offered some words of wisdom to their East Coast counterparts Wednesday, as residents along the Eastern seaboard faced another dizzying day of hazy skies amid smoke and air pollution from wildfires burning in Canada.
Tens of millions of Americans were under air quality alerts, stretching from parts of western Missouri to New York, from Maine to South Carolina, where particulate levels were expected to enter unhealthful territory and many residents experienced the scratchy throats and irritated eyes and lungs that wildfire smoke can cause.
By afternoon, the IQAir World Air Quality Index ranked New York City No. 1 for the worst air quality on the planet for the second straight day, ahead of global cities such as New Delhi, where such conditions are more common.
The air quality index in New York continued to deteriorate as the day went on, soaring from below 200 to above 400 by late afternoon, according to AirNow.gov, which offers real-time tracking of AQI. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that at 5 p.m., the AQI had hit 484, “the highest level index of our knowledge since the ’60s.”
Values of 301 or higher are considered hazardous, a level at which the Environmental Protection Agency warns that everyone is more likely to be affected, spurring a health warning of emergency conditions.
The conditions were predicted to worsen into today, with a reprieve expected Friday, but Adams warned that the situation is changing daily.
“Smoke predictability that far out is low,” he said. “We cannot provide guidance more than a day in advance at this point.”
He continued to advise vulnerable residents, including older New Yorkers, those with heart and breathing problems and children, to stay indoors and wear high-quality masks if they needed to venture outside.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said that approximately 1 million N95-style masks would be made available at state-owned facilities.
New York City’s public schools, which were open Wednesday and kept students indoors, will be closed today because of a previously scheduled closure, Adams said.
Beaches would remain closed because of poor visibility, and other outdoor activities around the city would also be canceled, he said, adding that drivers were urged to maintain caution on the roads.
“Our city is strong and resilient,” Adams said. “We have faced crisis before, and we will get through this together.”
Hochul on Wednesday warned residents statewide that the situation was a “crisis” that could last for days.
“This is typically a West Coast phenomena,” she said, emphasizing that people need to stay indoors whenever possible.
The sky in New York grew more ominous and darker during the day as smoke overpowered much of the city, shrouding the five boroughs in a deep, orange glow and disrupting activities, from professional sports to theater.
Wednesday night’s MLB game between the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox was postponed one night after the teams faced off under an ashen sky.
Another MLB game — this one in Philadelphia, between the Phillies and the Detroit Tigers — was postponed as well, as was a WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx.
A production of Broadway’s “Hamilton” as well as a performance of “Camelot” at New York’s Lincoln Center were canceled. The first two performances of the Shakespeare in the Park production of “Hamlet,” which takes place in Central Park, were canceled for today and Friday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon that it slowed traffic to and from New York City area airports “due to reduced visibility from wildfire smoke.” Philadelphia’s airport also was brought to a ground stop, the agency said.
New Yorkers said the smell of smoke, similar to that of a campfire, was so overwhelming that they could not step outside without coughing or their eyes burning.
Many wore masks as they commuted across the boroughs and shared photos of the ashen sky from landmarks across the city.
Other parts of the state — and nation — were also blighted by hazardous AQI levels. In Binghamton, which registered 400 AQI before midday, visibility was reduced to just one mile.
In Washington, a haze settled across the National Mall, and the city was under a “code red” alert, triggered when the AQI breaches 150 and vulnerable groups are at particular risk.
Parts of Pennsylvania, where its most-populous city of Philadelphia was also under code red, and New Jersey also saw their AQI surpass 400.
The smoke blanketing the East Coast has drifted south from Canada, where nearly 250 active wildfires are scorching the forests around the eastern province of Quebec. High temperatures and dry conditions, along with lightning, ignited the fires, which swelled over the weekend.
An area of low pressure hanging over northern New England is directing the airflow, said John Cristantello, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s New York City office.
“The weather pattern is such that the winds just keep funneling down, from generally north to south,” Cristantello said. “We’re sort of a target for the smoke that comes from these fires.”
The weather service said the low-pressure system could shift this weekend, but warned that “as long as the fires continue, the smoke may simply be directed towards other areas of the U.S.”
Across social media, New Yorkers posted photos of their otherworldly city cast in deep orange, the blood red sunrises and sunsets reminiscent of the skies around Northern California in 2020, when smoke from a variety of fires blanketed the region.
For Sherelle Johnson, a copywriter based in Riverside, the smoky, orange scenes coming out of New York reminded her of the 2020 El Dorado fire, sparked by a gender reveal gone wrong.
“[California] has been through the wildfire season. We have it every year, but not every place has it so bad,” Johnson said, adding the El Dorado fire was especially scary and felt like uncharted territory, even for the most experienced. So Johnson shared tips on Twitter, including advising car owners and homeowners to replace their air filters — now and after the fires.
“They’re doing some heavy lifting right now and you want them effective,” Johnson said. Other tips included keeping windows closed, downloading smartphone apps that measure AQI and making sure to stay hydrated, including your pets.
S.E. Smith, a Northern California-based writer and journalist, cautioned East Coasters against not taking measures to prepare.
“Wildfire smoke doesn’t have to be visible to hurt your lungs,” Smith wrote on Twitter. “Mask up, use an air purifier, and stay indoors if you can. If you feel tired, cranky, or out of sorts, you are probably feeling the smoke!”
Some have pointed out the indifference some New Yorkers have to the constant threat West Coast residents face from wildfires every year — until it knocked on their own door.
“It’s hard to not notice how wildfire smoke is suddenly very important now that New York City residents are experiencing it,” Karl Bode, a Seattle-based writer, said on Twitter.
(Alexandra E. Petri, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The 17,797-foot mountain just 45 miles southeast of Mexico City and known affectionately as “El Popo,” had spread ash over towns downwind for days and spurred authorities to dust off their evacuation plans.
Some 25 million people live within 60 miles of its crater. But ultimately no evacuations were ordered and experts said the emissions from the increased activity actually made a catastrophic eruption less likely.
National Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez lowered the alert level Tuesday on the recommendation of a scientific advisory panel. Scientists said they had observed a slight decrease in activity.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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It also said that 85 people were injured and 11 were missing.
More than 5,000 homes had been affected by rain and flooding, leaving more than 2,500 people displaced, the agency said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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With more than 480 wilderness firefighters on the ground, Quebec can fight around 30 fires, Quebec Premier François Legault told reporters Monday, adding that normally firefighters would come from other provinces to help.
“When I talk to the premiers of other provinces, they have their hands full,” Legault told a briefing in Quebec City.
On Friday afternoon, there were 324 fires burning across Canada. As of Monday, that had grown to 413.
“The situation remains serious,” Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair said. “The images that we have seen so far this season are some of the most severe we have ever witnessed in Canada.”
More than 160 fires have been reported in Quebec, including at least 114 that are out of control.
More than 173,000 hectares (427,000 acres) have burned this year in the province’s “intensive protection fire zone” — the area where normally all fires are actively fought — compared with a 10-year average of 247 hectares (610 acres) as of the same date, Quebec’s wildfire prevention agency, SOPFEU, said.
Wet weather in the Atlantic Coast province of Nova Scotia has allowed that province to free up water bombers to dispatch to Quebec, where wildfires flared up this past weekend.
Legault said an additional 200 firefighters are coming from France and the United States.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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He has documented that the decline of groundwater in California’s Central Valley accelerated dramatically in recent years, and that states along the Colorado River were losing their aquifers far faster than the more visible shriveling of the nation’s largest reservoirs.
It was not a satellite but an airplane, however, that was on Famiglietti’s mind as he picked up his wife at the airport earlier this year: a charter flight of people arriving in Phoenix as part of a major expansion of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., one of Arizona’s premier economic development jewels. This symbol of Arizona’s future brought home the stakes of this moment.
In one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country, it’s a boom time — water-intensive microchip companies and data centers moving in; tens of thousands of houses spreading deep into the desert. But it is also a time of crisis: Climate change is drying up the American West and putting fundamental resources at ever greater risk.
“I’m incredibly concerned,” said Famiglietti, an Arizona State University professor who is leading a multiyear effort to assess the water supply the state has above and below ground. “I don’t think that people, and this is everyone, the general public, but right up to our water managers and elected officials, really understand now that groundwater is the key to our future.”
“There’s just not enough for all the things we want to do,” he said.
The decision by Arizona last week to limit residential construction in some parts of the fast-growing Phoenix suburbs is another major warning about how climate change is disrupting lifestyles and economies in the West.
Throughout the region, glaciers have receded, wildfires have expanded, rivers and lakes have shrunk.
“Our forests are burning up. Our rivers are diminished. There is sand blowing through places that used to be vegetated,” said Norm Gaume, a former water resources manager for Albuquerque who leads a grass-roots group that pushes for sustainable water in New Mexico. “The signs are all there.”
Groundwater can take thousands of years to replenish once it has been sucked out, so the problem is not easy to solve. Such shortages are likely to reshape, in coming decades, where people live and how much they pay to do so. State leaders must begin making tough decisions about Arizona’s long-term future, said Rhett Larson, a professor of water law at Arizona State University.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to give up some dreams to get to others,” Larson said. “Arizona is in that situation with its water.”
“We want to be the greatest semiconductor and microchip manufacturer in the world. We can do that. We have enough water, but our food prices are going to go up because we’re not going to grow as much food,” he said. “Those are the hard conversations that Arizona has to have right now.”
Climate pressures, said Stefanie Smallhouse, the president of the Arizona Farm Bureau, “has brought us to a critical point in our history, where we’re making decisions about what’s most important — housing developments or farm fields.”
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Nearly 13,400 people were forced to evacuate as water consumed hundreds of homes around the country, turning some streets into raging rivers of brown water, according to Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency.
More than 7,400 families reported damage, with officials still assessing the impact of the rains that deluged Haiti on Saturday.
The rains also caused significant damage to crops in Haiti’s central region at a time when starvation is deepening.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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“Losing water has been the hardest part,” said Melinda Sanchez, 50, whose family lives in central Guam. Still, she said, island residents were familiar with storm-related disruptions. “We just go back to what we’ve learned to do during these times. We get through it.”
The typhoon, Mawar, brought widespread flooding and 140 mph winds, equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane, when it struck the island of 150,000 people in the South Pacific on May 24, knocking out power across much of the territory.
No deaths were reported on Guam, which is home to bases for the U.S. Navy and Air Force, but officials said the restoration of basic services to some parts of the island could take several weeks.
The Guam Power Authority said Friday that electricity had been restored to just over 40 percent of customers, while the Guam Waterworks Authority reported that about half of the wells that supply most of the island’s water were operational. About half of the island’s cellphone towers were working by Thursday, officials said.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Firefighters worked through the night to extinguish hot spots in the fire that started in the Halifax area on Sunday, Halifax Deputy Fire Chief David Meldrum said. He said it was too early to give an exact count of homes destroyed, but the municipal government put the toll at about 200 buildings.
Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston announced the province would be banning all travel and activity in all wooded areas as of Tuesday afternoon. The ban applies to all forestry, mining, hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, off-road vehicle driving and all commercial activity on government lands.
“We’re in a very serious situation in this province, and we need to take the steps that we can to protect Nova Scotia,” he told a news conference via a video call from Shelburne, Nova Scotia, where the province's largest wildfire has been burning since the weekend.
“I wanted to get a sense of the damage here,” the premier said. “It’s extensive. It’s heartbreaking.”
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Two bodies had been recovered by firefighter divers on Sunday evening, while the fourth victim had died shortly after being rescued following the capsizing of the houseboat, which the owners used as a tour vessel to take visitors around Lake Maggiore, police said.
When the boat set out on Sunday, there were 21 tourists aboard plus a crew of two — a couple who lived on the boat.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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As of today in the Philippines, Mawar’s center was 325 miles east of Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island, the Philippine meteorological agency said. Because the country gives its own names to typhoons that enter its so-called area of responsibility, the storm is known locally as Betty.
The storm was moving west at 8 mph with maximum sustained winds of 120 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, a weather agency operated by the U.S. Navy. That wind speed is equivalent to the force of a strong Category 3 hurricane in the U.S.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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As of Friday night in the Philippines, the center of the storm was about 900 miles east of Luzon, the country’s largest and most populous island, the country’s weather service said. The storm, now with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph, was moving west at 17 mph, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
Heavy rain, flooding, landslides and gale-force winds could lash northern Luzon starting late Sunday or Monday, the weather service said, adding that the storm might also increase monsoon rains across other parts of the country.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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There were minor injuries reported but no fatalities, according to the office of Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero. She declared the “all clear” Thursday evening, returning the island to its typical condition of typhoon readiness as the National Weather Service lifted a typhoon watch.
She thanked the people of Guam for keeping themselves safe and protected during the storm.
“We now continue to focus our efforts on repairing infrastructure and restoring services to residents,” Leon Guerrero said in a statement. “After speaking with department leaders and seeing the incredible rapid response to the storm, I am confident we will make significant progresses towards restoration of services.”
Survey and work crews were assessing damage at military installations, which were limited to essential personnel only, according to Joint Region Marianas.
The central and northern parts of the island received more than 2 feet of rain as the eyewall passed. The island’s international airport flooded and the swirling typhoon churned up a storm surge and waves that crashed through coastal reefs and flooded homes.
The strongest typhoon to hit the territory of roughly 150,000 people since 2002, Mawar briefly made landfall around 9 p.m. Wednesday as a Category 4 storm at Andersen Air Force Base on the northern tip of the island, weather service officials said.
Power and internet failures made communication on the far-flung island difficult in the early going. Leon Guerrero said in a video message late Thursday morning that roads were passable, but residents should avoid driving and stay home due to ongoing strong winds.
“We have weathered the storm,” she said, adding that “the worst has gone by.”
Guam Power Authority said crews were working to restore power to critical and priority facilities such as a hospital, water wells and wastewater plants. Guam Waterworks Authority was working to restore water service and had issued a notice advising customers to boil their water.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The central and northern parts of the island received more than 2 feet of rain as the eyewall passed, and most of Guam received about a foot of rain during the storm, said Brandon Aydlett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The island’s international airport flooded, and the swirling storm churned up a storm surge and waves that crashed through coastal reefs.
“We are waking up to a rather disturbing scene out there across Guam. We’re looking out our door and what used to be a jungle looks like toothpicks — it looks like a scene from the movie ‘Twister,’ with trees just thrashed apart,” said Landon Aydlett, his twin brother and fellow NWS meteorologist.
“Most of Guam is dealing with a major mess that’s gonna take weeks to clean up,” he added.
The strongest typhoon to hit the territory of roughly 150,000 people since 2002, Mawar briefly made landfall around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday night as a Category 4 storm at Andersen Air Force Base on the northern tip of the island, weather service officials said.
“It was on land for about 30 to 35 minutes before it moved back offshore,” said Patrick Doll, another NWS meteorologist.
As it crept slowly over the island, the typhoon sent solar panels flying and crumbled part of a hotel’s exterior wall to the ground, according to videos posted on social media. At what felt like its peak intensity, the winds screeched and howled like jets, and water swamped some homes.
Leah del Mundo spent the night with her family in their concrete home in Chalan Pago, in central Guam. She told The Associated Press they tried to sleep but were awakened “by violent shaking of the typhoon shutters and the whistling strong winds.”
“It’s not our first rodeo,” she said via text message. “We’ve been through worse. But we brace ourselves for the cleanup, repairs, restoration afterwards.”
The scope of the damage was difficult to ascertain early on, with power and Internet failures making communication with the far-flung island difficult.
Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero and Lt. Gov. Josh Tenorio were assessing the situation after the island “received the full brunt of the typhoon overnight,” emergency management officials said in a statement. They planned a driving tour to look for any major damage or blocked roadways.
J. Asprer, a police officer in northern Guam, said before dawn that he had not received any reports of injuries.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The U.S. military sent away ships, President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration and anyone not living in a concrete house was urged to seek safety elsewhere ahead of the typhoon, which was forecast to arrive as a Category 4 storm but could possibly strengthen to a Category 5. The last Category 5 to make a direct hit in Guam was Super Typhoon Karen in 1962.
Guam Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero said on social media that the emergency declaration will support the mobilization of resources into Guam, which is “especially crucial given our distance from the continental U.S.” Leon Guerrero ordered residents of coastal, low-lying and flood-prone areas of the territory of over 150,000 people to evacuate to higher elevations.
With rain from the storm’s outer bands already falling over the island as of late morning local time, the typhoon had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph with gusts peaking at 170 mph, said National Weather Service meteorologist Landon Aydlett.
That was a slight downgrade from earlier when Mawar was reported to be a Category 4 “super typhoon,” meaning maximum sustained winds of 150 mph or greater. But it still posed extreme danger to life and property.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A cloud of superfine ash descended, slightly reducing visibility and coming to rest on vehicles’ windshields. For more than a week, the 17,797-foot mountain just 45 miles southeast of Mexico City and known affectionately as “El Popo,” has been increasingly explosive, spewing great plumes of gas, ash and incandescent rock into the air.
The activity led the Mexican government to raise the warning level and to close schools in dozens of municipalities across three states. On Monday, local, state and federal officials held drills for the possibility of evacuations.
“You hear it more at night,” said Violeta Fuentes, 39, who lives with her husband and two children, ages 9 and 12, on the outskirts of Santiago Xalitzintla. That’s also when they can see the glow from the crater. “Last night, several times it would go out one moment and then light up again.”
Fuentes said she was a bit unnerved by it “because you can see (the volcano) doesn’t want to be OK anymore.” The family worried about the impact the falling ash would have on their crops.
The alerts and preparations, however, are old hat for residents here.
Job Amalco, a driver, said it was normal. “It doesn’t scare us. We’re spectators of what nature gives us,” he said proudly.
But anxiety was beginning to build among some.
“It’s worrisome, above all because of the children, because you don’t know if there will be an enormous explosion or a small one,” said Claudia de la Cruz, 27, who has two children ages 3 and 5.
Her husband hikes up the volcano’s flanks each day to collect firewood to make charcoal. “He says that there it sounds like the peaks are crashing down and it shakes, but he’s brave for us,” she said.
De la Cruz remembers as a girl the first time she saw the mountain glow and how back then residents had little information. She trusts that now with a cellphone they will know in real time what is happening.
Still, the real warning residents listen for will be the tolling of the town’s church bells. Monday, they rang out as part of the drill.
There were no signs of panic Monday, but people worried about the possibility of having to evacuate, leaving homes and animals unattended. Authorities have warned people to stay out of the radius around the peak.
Florencio de Olarte, 69, and Plàcida de Aquino, 72, recalled having to evacuate their home in the center of town twice before, years ago. On those occasions, “you could see (the volcano) was lit up, throwing out rocks,” Olarte said.
One of their children already wants them to come to Mexico City, but the couple doesn’t want to leave before authorities tell them they have to, because of their turkeys, pig and donkey. “We have animals and couldn’t leave them,” Aquino said.
“Right now there’s a lot of smoke plume and it oozes and thunders, the curtains shake,” Aquino said. But for the moment nothing more.
The volcano’s activity temporary halted flights at the capital’s two airports over the weekend.
On Monday, an ash plume extended hundreds of miles to the east, stretching out over the Bay of Campeche, according to a U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report.
(Marìa Verza, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero urged residents in a YouTube message to remain calm and prepare for Mawar, which the National Weather Service said could hit the southern part of Guam around midday local time on Wednesday.
“We may take a direct hit,” said Patrick Doll, lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Tiyan, Guam. “If we don’t take a direct hit, it’s going to be very close.”
It was expected to arrive as a 140 mph Category 4 typhoon, weather officials said, possibly delivering the biggest hit in two decades.
The typhoon could cause “extensive damage,” Doll said.
The governor said she would place Guam essentially in a lockdown effective 1 p.m. today.
Rain from the storm’s outer bands started to fall Monday.
A storm surge of 4 to 6 feet above the normal high tide was expected and could reach up to 8 feet. Surf was expected to build sharply in the next day or two along south- and east-facing reefs, with dangerous surf of 15 to 25 feet today into Wednesday, the weather service said.
At the island’s grocery and hardware stores Monday, people were leaving with shopping carts full of canned goods, cases of water and generators, the Pacific Daily News reported.
The Guam Department of Education was preparing to open emergency shelters today, KUAM reported.
Officials warned residents who aren’t in fully concrete structures to consider moving for safety. Many homes are made of wood and tin.
Rota, an island in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, was also under a typhoon warning, Doll said. Tinian and Saipan, in the northern Marianas, were under tropical storm warnings.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Representatives of the states reached the consensus after months of negotiations, with California, Arizona and Nevada together committing to reduce water use by 3 million acre-feet between now and the end of 2026 — an average of 1 million acre-feet per year, cutting usage by about 14 percent across the Southwest.
The agreement represents a major milestone in the region’s efforts to grapple with the Colorado River’s decline. The river, which supplies states from the Rocky Mountains to the U.S.-Mexico border, has long been over-allocated, and its reservoirs have declined to their lowest levels on record during 23 years of drought worsened by rising temperatures with climate change.
The Biden administration announced that the federal Interior Department, which had laid out options for larger reductions, will analyze the proposal from the states.
“This is an important step forward towards our shared goal of forging a sustainable path for the basin that millions of people call home,” Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland called the agreement a testament to the Biden administration’s commitment to working with states, tribes and communities in the West “to find consensus solutions in the face of climate change and sustained drought.”
The proposed cuts under the agreement amount to about half of the reductions federal officials had called for previously.
The Bureau of Reclamation last month laid out two options for preventing the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs from reaching dangerously low levels, saying the water cuts could be imposed by following the water-rights priority system or by using an across-the-board percentage. Under those alternatives, federal officials said the cuts would reach about 2 million acre-feet each year — a much larger reduction from the three states’ total apportionment of 7.5 million acre-feet.
The river has received a desperately needed boost this year from storms that left the Rocky Mountains blanketed with heavy snow. Federal officials have estimated that runoff into the river’s reservoirs this year will be 149 percent of average.
With reservoirs projected to rise substantially this year, the seven states — California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — have come forward with a proposal for smaller reductions that water managers think will be sufficient to prevent reservoirs from reaching perilously low levels for now, even if dry conditions return during the next three years.
The Biden administration had presented its alternatives last month as part of a review aimed at revising the rules for dealing with water shortages through 2026, when the current rules expire. But the Interior Department said that in light of the proposal from the states, it is temporarily withdrawing the draft review “so that it can fully analyze the effects of the proposal.”
The Bureau of Reclamation plans to update its review of alternatives, called a draft supplemental environmental impact statement, to include the states’ proposal as an alternative and complete the review this year.
Federal officials said much of the reductions will come by paying agricultural landowners, irrigation districts and other water users to conserve water, using $1.2 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act. Conserved water will remain in Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, near Las Vegas, which is at 30 percent of capacity.
California, as the state that uses the largest share of the Colorado River, has pledged to shoulder a large share of the reductions — about 1.6 million acre-feet through 2026. An acre-foot is enough water to supply three average households for a year.
The consensus reached among the states will “protect the Colorado River system for the duration of the current guidelines,” said JB Hamby, chair of California’s Colorado River Board.
Hamby said the plan presented by the states will “generate unprecedented volumes of conservation that will build elevation in Lake Mead, make strategic use of the improved hydrology, and build upon partnerships within and between states,” as well as among urban water agencies, agricultural irrigation districts and tribes that depend on the river.
He said the plan would result in “better protection” for the river system than the other options by implementing large cuts sooner, and by reaching half of the total reductions — 1.5 million acre-feet — by the end of 2024.
Many of the details of how federal money will be used to compensate water users have yet to be finalized. So far, federal officials have announced that $233 million will go to Arizona’s Gila River Indian Community, much of it to compensate the tribal nation for leaving water in Lake Mead.
The Imperial Irrigation District, which delivers the single largest share of Colorado River water to farms in the Imperial Valley, has pledged to contribute 250,000 acre-feet of water per year. Once an agreement on federal funding is completed, growers are expected to be able to volunteer to reduce water use in exchange for payments. The amount has yet to be announced.
The Imperial Irrigation District sends the San Diego region about 200,000 acre-feet of water a year under a 2003 deal that improved the efficiency of agricultural irrigation practices in the Imperial Valley. Officials said those Colorado River flows will not be impacted by the new cuts being orchestrated by the federal government.
“This is not anticipated to affect existing obligations (with San Diego), but are additional, voluntary conservation volumes on top of those agreements,” said Tina Shields, a top water manager for the Imperial Irrigation District.
Managers of the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies cities across Southern California, expect to leave a portion of their allotment in Lake Mead, but these and other details remain to be firmed up and voted on later this year.
The governors of California, Arizona and Nevada praised the agreement.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said that California has “stepped up to make significant cuts to water usage,” and that the agreement “will help maintain critical water supply for millions of Americans as we work together to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Colorado River.”
The 1922 agreement that originally divided the river among the states promised more water than the Colorado could deliver. And global warming has compounded the strains on the water supply.
In the last 23 years, as rising temperatures have intensified the drought, the river’s flow has declined about 20 percent.
Scientists have found that roughly half the decline in the river’s flow has been caused by higher temperatures, and that climate change is driving the aridification of the Southwest. With global warming, average temperatures across the upper watershed — where most of the river’s flow originates — have risen about 3 degrees since 1970.
Research has shown that for each additional 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), the river’s average flow is likely to decrease about 9 percent.
Scientists have long warned that the river was headed for a crisis. Years before the current shortage, in the 1990s and 2000s, scientists repeatedly alerted public officials that the chronic overuse of the river combined with the effects of climate change would probably drain the reservoirs.
In 2019, as reservoirs were dropping, water managers agreed to reduce water use under a deal called the Drought Contingency Plan. But when those reductions were insufficient, the states agreed to additional cuts in 2021, which projections later showed would not be enough to address risks of Lake Mead declining toward “dead pool” levels, at which water would no longer pass downstream through Hoover Dam.
While the ample snow in the Rockies has reduced those risks for the next couple of years, scientists have continued to advise officials that larger cuts will be necessary.
The plan to cut water usage by an average of 1 million acre-feet each year for three years represents a 14 percent reduction in consumptive water use in the three Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada, said Jack Schmidt, a professor and director of Utah State University’s Center for Colorado River Studies.
“It’s a great start,” Schmidt said. “This is one step.”
Schmidt has estimated that based on the decline in the river’s flow this century, the Colorado River Basin will need 4 million acre-feet in reductions annually to address the water deficit and allow for reservoirs to recover.
“It’s about 25 percent of where we ultimately need to get,” Schmidt said.
“They still have to find another 3 million acre-feet to save,” Schmidt said. “A big, heavy lift still lies ahead.”
Last year, federal officials called for cutting water use by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet per year to address the unresolved water shortfall.
When the Biden administration presented two options for reductions in April, those alternatives were partly based on conflicting plans that were presented by California and the other six basin states after officials failed to come to an agreement.
Negotiations over the last year have at times grown tense. But in recent weeks, the talks progressed to a point that officials from California, Arizona and Nevada, who had deadlocked on dueling proposals previously, were able to bridge their differences.
Representatives of the seven states laid out the agreement in a letter, saying they “recognize that having one good winter does not solve the systemic challenges facing the Colorado River.” The states’ representatives urged federal officials to advance the process of negotiating new rules for dealing with shortages after 2026, “so that all parties can focus on their resources” on developing a new long-term plan for sharing shortages.
(Ian James, LOS ANGELES TIMES; Joshua Emerson Smith, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Hundreds of rescue workers toiled through the night to evacuate residents, free roads from mud and debris, restore electricity and repair telephone towers, while officials began to take a fuller accounting of the damage in a region that not long ago was wrestling with a persistent drought.
With many fields still soaked by rainfall that experts described as almost unheard of — some areas received nearly 20 inches in 36 hours, about half the annual average — rail services were interrupted and many roads remained blocked.
“The situation is constantly changing as it keeps raining,” said Luca Cari, a spokesperson for Italy’s firefighters. “Water is still rising in some areas on the northern coast, but even where the water has receded, mud is everywhere and it’s hard to assess the damage.”
Heavy rain in early May had already saturated the soil, and on Tuesday a storm system moving slowly across Italy funneled extreme downpours back over the same area. With the ground already near saturation, like a sponge that is already soaked with water, the rainfall had nowhere to go except to flow to the lowest points, inundating rivers, creeks and other low-lying areas.
Television images on Friday showed tree branches, garden furniture and other debris floating in the muddy water on the streets of Cervia, a coastal town of about 30,000 people near Ravenna, where firefighters and the civil protection agency were continuing to evacuate residents and their pets on rubber boats.
Nearly two dozen rivers broke their banks this week in a vast area between the Apennine Mountains — where hilltop villages have been left isolated by landslides — and the coast.
About 10,000 people have been evacuated in a disaster that many were attributing at least in part to a combination of climate change and human development. On Friday, mayors were asking residents to move to higher ground as the latest round of rainfall threatened more flooding.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tsunami warning system initially warned waves as high as 10 feet could hit Vanuatu. Authorities in Vanuatu urged people to move to higher ground.
Vanuatu officials later said the threat had passed. Waves just over 2 feet high had been recorded.
The earthquake struck southeast of the Loyalty Islands in the French territory of New Caledonia.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Communication difficulties in the affected areas, where infrastructure was already poor, and the military government’s tight control over information leave the actual extent of casualties and destruction unclear.
Cyclone Mocha roared in from the Bay of Bengal on Sunday with high winds and rain slamming a corner of neighboring Bangladesh and a wider swath of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said wide-scale destruction of homes and infrastructure was seen throughout Rakhine state.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The heavy rains also forced Formula One to cancel this weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to not overtax emergency crews already stretched thin in responding to the rivers of mud that have torn through the region, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and homes.
Days of rainstorms stretched across a broad swath of northern Italy and the Balkans, where “apocalyptic” floods, landslides and evacuations were also reported in Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia.
The deputy governor of Emilia-Romagna, Irene Priolo, said eight people were killed and others unaccounted for in flooding that forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 people.
On Wednesday evening, authorities in the province of Ravenna, a town famed for its Byzantine-era mosaics, about 14,000 people were ordered to leave their homes as a precaution because of fears that three rivers could overflow their banks.
Among the dead was a farmer who defied floodwaters to try to save equipment on his property, officials said. His wife was among the missing.
Rescue helicopters plucked people from rooftops as floodwaters rose ever higher in homes. In one rescue, a coast guard member pulled a woman out through a skylight from her home and held her tight as the two were winched to a hovering helicopter and pulled inside.
“Even upper floors aren’t safe any more,” Gian Luca Zattini, mayor of Forli, one of the hardest-hit towns, told Sky TG24 TV.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The record for Earth’s hottest year was set in 2016. There is a 98 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will exceed that, the forecasters said, while the average from 2023 to 2027 will almost certainly be the warmest for a five-year period ever recorded.
“This will have far-reaching repercussions for health, food security, water management and the environment,” said Petteri Taalas, chief of the organization. “We need to be prepared.”
Even small increases in warming can exacerbate the dangers from heat waves, wildfires, drought and other calamities, scientists say. Elevated global temperatures in 2021 helped fuel a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that shattered records.
El Niño conditions can cause further turmoil by shifting global precipitation patterns. The organization said it expected increased summer rainfall over the next five years in places like Northern Europe and the Sahel in sub-Saharan Africa and reduced rainfall in the Amazon and parts of Australia.
The organization reported that there is also a two-thirds chance that one of the next five years could be 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, hotter than the 19th-century average.
That does not mean that the world will have breached the goal in the Paris climate accord of holding warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. When scientists talk about that goal, they mean a longer-term average to root out the influence of natural variability.
(THE NEW YORK TIMES)
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The consensus emerging among these states and the Biden administration aims to conserve about 13 percent of their allocation of river water over the next three years and protect the nation’s largest reservoirs, which provide drinking water and hydropower for tens of millions of people.
But thorny issues remain that could complicate a deal. The parties are trying to work through them before a key deadline at the end of the month, according to several current and former state and federal officials familiar with the situation.
Participants are discussing cutting back about 3 million acre-feet of water over the next three years, the majority of it paid for with federal money approved in the Inflation Reduction Act. But the parties are still negotiating how much of those water savings will go uncompensated. In meetings over the last month, representatives for the three states, which form the river’s Lower Basin, have also raised doubts about the federal government’s environmental review process that is now under way to formally revise the rules that govern operations at Lake Powell and Lake Mead.
State officials have suggested they could make a deal on their own and are resisting a May 30 deadline to comment on the alternatives the federal government has laid out in that process, according to people familiar with the talks. The process is intended to define Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s authority to make emergency cuts in states’ water use, even if those cuts contradict existing water rights.
These developments represent a new phase in the long-running talks about the future of the river. For much of the past year, negotiations have pitted California against Arizona, as they are the states who suck the most from Lake Mead and will have to bear the greatest burden of the historic cuts that the Biden administration has been calling for to protect the river. But these states now appear more united than ever and are closing their differences with the federal government, even as significant issues remain unresolved.
The Interior Department declined to comment on the status of the private negotiations. The Colorado River commissioners from Arizona, California and Nevada also declined to comment.
Some water authorities in the West want to ensure that any deal that emerges would entail binding commitments among the Lower Basin states, which draw from Lake Mead and consume more of the river each year than the states of the Upper Basin: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The Colorado River runs 1,450 miles from the Rocky Mountains to Mexico and is a vital lifeline for cities and farms throughout the West. But climate change has made the region hotter and drier, and exposed how rules made over a century ago to share the river among Western states are inadequate to keep it from drying up.
(Joshua Parlow, WASHINGTON POST)
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EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the plan would hold polluters accountable for controlling and cleaning up coal ash, a byproduct of burning coal in that can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water and the air. Coal ash contains contaminants such as mercury, chromium and arsenic associated with cancer and other health problems.
“Ensuring the health and safety of all people is EPA’s top priority, and this proposed rule represents a crucial step toward safeguarding the air, groundwater, streams and drinking water that communities depend on,” Regan said in a statement.
If finalized, the rule would help protect underserved and minority communities already overburdened by pollution, reflecting the Biden administration’s commitment to environmental justice, Regan said.
“Many of these communities have been disproportionately impacted by pollution for far too long,’’ he said, noting that power plants, chemical plants and other large industrial sites are commonly located in poor and minority neighborhoods.
The proposed rule follows an EPA proposal last week to impose new limits on greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and gas-fired power plants — the Biden administration’s most ambitious effort to roll back planet-warming pollution from the power sector, the nation’s second-largest contributor to climate change.
The agency also has proposed rules to crack down on polluted wastewater from coal-burning power plants and limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago.
The coal ash rule follows a legal settlement between the agency and public interest groups, including the National Association for Advancement of Colored People, Sierra Club and Clean Water Action.
The groups said in a lawsuit that a 2015 EPA rule on coal ash failed to regulate a large portion of coal ash pollution in the United States.
Earthjustice, an environmental group that represented the coalition that sued EPA, called the new proposal a major win for communities near coal-fired power plants. The revised rule extends federal coal ash regulations to most coal ash disposed at power plants and extends federal monitoring, closure and cleanup requirements to hundreds of older landfills, ponds and dump sites that previously were excluded, the group said.
“This is a really big deal, said Lisa Evans, senior counsel for Earthjustice. “The Biden administration is standing up for people near hazardous coal waste sites around the country. For far too long, a large portion of toxic coal ash around the U.S. was left leaching into drinking water supplies without any requirement that it be cleaned up.’’
The EPA proposal tightens a loophole that allowed many power-plant owners to avoid “cleaning up the toxic mess they created,’’ Evans said. “Power plants will finally lose their hall pass to leave coal ash wherever they dumped it.’’
Based on analysis of industry data provided to the EPA, Earthjustice identified 566 landfills and ponds at 242 coal plants in 40 states that were excluded from the 2015 federal regulations, Evans said.
The EPA estimates it would cost utilities more than $300 million a year to comply with the new rule, which is expected to become final next year.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Six deaths were reported, but the true impact was not yet clear in one of Asia’s least developed countries.
Strong winds injured more than 700 of about 20,000 people who were sheltering in sturdier buildings on the highlands of Sittwe township, such as monasteries, pagodas and schools, according to a leader of the Rakhine Youths Philanthropic Association in Sittwe.
He asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals from the authorities in the military-run country.
Seawater raced into more than 10 low-lying wards near the shore as Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Rakhine state Sunday afternoon, he said. Residents moved to roofs and higher floors, while the wind and storm surge prevented immediate rescue.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Park officials said Sunday that the Lower and North Pines Campgrounds and the Housekeeping Camp will be shut.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for the area until at least Friday.
“The combination of extended hot weather and abundant snow means the Merced River may remain above flood stage for some time,” the park said in a statement. An update will be provided tonight.
Last month, eastern sections of the famed Yosemite Valley were closed for a few days over fears of floods that never materialized.
Spring weather is quickly melting huge amounts of snow that accumulated in mountains from a series of large winter storms.
Storm runoff has caused flooding of San Joaquin Valley agricultural fields below the southern Sierra. But the major melt of the massive snowpack has yet to occur.
The state Department of Water Resources said earlier this month that despite a brief increase in temperatures in late April, the snowpack has melted slower than average because of below-average temperatures.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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At least three deaths were reported in Myanmar, and several injuries were reported in neighboring Bangladesh, which was spared the predicted direct hit.
Cyclone Mocha made landfall in Myanmar’s Rakhine state near Sittwe township in the afternoon with winds blowing up to 130 miles per hour, Myanmar’s Meteorological Department said. By this morning, it was downgraded from its severe status and was steadily weakening over land, according to the India Meteorological Department.
The extent of the damage was not immediately clear. High winds crumpled cell phone towers during the day, cutting off communications. And independent information is hard to gather under Myanmar’s military-run government.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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“That’s absolutely crazy,” said Tom Rockwell, a seismologist at San Diego State University. “It’s very random that quakes on separate faults happen at about the same time.”
The first quake was a 3.4 temblor that hit at 5:13 p.m. about 5 miles west-southwest of Tecate, Mexico, and 15 miles west-southwest of Campo. It was immediately followed by a 3.6 quake about 23 miles west-southwest of Progreso, Mexico, and 31 miles east-southeast of Campo.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Forecasters said Friday’s storms were capable of spawning more tornadoes, and at least one was confirmed in Kansas.
On Friday afternoon, photos and videos on social media appeared to show a tornado landing near Spalding, Neb. Another storm spotter shared a photo of ominous skies he said he saw in Hooper, Neb., about 100 miles away.
The National Weather Service has not confirmed that the Nebraska storms were tornadoes, though the areas were under tornado warnings. The agency said two storms capable of producing tornadoes moved north through the state at 30 mph, each, early Friday evening.
A confirmed tornado was located over Reserve, Kan., on Friday evening, the service said, moving northeast at 20 mph toward Omaha, threatening more damage.
Before dawn Friday, trained spotters collected at least 17 reports of tornadoes or tornado damage in Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska and Oklahoma, the weather service said. Multiple reports can be submitted for the same tornado.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The storm, Cyclone Mocha, formed over the southern Bay of Bengal on Thursday and has already started drenching western Myanmar as it churned northeast Friday, with heavy rain, strong winds and storm surges forecast to continue through Sunday, according to the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System.
Myanmar and Bangladesh began deploying thousands of volunteers and ordering evacuations from low-lying areas, Agence France-Presse reported, in a region that is home to some of the world’s poorest people, who are especially vulnerable to increasingly severe weather events.
Bangladeshi authorities have instructed fishing boat operators in the Bay of Bengal to stay close to shore.
The coastal areas of Bangladesh are expected to experience heavy rain starting this afternoon, Azizur Rahman, director of the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, said Friday.
Cox’s Bazar, the Bangladeshi city that is home to the world’s largest refugee encampment, has begun bracing for the weather.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The operator watched as the intruder clicked into various software programs before landing on a function that controls the amount of sodium hydroxide, or lye, in the plant’s water system. The hacker then increased the amount of lye — a potentially dangerous substance used to control acidity — from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million.
The plant operator reversed the change almost immediately, and officials said there was never any threat to public safety. But the incident has highlighted the threats facing major drinking water systems across the country.
“Water systems, like other public utility systems, are part of the nation’s critical infrastructure and can be vulnerable targets when someone desires to adversely affect public safety,” Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, Fla., said at the time.
In California, where epic Sierra Nevada snowpack and “the big melt” have substantially increased the stakes for reservoir managers, officials say they’re taking steps to protect the state’s water systems from hackers, terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
But experts say the challenges are numerous. Many of the systems in California and nationwide are still operating with outdated software, poor passwords, aging infrastructure and other weaknesses that could leave them at risk.
“We’ve seen a steady rise in both the prevalence and the impact of cyberintrusions, as well as an extraordinary increase in ransomware attacks, which have become more destructive and more expensive,” said Joe Oregon, chief of cybersecurity for Region 9 of the federal Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
Andrew Reddie, an assistant professor of practice in cybersecurity at UC Berkeley’s School of Information, said much of the problem is “driven by the fact that the infrastructure is really, really old, and ultimately predates the era that we find ourselves in now, where we actually bake cybersecurity into these ... systems by design.”
“You can point to any number of critical infrastructure, including things like dams and water treatment plants, that are not terribly well-protected in terms of passwords,” he said.
A lot of older infrastructure is not “air gapped” from the Internet, he said, referring to a separation between operational technology and Internet technology. That could enable a bad actor to do things such as change chemical levels or open sluices to manipulate flows in water channels or dams.
Compounding the problem is a lack of central regulation or uniform protocols. Multiple agencies — including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Water Works Association and the Department of Homeland Security and CISA — provide some degree of risk management oversight, or offer frameworks and recommendations. But many of the day-to-day decisions are left up to individual operators.
“A lot of the responsibility does certainly fall on the stakeholders’ shoulders to manage their own information systems effectively to prevent any type of cyber compromise or cyber incidents,” said Oregon, of CISA.
The agency estimates that about 63 percent of the nation’s 91,000 dams are privately owned. Federal, state and local governments and utilities own 35 percent, and the remaining 2 percent have “undetermined ownership.”
Despite the risks, experts said it’s important for water systems to be networked in order to expedite maintenance and monitoring. In California, reservoirs are often intentionally spread far apart to maximize rainwater capture and other benefits, so sending physical crews to respond to every potential problem would be time-consuming and expensive, said Ethan Schmertzler, chief executive of Dispel, a cyberdefense firm.
“It all depends upon how water systems are connected, and most water systems in the United States are not — it’s not one national water system,” he said. “The good news is each community is divided into their own command and control systems. The downside is, they’re all divided into their own command and control systems.”
Though most standards are not mandatory, cybersecurity recommendations — and spending — have vastly improved in recent years, he said. Recent legislation through the National Defense Authorization Act will soon compel utilities to report cybersecurity threats to CISA, which will help the federal agency better spot trends, share information and render a response.
John Rizzardo, security coordinator with the State Water Project at the California Department of Water Resources, said the agency operates with an ethos of “layers upon layers of security,” for both physical and cyber threats. Because the agency is also an energy provider in the state, “we probably employ more security features than a lot of just the water industry,” he said.
That doesn’t mean it is immune, however. CISA pointed to the Oroville dam crisis of 2017 as an example of the nation’s need for “comprehensive oversight and guidance over dam resilience.” During that incident, hillside erosion on the dam’s emergency spillway threatened a major flood event and prompted the evacuation of about 200,000 people, though disaster was ultimately averted.
Rizzardo said the agency has since shored up the spillway and made significant security upgrades and is working to implement the same standards across all State Water Project facilities. The Department of Homeland Security runs national security drills for the dam sector every two years, he said, which the agency also participates in.
But even with the best protocols in place, “there’s still going to be a risk of a cyber or physical attack,” Rizzardo said. “It could happen — we’re doing our best to prevent it — but if it does happen, we do practice our emergency action plans regularly so that we’re prepared if there is some kind of attack that we can try to mitigate, to reduce the consequences.”
Indeed, the Oldsmar incident was not a one-off. A few months later, a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline — a vital U.S. oil conduit between the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast — spurred fuel shortages, flight cancellations and a state of emergency declaration from President Joe Biden.
Earlier this year, Biden unveiled a national strategy for cybersecurity that calls for a “more intentional, more coordinated and more well-resourced approach to cyberdefense.”
Similar attacks have threatened other water systems, including an Iranian attack on a New York dam in 2016, in which hackers tried but failed to take control of a sluice gate.
In January 2021, an unnamed water treatment plant in the San Francisco Bay Area also suffered a cyberattack, NBC News first reported. Hackers accessed the plant’s system through a remote access TeamViewer account and deleted programs used to treat drinking water. The programs were reinstalled the next day and no failures were reported. (The Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, which compiled a report on the incident, said it could not provide more details as an investigation is ongoing.)
One of the largest water providers in the country is the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a massive regional wholesaler that supplies 26 agencies serving 19 million people, including the San Diego County Water Authority.
General manager Adel Hagekhalil said in an email that America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 served as a “catalyst for utilities to evaluate their resilience to risk and create emergency plans for responding to all hazards.”
“We are constantly taking steps to ensure the security of our water supplies against physical and cybersecurity threats,” Hagekhalil said. He noted that community water systems serving more than 3,300 people are required to actively update their risk and resilience assessment and emergency response plans every five years.
Additionally, the MWD employs cybersecurity experts and constantly monitors network and computer activity to “detect unusual events quickly so they can be addressed,” he said. Computer and network access is tightly controlled, and employees are also required to take annual cybersecurity training.
The agency also conducts periodic emergency management exercises at different facilities to simulate responses to physical threats such as earthquakes, floods, fires and terrorist attacks, which include first responders and law enforcement agencies, he said.
But the United States is home to more than 55,000 public water systems and 16,000 wastewater systems, said Jennifer Lyn Walker, director of infrastructure cyberdefense at the Water Information Sharing and Analysis Center. One of her primary concerns was that there is often a “lack of awareness” about the potential for cyberthreats and other such vulnerabilities.
“Physical threats are so much more top of mind, or more easily identified or more easily understood than the cyberthreat,” she said. “The concern is a lack of preparedness.”
However, most large systems in California “are doing what needs to be done” when it comes to cybersecurity, she said. Small and medium-size systems, which often have fewer resources than major providers, may need assistance, however, and could benefit from the guidance of larger operators.
“A smaller system that just barely services 5,000 people — that’s still 5,000 people’s lives that could be at risk if something should happen, and that’s from physical or cyber (threats),” she said.
Reddie, of Berkeley, said more auditing would provide a better understanding of which systems are networked, as well as which systems follow best practices. He also recommended educating workforces about proper cyberhygiene.
Even with such steps in place, however, vulnerabilities remain. Ongoing investigations into the Oldsmar incident indicate that it may not have been the work of an outside hacker at all but might have been caused by an internal employee. Should that prove to be the case, it would highlight that insider threats can also be cause for concern, Reddie said.
“These individual firms need to be thinking about what’s their model for the type of threat actor that they’re likely to see,” he said. “Like, is this going to be a state actor? Is it going to be a disgruntled employee? Is it going to be, you know, a script kiddie in a basement?”
(Haley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The scientists fear the phenomenon observed at Petermann Glacier could be happening to other glaciers in both Greenland and Antarctica, possibly leading to faster, more dramatic levels of sea level rise worldwide — “potentially double” what is currently expected from glaciers, according to a study published Monday.
Using satellite measurements of its surface, researchers found that Petermann has been bouncing up and down, dramatically shifting its seafloor moorings in response to the tides. All this movement has carved a large cavern at the base of the glacier and allowed warm water to regularly stretch beneath it. As the glacier lifts and migrates, the water can rush in for over a mile, thinning the ice by as much a 250 feet a year in some places.
“You have this constant flushing of seawater going many kilometers below the glacier and melting the ice,” said Eric Rignot, one of the study’s authors and a glaciologist at the University of California Irvine and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology.
“We think that could change sea level projections quite a bit,” he said. The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Petermann Glacier is, in the context of climate change, the next big thing that our greenhouse gas emissions may break. The vast glacier, some 10 miles wide, is one of several major outlets for ice to escape from Greenland’s interior into the ocean. In total, the massive region of ice queued up behind Petermann could, if it all melted, raise global sea levels by over 1 foot.
Petermann has not changed as much as some other Greenland glaciers, likely in part because it is so far north. But it has seen important shifts.
Petermann lost two massive chunks of ice from its floating ice shelf in 2010 and 2012, causing the shelf to lose roughly a third of its area. It has not since recovered.
The glacier has also started to move backward, as the central region of its grounding line — where it sits on the floor of the deep fjord — retreated more than 2 miles inland toward Greenland’s interior. This has occurred in response to a warming of the water in the fjord in front of the glacier. The warming only amounts to a fraction of a degree, according to Rignot, but the water is now slightly above zero degrees Celsius. But it is more than warm enough to melt ice, especially at the depths and pressures seen at the grounding line.
At the same time, the ice has begun to flow outward more rapidly, meaning that Petermann has swung from a more or less stable state to losing a few billion tons of ice to the ocean each year. It’s not that much compared with a few other major glaciers in Antarctica or Greenland, but it could be only the beginning.
All of this likely reflects changes at the grounding line, which is extremely difficult to observe. But satellites can detect both changes in the surface height of the glacier, which can be used to infer to what is going on beneath, and how glaciers respond to cycles in the tides.
This is what the new research captures at Petermann — showing that the tidal cycles have very large implications for the glacier’s melting.
The satellites showed that there is no real grounding “line” — rather, there is a vast zone, over a mile in length, over which the glacier moves back and forward along the seafloor. This movement accelerates melting as it allows seawater to mix in close to and even beneath the glacier.
(Chris Mooney, WASHINGTON POST)
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Mexico’s environment secretary said experts from the United States, Canada and Mexico will use binoculars, sighting devices and acoustic monitors to try to pinpoint the location of the tiny, elusive porpoises. The species cannot be captured, held or bred in captivity.
The trip will run from May 10 to May 27 in the Gulf of California, also known as the Sea of Cortez, the only place the vaquita lives. The group will travel in a Sea Shepherd vessel and a Mexican boat to try to sight vaquitas; as few as eight of the creatures are believed to remain.
Illegal gillnet fishing traps and kills the vaquita. Fishermen set the nets to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China and can fetch thousands of dollars per pound.
Sea Shepherd has been working in the Gulf alongside the Mexican Navy to discourage illegal fishing in the one area where vaquitas were last seen. The area is known as the “zero tolerance” zone, and no fishing is supposedly allowed there. However, illegal fishing boats are regularly seen there, and so Mexico has been unable to completely stop them.
Pritam Singh, Sea Shepherd’s chair, said that a combination of patrols and the Mexican navy’s plan to sink concrete blocks with hooks to snare illegal nets has reduced the number of hours that fishing boats spend in the restricted zone by 79 percent in 2022, compared with the previous year.
The last such sighting expedition in 2021 yielded probable sightings of between five and 13 vaquitas, a decline from the previous survey in 2019.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Thomas Bakenge, a regional government official, gave the estimate after overseeing recovery efforts in the affected territory of Kalehe, calling the scale of destruction “enormous, beyond words ... whole houses were carried away.” He said bodies were still being collected from the shores of the nearby Lake Kivu.
Two rivers broke their banks after the heavy rains, which began on Thursday evening, and there have been multiple landslides with scores of homes destroyed, according to Delphin Birimbi, a community leader in the region.
As bodies were pulled from the mud, some residents estimated that more than 75 percent of homes in the village of Nyamukubi have been carried away by the floods, along with school buildings and a health center.
Bakenge called for immediate assistance, saying “there is absolutely nothing left here. We urgently need help.”
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The magnitude 6.2 quake struck Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of Japan’s main island of Honshu, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The Japan Meteorological Agency measured the quake at 6.5 and said it was centered at a depth of about 7.5 miles.
More than 50 aftershocks strong enough to be felt have been recorded since, including one at 5.8 magnitude on Friday night.
Most injuries and damage were reported in Suzu city at the northern tip of Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Brazil’s President Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva, who took office in January, announced the contribution to the Amazon Fund on Friday after meeting in London.
The fund was launched in 2009 to fight against deforestation and build sustainable initiatives in the Brazilian rainforest, a vital natural reserve soaking up fumes from oil, natural gas and coal in South America. The committee that governs it was partially dismantled when rightist President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019, and rebooted by the leftist Lula this year.
“President Lula has exhibited great leadership on climate change,” Sunak said on Twitter, adding that he was pleased that Britain would contribute 80 million pounds ($101 million) to the fund, “so we can help stop deforestation and protect biodiversity.”
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Guatemala’s disaster agency said the volcano had been emitting ash clouds that could affect as many as 100,000 people in communities around the peak.
The 12,300-foot-tall Volcano of Fire is one of the most active in Central America.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The death toll “continues to rise,” the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency said Wednesday.
“This could be the highest disaster-induced death toll to be recorded in the country in the shortest period, according to available records from recent years,” the government-backed New Times newspaper reported.
Francois Habitegeko, governor of Rwanda’s Western Province, told reporters that a search for more victims was under way following heavy rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Strong rainstorms started last week, causing flooding and mudslides that swept away several houses across the country and left some roads inaccessible.
The Rwanda Meteorology Agency has warned that more rain is coming.
The government has in the past asked residents living in wetlands and other dangerous areas to relocate.
The Western and Northern provinces and Kigali, the capital, are particularly hilly, making them vulnerable to landslides during the rainy season.
The Ministry of Emergency Management reported last month that from January to April 20, weather-related disasters killed 60 people, destroyed more than 1,205 houses and damaged about 5,000 acres of land across Rwanda.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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While there is not yet a clear picture of how strong the El Niño event will be or how long it might last, even a relatively mild one could affect precipitation and temperature patterns around the world.
“The development of an El Niño will most likely lead to a new spike in global heating and increase the chance of breaking temperature records,” Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the meteorological organization, said in a news release.
El Niño is associated with warmer-than-normal ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. In the United States, it tends to lead to rainier, cooler conditions in much of the South, and warmer conditions in parts of the North.
Elsewhere, El Niño can bring increased rainfall to southern South America and the Horn of Africa, and severe drought to Australia, Indonesia and parts of southern Asia.
El Niño, together with its counterpart La Niña, is part of the intermittent cycle known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, that is highly influential in shaping year-to-year variations in weather conditions across the globe.
ENSO is a naturally occurring phenomenon, and scientists are still researching exactly how human-caused climate change over the past 150 years may be impacting the behavior and dynamics of El Niño and La Niña events, with some studies suggesting that El Niño events may be more extreme in a warmer future.
Conditions in the tropical Pacific have been in a neutral state since the latest La Niña event ended this year. La Niña conditions had persisted through a rare three consecutive winters in the Northern Hemisphere, supercharging Atlantic hurricane seasons and prolonging severe drought across much of the Western United States.
According to the World Meteorological Organization outlook, there is about a 60 percent chance that El Niño will form between May and July, and an 80 percent chance it will form between July and September. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a similar outlook last month.
(Elena Shao, NEW YORK TIMES)
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The late-morning crashes involved 40 to 60 cars and multiple tractor-trailers, two of which caught fire, Illinois State Police Maj. Ryan Starrick said.
He said at least six people died, all in the northbound lanes, and more than 30 people on both sides of I-55 were transported to hospitals with injuries.
“The only thing you could hear after we got hit was crash after crash after crash behind us,” said Tom Thomas, 43, who was traveling south to St. Louis.
I-55 was shut down in both directions in Montgomery County, 75 miles north of St. Louis, and likely won’t reopen until today.
Starrick told reporters that it was a spring version of a “whiteout situation” typically seen in winter snowstorms. Gov. J.B. Pritzker described the scene as “horrific.”
“The cause of the crashes is due to excessive winds blowing dirt from farm fields across the highway, leading to zero visibility,” Starrick said.
Dairon Socarras Quintero, 32, who was driving to St. Louis to make deliveries for his custom frame company based in Elk Grove Village, said after his truck hit the vehicle in front of him, he exited and moved to the side of the road to ensure his safety.
Socarras Quintero said that the dust continued to blow ferociously as he checked on other motorists and emergency personnel arrived. He held up his backpack, which was caked with dust even though it was inside a closed truck cab.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The valley was open Sunday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. with limited services available, park officials said.
Most of the valley had closed Friday evening because of a forecast of high temperatures and flooding. Originally, parts of the park were expected to be closed through Wednesday as a snowmelt-fueled deluge had the normally placid Merced River overflowing its banks.
The river, which winds through Yosemite Valley, was forecast to crest at a flood stage level of about 11 feet on Sunday morning, the highest in years. Flood warnings had been issued for Mariposa, Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties.
The Merced River expected to reach flood stage off and on through early July, but this weekend's flooding proved to be less than expected. The valley is expected to reopen fully with all services today at 7 a.m., park officials said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The tornado on Saturday evening in the city of Palm Beach Gardens, about 75 miles north of Miami, caused widespread damage, blowing the roof off one apartment building and blasting away at least one apartment door. The Palm Beach Gardens city government said in a tweet that there was “roof, structural and vehicle damage throughout the City,” but no injuries were reported.
Branches flew dangerously in the wind, and trees collapsed on vehicles in the neighborhood of Sanctuary Cove in nearby North Palm Beach. The storm also shattered windows of homes and cars, damaging a large construction vehicle and blowing away a park bench.
First responders arrived quickly, residents said.
“When I saw it kind of closing in toward us, I immediately shut the slider, went back in, huddled in the bathroom, the building started to shake, there was a lot of noise for 20 to 25 seconds,” Andrew Laybourne, who lives in Palm Beach Gardens, told WPBF News.
The destruction was followed on Sunday morning by fresh tornado warnings in multiple communities, including Palm Beach County. The warnings expired, and no additional tornadoes were reported.
The tornado was classified as an EF-2 on the Fujita scale, classifying it in the “strong” category, the National Weather Service said on Sunday, with estimated winds of at least 130 miles per hour. It traveled about 2.6 miles on the ground, the Weather Service said.
Images posted on social media showed a car being flipped by strong winds in the pouring rain and a wind funnel sweeping across North Palm Beach on Saturday.
Across the state, thousands of customers lost power on Saturday night, according to PowerOutage.us. Hundreds still were without power on Sunday morning.
The United States logs more than 1,000 tornadoes annually, more than any other country in the world.
The most deadly tornado in recent years occurred in 2011, when a storm that tore through Joplin, Mo., killed more than 150 people. Last month, a tornado in rural Mississippi devastated mobile homes and killed at least two dozen people.
(WASHINGTON POST)
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In America’s hottest big metro, older people like the Sun Lakes mobile home resident accounted for most of the 77 people who died last summer in broiling heat inside their homes, almost all without air conditioning. Now, the heat dangers long known in greater Phoenix are becoming familiar nationwide as global warming creates new challenges.
From the Pacific Northwest to Chicago to North Carolina, health clinics, utilities and local governments are being tested to keep older people safe when temperatures soar. They’re adopting rules for disconnecting electricity, mandating when to switch on communal air conditioning and improving communication with at-risk people living alone.
A 2021 study estimated more than a third of U.S. heat deaths each year can be attributed to human-caused global warming. It found more than 1,100 deaths a year from climate change-caused heat in some 200 U.S. cities, many in the East and Midwest, where people often don’t have air conditioning or are not acclimated to hot weather. Another study showed that in coming decades, dangerous heat will hit much of the world at least three times as hard as climate change worsens.
Older people are particularly vulnerable because of isolation, mobility issues or medical problems. Older people of color, with a greater tendency for chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure, are especially at risk.
Many U.S. cities, including Phoenix, have plans to protect people during heat waves, opening cooling centers and distributing bottled water.
But many older people need personalized attention, said Dr. Aaron Bernstein, who directs the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
“If you are elderly and sick you are unlikely to get into an Uber or bus to get to a cooling center,” said Bernstein, who vividly recalls a 1995 heat wave that killed 739 mostly older people in Chicago, his hometown. “So many were socially isolated and at tremendous risk.”
Bernstein’s center is working with relief organization Americares to help community health clinics prepare vulnerable patients for heat waves and other extreme weather.
A “climate resilience tool kit” includes tips like making sure patients have wall thermometers and know how to check weather forecasts on a smartphone. Patients learn simple ways to beat the heat, like taking a shower or sponge bath to cool off and drinking plenty of water.
New rules for Arizona utilities were adopted after 72-year-old Stephanie Pullman died in August 2018 at her Phoenix area home as outside temperatures reached 107 degrees.
The medical examiner’s office said Pullman died from “environmental heat exposure” combined with cardiovascular disease after her power was shut off over a $176.84 debt.
The Arizona agency that regulates utilities now bans electricity cutoffs for nonpayment during the hottest months.
(Anita Snow, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The new and possibly lengthy shutdown comes less than two weeks after full service resumed following a nearly six-month suspension of passenger trains caused by a different landslide two miles away. It is the third lengthy disruption of service in the area since 2021.
The latest slide originated at the back patio of the Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens, a 1920s-era estate owned by the city of San Clemente since the 1980s and used for special events such as weddings and festivals. Built by the city’s founder, Ole Hanson, the hilltop location overlooking the tracks and the municipal pier is a registered historic landmark and much loved by many residents.
A bowl-shaped scoop of soil about 20 feet deep fell away from the lot Wednesday night, taking part of the hilltop and ocean-view concrete patio with it. The scoop slid another 8 or 10 feet down the hill Thursday night and continued moving slowly Friday, officials said.
“We’re still not sure how deep it is,” said Kiel Koger, San Clemente’s director of public works, who was at the site Friday morning.
The toe or bottom of the main slide is about 30 feet above the railroad tracks, but chunks of soil and debris fell to track level without causing any damage. The area’s soil is poor and may have been weakened by the winter rains, he said.
The Orange County Transportation Authority, working with the city and other agencies, decided at 1 p.m. Thursday to suspend all freight and rail traffic at the site until the area can be declared safe. City officials closed off a section of the public trail along the beach that parallels the tracks.
City officials discovered new cracks in the soil at Casa Romantica on April 16. The San Clemente City Council, at an emergency meeting Monday, authorized $75,000 to pay for geological studies now under way that will help determine what can be done.
“We need more data,” Koger said. “It’s too early to know what the situation is.”
The Casa Romantica buildings so far are undamaged, he said. However, the buildings have been closed to the public and all future events are on hold until further notice.
An apartment building below and to one side of the slide has been red-tagged and evacuated because of soil pushing up against one side of the structure, officials said. Only about eight of the 24 apartments have permanent occupants; most are vacation rentals.
Several apartments in another nearby building have been yellow-tagged, which is an advisory that occupants should be cautious but need not evacuate.
San Clemente Mayor Chris Duncan visited Casa Romantica Friday morning.
“This is a beautiful, historical structure, but the most important thing here is people’s lives,” Duncan said.
“It is clearly a dynamic situation,” he said. “Every time you get an assessment, it changes. There is still movement here.”
The new slide emphasizes what people have known for a long time, that the 140-year-old rail corridor is increasingly vulnerable to coastal erosion.
Two miles south of Casa Romantica, on a bluff below the Cyprus Shore community, a recurring landslide started its gradual movement again last fall. The OCTA suspended all passenger service between San Diego and Orange counties beginning Sept. 30 to launch a $13.7 million stabilization project that involved drilling steel anchors more than 130 feet deep into the bedrock. Weekday Amtrak and Metrolink service to Oceanside resumed April 17.
The route through San Clemente is the only rail connection between San Diego and Los Angeles and to points elsewhere across the United States. It’s also part of the U.S. military’s Strategic Rail Corridor Network, and is the only way to transport some especially large, heavy or potentially hazardous materials.
“It’s the only way to get the spent nuclear fuel out of San Onofre (Nuclear Generating Station),” Duncan said.
Large, heavy, radioactive parts such as the used reactor vessel from the decommissioned nuclear power plant also can only be transported by rail, he said. Many of those large parts also arrived at the power plant by rail.
“We have to ensure that this rail corridor is resilient,” Duncan said.
“We are going to have to get very creative here to figure out how to maintain the railroad tracks through San Clemente,” he said.
Rerouting the tracks away from the coast is one possibility, he said. But that is a long-term solution, and there is a more immediate need to safeguard the existing coastal route.
“This is something I would like to have seen a little more foresight on,” Duncan said. “There is technology that can help you stabilize a slope. We need to look at doing that before something happens.”
Other agencies involved include the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor.
“We are working with our partners to resume safe service as quickly as possible,” said Solana Beach Councilwoman Jewel Edson, who is chair of both the North County Transit District board and the LOSSAN board.
“Earlier this week, the California State Transportation Agency awarded $5 million in Transit Intercity Rail Capital Program funds to OCTA ... for a study to evaluate long-term options for the coastal section of the rail corridor in Dana Point and San Clemente,” Edson said.
“We’re thankful ... for the timely funding and look forward to continue working with our partners and member agencies to ensure a resilient rail corridor for the future,” she said.
State Assemblymember Laurie Davies, who represents northern San Diego County and southern Orange County, issued a statement Friday offering to help.
“Immediately upon hearing the news of the landslide, I reached out to the Office of Emergency Services regarding disaster funding and relief,” Davies said.
“I believe this current landslide is linked to the atmospheric river events the region experienced a few weeks ago,” she said. “This morning, I toured the area, and I am devastated for Casa Romantica Cultural Center and Gardens. It is truly iconic amongst San Clemente’s coastal landscape. I will do all that I can to assist. I will be San Clemente’s advocate with the state of California to bring resources to the area.”
Another trouble spot is the bluff-top coastal tracks in Del Mar, where federal, state and local agencies have been working for years to stabilize the cliffs.
State officials awarded a $300 million grant to the San Diego Association of Governments last year for preliminary work needed to move the 1.7 miles of train tracks off the Del Mar bluffs, possibly to an inland tunnel beneath the small city.
“The infrastructure investments the region is making today help ensure our rail line remains safe, secure, and operational,” NCTD Executive Director Matt Tucker said by email Friday.
“We need to continue to be vigilant — furthering critical stabilization efforts and planning for the resiliency of the rail line in the future,” Tucker said.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, has been an advocate for rail system improvements and helped obtain funding to stabilize the tracks and to study the possible relocation of the vulnerable coastal route.
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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But some views are off limits as the park temporarily closed much of the famed Yosemite Valley on Friday night due to a forecast of flooding amid rising spring temperatures.
Warming weather is quickly melting huge amounts of snow that accumulated in mountains from a series of epic winter storms. Across California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, temperatures were expected to climb into the mid-90s through today, and a flood warning was in effect for rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.
High temperatures speed up the pace of the snowmelt, especially when nighttime temperatures no longer dip below freezing.
This week’s temperatures are 15 degrees higher than normal for this time of year, but are expected to cool next week, said Bill South, a meteorologist at the weather service.
“We’re going to go from highs in the mid-90s on Saturday to highs in the upper 60s on Tuesday,” South said.
The eastern section of Yosemite Valley will stay shut at least until Wednesday, and reservations for campgrounds and lodging in the eastern valley are being canceled and refunded, park officials said. Other sections, including western Yosemite Valley, will remain open.
South urged visitors to the Yosemite area to stay alert as the Merced River, which runs through the park, is expected to rise as the snow melts. But next week’s forecast is expected to help.
“Next week, when it cools off, there won’t be as much snowmelt nor as much flooding,” South said.
Elsewhere in California, some lakes are still covered with ice. Thousands of anglers are expected to head out this weekend for the eastern Sierra trout season opener, but only a handful of lakes will be open due to public safety concerns including fast-moving streams, shore ice and flooded access roads, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The deaths were reported in McClain County, south of Oklahoma City, and included two local residents and another person transported there from a neighboring county, according to the McClain County Sheriff’s Office.
Rescue and recovery crews continued to search small communities in and around the metropolitan area Thursday, authorities said.
Also Thursday, a tornado watch was in effect until 8 p.m. in a wide swath of the Midwest that stretched across Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin, an area with a population of more than 14 million residents that included Chicago and Milwaukee. The watch from the National Weather Service indicated the possibility of a few tornadoes, up to 2-inch-size hail and winds rising to 75 mph.
In Central Texas, a tornado warning was issued for Falls County, which is just outside Waco, until 5:45 p.m. The area was expected to have scattered storms throughout Thursday night with large hail and strong, damaging winds, according to the weather service forecast in Waco. A steady rainfall, with up to 2.5 inches being dumped on the area, was also forecast. More than 70,000 customers were without power in Texas on Thursday evening, according to the website PowerOutage.us.
The two deaths from McClain County — a man and a woman — were recorded in or near Cole, a town of about 600 people south of the city, McClain County Deputy Sheriff Scott Gibbons said by phone. The man had been found dead with injuries, while the woman was discovered injured on a nearby property and died as she was being taken to a medical facility for treatment, Gibbons said Thursday.
The third death was of a person “believed to have sustained fatal injuries from the storm” who had been transported to the area “from an adjacent county,” the sheriff’s office said.
The storm had cut a path of damage a couple of miles wide and about 10 miles long, and a “considerable number” of homes had probably been destroyed. As daylight broke, crews prepared to look for people in the battered community who might need help and to assess the scope of the damage in largely rural areas of wood-framed homes.
With power lines down and roads blocked by debris, aerial support would be used to help the rescue-and-recovery crews navigate, he said. About 12,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma on Thursday evening.
“We are getting calls this morning requesting welfare checks, and as daylight happens that list is starting to build back up,” Gibbons said.
He said he did not yet know how many people were injured elsewhere in the county. Cole and Dibble, just to the south with a population of about 800, were in the part of the county that was most affected by the storm, he said.
Survey teams planned to investigate damage from several reported tornadoes that touched down in and around the Oklahoma City area Wednesday, including one that was recorded for a few minutes within the city’s borders, said Ryan Barnes, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said the strongest one had been recorded in Cole and had lasted for nearly half an hour.
On Thursday, Bruce Thoren, a meteorologist with the weather service in Norman, said that at least eight paths that had been picked up by radar data would be investigated on the ground.
“It is just a matter of when did it touch down, how long was it, and obviously we try to put a rating to it,” he said, referring to an effort to measure its intensity.
Some of the videos, and details, were dramatic, even for a part of the country that has endured several deadly and destructive tornadoes in recent weeks.
KWTV, a CBS affiliate in Oklahoma, aired footage Wednesday of what it said was a large tornado crossing Interstate 40 in Shawnee, about 40 miles east of Oklahoma City. The weather service said separately that baseball-size hail had fallen in Grady County, southwest of the metropolitan region.
(Mike Ives, NEW YORK TIMES)
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“I called my parents like, ‘I’m going to die. Like I’m going to drown. There’s no way for me to get out of this car,’” Valentine said. “And they couldn’t help me. I called 911, and they told me they couldn’t help me.”
She eventually forced the door open and got to safety.
Parts of South Florida began cleaning up Thursday after the unprecedented storm that trapped Valentine and other motorists dumped upward of 2 feet of rain in a matter of hours Wednesday, caused widespread flooding, closed a key airport and turned thoroughfares into rivers. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.
Residents still waded through knee-high water or used canoes and kayaks to navigate the streets Thursday in Fort Lauderdale’s Edgewood neighborhood, where window screen installer Dennis Vasquez towed some of his neighbor’s belongings on an inflatable mattress to a car on dry land. He lost all of his possessions when water rose chest-high in his house Wednesday night.
“Everything, it’s gone,” he said in Spanish. “But I will replace it.”
In Broward County, where rains started Monday before the heaviest rains arrived Wednesday afternoon, crews worked Thursday to clear drains and fire up pumps to clear standing water.
Fort Lauderdale issued a state of emergency as flooding persisted in parts of the city. Crews worked through the night to respond to rescue calls. Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport, which closed Wednesday evening, said it would not reopen until 5 a.m. today because of debris and flooding.
Shawn Bhatti, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said the region received “an unprecedented amount” of rain. The weather service was still confirming totals, but some gauges showed up to 25 inches of rainfall.
“For context, within a six-hour period the amount that fell is about a 1 in 1,000 chance of happening within a given year,” Bhatti said. “So it’s a very historical type of event.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The city of Fort Lauderdale released a statement Wednesday evening urging residents and visitors to stay off the roads until the water has subsided.
“Police and Fire Rescue continue to answer calls for service,” the statement said. “Public Works staff are clearing drains and operating pumps to mitigate the water as quickly as possible.”
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency for Fort Lauderdale and other areas for into the pre-dawn hours today as the chance of thunderstorms continued across the region, warning: “This is a life-threatening situation. Seek higher ground now!”
There have been no immediate reports of injuries or deaths.
Nearly 26 inches had fallen across the area through Wednesday, according to meteorologist Craig Ceecee, and the National Weather Service said another 2 to 4 inches were possible as a warm front continued to push northward, bringing a chance of thunderstorms.
More than 22,000 customers in Florida were without electricity Wednesday night, according to poweroutage.us.
All Broward County Public Schools with be closed today, the district tweeted, adding “All after-school activities, events, and extracurricular activities are also cancelled tomorrow.”
Wednesday’s relentless showers prompted the airport, one of the largest in the region, to suspend all arriving and departing flights, the airport tweeted around 4:15 p.m.
Airport operations are expected to remain closed until at least noon today.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The Tulare Lake basin and the San Joaquin River basin remain the areas of top concern, as record-deep snowpack in the southern Sierra Nevada is expected to send a cascade of water down into the San Joaquin Valley as it melts.
Residents who live in the potential path of runoff should be prepared to take action, said Jeremy Arrich, manager of the division of flood management with the state Department of Water Resources.
“Be aware of your flood risks,” Arrich said. “Know where your house or your business sits within or around the potential for flooding. Be prepared by planning out evacuation routes and meeting locations with your family, and then take action if the emergency response or local entities send out evacuation orders or warnings.”
The threat comes after one of the state’s coldest, wettest winters on record left Sierra snowpack at 249 percent of normal for the date. Mammoth Mountain received more than 700 inches of fresh powder this season, and there is now more water contained in the state’s snowpack than the capacity of Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir.
Some parts of the San Joaquin Valley have already seen some melting and could “start to have significant flooding in the coming days,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.
“All the flooding we’re seeing right now is just a taste of what is likely to come, because these flows that are high right now are mainly high based on the melting that occurred a while back and precipitation that fell a long time ago,” Swain said.
He noted that the snow water equivalent — or the amount of water contained in the snow — peaked at 300 percent to 400 percent of average in some watersheds, and “most of the snow up there has yet to melt.”
“In fact, somewhere around 98 percent of the snow that was up there at the peak is still there, and is still going to melt, and is still going to become runoff and fill rivers, reservoirs and probably floodplains,” he said.
State officials on Tuesday stopped short of predicting specific flood locations, noting that much of the timing and impacts will depend on the weather. But historic snowmelt patterns could give an indication of what’s to come, according to Mike Anderson, state climatologist with the Department of Water Resources.
About a quarter of the snowmelt in the San Joaquin basin typically occurs in April, with the bulk of the snow coming down in May and June before tapering off in July, he said.
Watersheds in the Tulare basin are varied, with the Kings and Kern rivers seeing the largest part of their snowmelt around June. The Tule River, located at a lower elevation, sees more melt “up front,” with about 38 percent in April and only 6 percent by July, Anderson said.
“Remember, it’s not just temperature that is involved in melting the snowpack,” he said. “It takes a lot of solar radiation to get that pack ready, to get those ice crystals ready, to a state where they can become water.”
But while the next few months will see the bulk of the melt, the depth and density of the snowpack means flows could persist into fall, according to state water supply forecasts.
The forecast shows nearly every major river system receiving runoff into September. That includes 69,000 acre-feet of water into the Kings River watershed just that month alone, and 51,000 acre-feet into the Kern. An acre-foot is approximately 326,000 gallons.
Dave Rizzardo, hydrology branch manager with the DWR, said the numbers represent unimpaired flows, or the total amount of water that could flow into a watershed without accounting for evaporation, diversions or other factors that can in some instances reduce the yield.
Even still, some systems are expected to receive inflows far above average by the end of the water year, which runs annually from October through September. Lake Success, the Tule River reservoir, could receive a total of 570,000 acre-feet this water year — or 431 percent of its average. Nearly a third of that is expected to arrive in the next five months. The lake is currently at 64 percent capacity.
The state’s water managers have been making strategic releases from reservoirs to make room for incoming flows.
What’s more, those hoping for relief after spring and summer may be out of luck, as long-term forecasts call for the re-emergence of El Niño later this year.
The tropical Pacific climate pattern is associated with above-normal rainfall in California, along with accompanying landslides, floods and coastal erosion, though it is not a guarantee. There is a growing likelihood that this year’s El Niño could be notably strong — comparable to “super El Niños” of 1982-83, 1996-97 and 2016-17, Swain said.
“There is a relatively high chance it becomes moderate or stronger by the autumn or winter to come,” he said. “And if it does so, it would have significant implications for California’s late summer, autumn and winter conditions next year.”
(Hayley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The ash cloud from the eruption of Shiveluch, one of Kamchatka’s most active volcanoes, extended more than 300 miles northwest and engulfed several villages in gray volcanic dust.
Officials closed the skies over the area to aircraft. Local authorities advised residents to stay indoors and shut schools in several affected communities. Two villages had their power supplies cut for a few hours until emergency crews restored them.
Scientists described the fallout as the biggest in nearly 60 years.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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City officials said that around 8:10 a.m., the lower part of the apartment building, which was evacuated March 27, began to detach.
The structure fell in its entirety on a property located below the hillside on Cuauhtémoc Sur Boulevard, according to a video shared on Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero’s social media.
Firefighters and police officers guarding the area stopped traffic as soon as material began to fall, officials said.
“It gave us time to close the road to avoid any impact on drivers,” said Tijuana Fire Department Director Rafael Carrillo.
No people were injured as a result of the collapse.
Miguel &Aactue;ngel Bujanda, Tijuana’s secretary of the interior, said in a news release that city employees were working on the removal of debris that fell on two lanes of the road.
On Sunday afternoon, authorities confirmed that the road reopened after intensified cleanup work.
When the first apartment building collapsed on April 1, authorities tried to speak with the owner of both structures to analyze the possibility of demolishing the second building, which was at imminent risk of collapse.
On April 4, Tijuana Civil Protection Director Bernardo Villegas mentioned that there was a possibility of the building falling on its own. “There is still movement. It could possibly fall before a demolition could take place,” he said.
In late March, the city of Tijuana issued a state of emergency to “accelerate prevention actions, mitigation and solutions related to the instability of hillsides registered in six points of the city.”
In the first three months of the year, Tijuana received 9 to 10 inches of rain, compared with 1 inch last year, according to data from Tijuana Civil Protection.
The soaking aggravated the risk of landslides in at least six Tijuana neighborhoods: Aguaje de la Tuna Primera Sección, Herradura Sur, Urbi Villa del Prado, Terrazas del Rubí, Cañón del Matadero and parts of La Sierra.
In addition, on Friday a retention wall collapsed in the residential area Colinas de Chapultepec, and 22 homes were evacuated as a preventive measure.
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila said that construction permits issued for those Tijuana neighborhoods at risk of landslides will be reviewed.
(Alexandra Mendoza, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; Yolanda Morales)
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Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains will return to full service through San Clemente next Monday, with 10 round trips each day between Los Angeles and San Diego. The bus connection between Oceanside and Irvine used during the stabilization project will no longer be required.
Metrolink plans to resume seven-days-a-week rail service to Oceanside, along with all regular passenger service along its Orange County and Inland Empire-Orange County lines through San Clemente, according to the Orange County Transportation Authority.
“I am very excited about Metrolink resuming service to and from Oceanside,” said Metrolink board Chair Larry McCallon, who is also the mayor of the city of Highland in San Bernardino County.
“I know the residents of the Inland Empire are looking forward to again taking the train to the beach,” McCallon said in a news release. “I encourage everyone to return to using our rail service to and from the beach areas as the nice weather returns to Southern California. I want to thank our partners at OCTA for their diligence and coordination as we both worked toward ensuring the continued safety of our rail service.”
Weekend Amtrak service was restored in February, and limited BNSF freight service has continued throughout the construction. The coastal rail route through San Clemente is the only passenger and freight train link between San Diego and the rest of the United States.
All passenger service was suspended Sept. 30 after inspectors discovered a section of the railroad tracks, on a slope loosened by rain and beach erosion, had moved a total of about 28 inches toward the ocean during the previous year at a rate between 0.01 inch and 0.04 inch per day.
OCTA’s Metrolink trains, which normally stop at the Oceanside Transit Center, traveled no farther south than the San Clemente pier during the stabilization project.
“The reopening of the tracks in San Clemente restores vital intercity rail connections between San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo,” said Jason Jewell, Managing Director of the LOSSAN Agency. “We thank our customers for their patience during this extended construction period and look forward to welcoming them back next week.”
Crews will finish installing the second row of grade beam panels and ground anchor tiebacks this week that are stabilizing the privately owned hillside next to the track.
The construction has stopped movement of the track, OCTA officials reported during Monday’s OCTA board of directors meeting.
Remaining construction activities include cutting, capping, and covering with shotcrete all tiebacks, installing a trench drain system, the restoration of the slope and fencing, and revegetation, according to the report. That work is expected to continue through June.
“This emergency work has posed an unprecedented challenge, especially with the heavy rainfall this season, and we’re very pleased to announce that passenger service can safely resume on this key stretch of Southern California rail,” said OCTA Chairman Gene Hernandez, also the mayor of Yorba Linda. “We greatly appreciate the public’s patience and their understanding that ensuring passenger safety is always the first priority.”
The latest forecast for the cost to complete the stabilization project is $13,700,600, according to an OCTA staff report.
The transportation authority also will have to make as-yet undetermined annual lease payments to the State Lands Commission for the use of land below the high-tide line as part of a rock revetment. There also could be additional costs for the use of private rights-of-way, permit fees, and environmental mitigation.
(Phil Diehl, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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“India is a country where protecting nature is part of our culture,” Modi proclaimed. “This is why we have many unique achievements in wildlife conservation.”
Modi also launched the International Big Cats Alliance that he said will focus on the protection and conservation of seven big cat species.
Protesters, meanwhile, are telling their own stories Sunday of how they have been displaced by wildlife conservation projects over the last half-century, with dozens demonstrating about an hour away from the announcement.
Several Indigenous groups say the conservation strategies meant uprooting numerous communities that had lived in the forests for millennia.
Members of several Indigenous or Adivasi groups — as Indigenous people are known in the country — set up the Nagarahole Adivasi Forest Rights Establishment Committee to protest evictions from their ancestral lands and seek a voice in how the forests are managed.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Dealing a blow to the salmon fishing industry, the Pacific Fishery Management Council unanimously approved the closure Thursday for fall-run chinook fishing from Cape Falcon in northern Oregon to the California-Mexico border. Limited recreational salmon fishing will be allowed off southern Oregon in the fall.
California fishing industry representatives and elected leaders said federal aid must be released quickly and efforts need to be ramped up to restore salmon habitat in California rivers with better water management, and the removal of dams and other barriers.
“We have to make sure that the policies and practices and the rest are not such that they are defying the evolutionary progress of salmon,” U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Friday, speaking in San Francisco, surrounded by fishers who spoke of their concerns about making ends meet during the closure.
The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the San Francisco Bay Area, pledged to push for the Biden administration to act quickly on the state’s request to declare the situation a fishery resource disaster, the first step toward a disaster assistance bill that must be approved by Congress.
In a letter to the Secretary of Commerce seeking the declaration, the governor’s office said the projected loss of the 2023 season is over $45 million — a figure that does not include the full impact to coastal communities and inland salmon fisheries. California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Dealing a blow to the salmon fishing industry, the Pacific Fishery Management Council unanimously approved the closure Thursday for fall-run chinook fishing from Cape Falcon in northern Oregon to the California-Mexico border. Limited recreational salmon fishing will be allowed off southern Oregon in the fall.
California fishing industry representatives and elected leaders said federal aid must be released quickly and efforts need to be ramped up to restore salmon habitat in California rivers with better water management, and the removal of dams and other barriers.
“We have to make sure that the policies and practices and the rest are not such that they are defying the evolutionary progress of salmon,” U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi said Friday, speaking in San Francisco, surrounded by fishers who spoke of their concerns about making ends meet during the closure.
The Democratic congresswoman, whose district includes the San Francisco Bay Area, pledged to push for the Biden administration to act quickly on the state’s request to declare the situation a fishery resource disaster, the first step toward a disaster assistance bill that must be approved by Congress.
In a letter to the Secretary of Commerce seeking the declaration, the governor’s office said the projected loss of the 2023 season is over $45 million — a figure that does not include the full impact to coastal communities and inland salmon fisheries. California’s salmon industry is valued at $1.4 billion in economic activity.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography said near-record low readings also were recorded this week at many other stations, including off Imperial Beach and Leucadia, where the temperature was 53.5 degrees on Wednesday.
“Our sea-surface temperature display shows cold temps everywhere in the (Southern California) Bight,” said UCSD’s James Behrens.
Scripps oceanographer Art Miller said in an online posting that the extremely low temperatures appear to be tied to the strong, anomalous surface winds that have been blowing over the ocean for the past week or so.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Montreal’s health authority said dozens of people suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning after using outdoor appliances inside during the blackout caused by Wednesday’s ice storm.
Officials say they received more than 60 reports of carbon monoxide poisoning over the course of several hours Friday, while emergency rooms were at 200 percent capacity.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule calls on chemical plants to monitor and reduce the amount of toxic pollutants released in the air, including the carcinogens ethylene oxide, an ingredient in antifreeze, and chloroprene, which is used to make the rubber in footwear.
The proposed rule would affect the vast majority of chemical manufacturers, applying to more than 200 facilities spread across Texas and Louisiana; elsewhere along the Gulf Coast; the Ohio River Valley; and West Virginia. It would update several regulations governing emissions from chemical plants, some of which have not been tightened in nearly 20 years.
The action is part of the Biden administration’s effort to address the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards facing communities that surround chemical plants. Known as fence-line communities, they are generally low-income, minority neighborhoods with elevated rates of asthma, cancer and other health problems.
The proposed regulation would mark the first time that the EPA considered the cumulative impacts of more than one chemical plant on a community, rather than simply the effect of a single source of pollution.
The rule would require large chemical plants that manufacture chemicals such as ethylene oxide, chloroprene and benzene, used in products like plastics, vinyl flooring and PVC piping, to rigorously tighten controls and processes in their facilities in order to limit emissions of the chemicals into the surrounding communities.
Manufacturers would need to aggressively monitor vents and storage tanks for chemicals escaping into the air, and plug the leaks.
They would also need to continually check not just smokestacks and vents at the manufacturing facilities, but also whether the chemicals of concern are present at the property line of a plant. That kind of fence-line monitoring is similar to those required of petroleum refineries.
The agency will accept public comments on the proposal for 60 days before finalizing it, likely next year.
(Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman, NEW YORK TIMES)
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The funding, from the bipartisan infrastructure law, will go to 83 projects across 11 states and are intended to upgrade aging equipment and help conserve water in a region that has been reeling from two decades of drought. More than half the money — some $308 million — will be spent in California, which is currently in a standoff with the other six states of the Colorado River basin over how much to cut its usage of the river.
Interior’s Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau announced the funding during a visit Wednesday to the Imperial Dam, along the Colorado River in Yuma, Ariz., which is receiving more than $8 million to fix basins that filter silt, according to the department.
The big ticket items in Interior’s repair projects include $43 million to refurbish generators and turbines in the San Luis hydropower plant in Merced County; $42 million to replace transformers at California's Spring Creek Power Facility for pumps that move water from the Trinity River into the Sacramento River; and $66 million for upgrading a fish hatchery on the Trinity River in California.
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Nearly 100,000 people have been affected by the heavy rains and flash floods that hit the previously drought-stricken area in the Bardhere district of the Gedo region of southern Somalia, according to the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The flash floods have hit as the country was going through five seasons of severe drought that left 8.25 million people in need of humanitarian aid.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Hundreds more from the country’s minority Jie community are on the verge of starvation, the Humanitarian Development Consortium said Wednesday.
Years of civil war, famine, floods and a collapsing economy have taken their toll on South Sudan.
A “recent upsurge in numbers” of hungry people has created a “worrying situation,” the agency’s executive director said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Forecasters are keeping a wary eye out for more extreme weather as this year’s early severe storm season continues. The storms have spawned dozens of tornadoes, mainly in the South and Midwest, that have killed at least 63 people. Just last weekend, confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country.
The Missouri tornado touched down around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday and moved through a rural area of Bollinger County, south of St. Louis. Trees were uprooted, homes turned into piles of splinters, and one building was flipped on its side.
Five people were killed and five were injured, state Highway Patrol Superintendent Eric Olson said at a news conference. Residents in the village of Glen Allen said at least some of the victims were members of a family who lived in a trailer along a state highway.
Little was left of the trailer Wednesday beyond its concrete pads and an axle. A large stuffed animal was lodged in the branch of a downed tree, and furniture, clothing and kitchenware were scattered in a field.
Midwest tornadoes have typically occurred later in the spring, but this year’s early spate of severe weather continues a trend seen over the past few years, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations at the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.
“Although we will likely have several relatively quiet days after the current weather system has moved east of the U.S., we are entering the time of the year where the potential for severe weather increases and much more of the U.S. becomes at risk,” Bunting said in a email.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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That’s right, after announcing the deepest snowpack in decades, state officials are warning that runoff from melting snow will send torrents of water rushing from the peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the foothills and valleys thousands of feet below.
Of particular concern is the Tulare Lake Basin and other areas of the Central Valley that have already seen storm flooding this year and remain in the path of snow runoff and releases from nearby dams. Major waterways such as the San Joaquin River, and tributaries, will see treacherous conditions as well.
“If you’re recreating in rivers and streams, the water is going to be cold and high and fast,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “Very, very dangerous.”
Temperatures are forecast to rise into the 80s in the Central Valley in the coming days, which could produce some snowmelt. But experts say the biggest threat will probably not arrive until temperatures reach the 90s for an extended period of time.
“We’ll keep a close eye on those areas, and we can expect to see these monitoring flood stages kind of fluctuating, but water levels remaining high, for the duration of the next few months,” said Jeremy Arrich, manager of the Division of Flood Management with the California Department of Water Resources.
Yet predicting exactly when “the big melt” will occur is difficult.
“We’re into that time of the year where the sun is up in the sky longer during the day, and the more often we have clear sunny skies, the more radiation you’re going get on the snowpack,” said Dave Rizzardo, the department’s hydrology section manager.
“Unfortunately it’s more of a week-to-week weather pattern,” he said.
Warming conditions are expected in Central California through early next week, with high temperatures climbing to about 5 degrees above normal by Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service.
That includes temperatures around 80 degrees in the San Joaquin Valley. Temperatures at higher elevations in the nearby Sierra mountains could climb to the 40s and 50s.
Chiari said some melting is possible at temperatures above freezing, 32 degrees, but the biggest concern will be when temperatures in the valley start climbing consistently into the high 90s — likely around midsummer.
Higher elevations with dense snowpack at 250 percent of normal or more could hold until late August or early September, she said. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s extended outlook for April, May and June shows equal chances of above- or below-normal temperatures in the state.
But reservoir operations can also affect flooding. As water managers release water from dams to make room for incoming flows, it can add pressure to rivers and tributaries downstream, keeping water levels high.
Officials don’t foresee many rivers and tributaries that are already at flood stage going down in the near future “because some of those are due to dam releases,” Chiari said.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood advisory along the Kings River in Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties until 9 p.m. today because of floodgate releases from the Pine Flat Dam.
“River or stream flows are elevated,” the advisory said, warning of “minor flooding in low-lying and poor drainage areas.”
A similar flood advisory is in effect in Fresno and Madera counties along the San Joaquin River until 9 p.m. today due to releases from the Friant Dam, with parts of Fresno, Mendota, Biola, Friant and Millerton Lake expected to experience flooding.
Meanwhile, a flood warning will remain in effect along the Merced River “until the river falls below its flood stage,” the National Weather Service said.
There are other variables to consider when it comes to snowmelt in California. The color of the snow can make a difference, as even a light dusting can reset the snow’s albedo, or measure of whiteness, which helps reflect solar radiation and prevent melting, Rizzardo said.
The longer that snowpack sits without any fresh powder, the more time it has to collect dirt and debris, he said, noting “the darker snow is, the more it’s going to absorb solar radiation.”
The problem is even worse for snow near wildfire burn scars, which can collect soot, ash and charred materials that darken it even faster.
The elevation of the snow can also make a difference, as can the depth of the snowpack, because extremely deep snowpack can insulate itself, Rizzardo said.
“All in all, it’s going to be a complex picture,” he said. “The quicker it warms up and has sunnier days, the quicker we’re going to see melt, but there are some ways that it can sort of protect itself from melt.”
Although the Central Valley is a top concern, officials in Southern California have also expressed some fears about the potential for spring flooding. The Los Angeles Aqueduct, which draws water from the Owens Valley and delivers it to millions of people in L.A., was undermined last month when floodwaters caused a 120-foot section of the structure to crumble.
Officials with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said crews are readying the aqueduct and nearby waterways in the eastern Sierra for a lengthy runoff season that could last into September. Flood protection measures are also under way in the northern part of their district around Inyo County.
In the meantime, officials farther north are keeping a close eye on areas that have already seen levee breaches and flooding this year. That includes much of the Tulare Lake Basin and portions of Allensworth and Alpaugh, which remain under evacuation warnings after being inundated by March storms.
“We’re really taking advantage of the good weather that we’re getting right now, and the areas that have had repairs are being watched to make sure they’re staying the way they should be,” said Savannah Birchfield, a spokesperson with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which is assisting Tulare County with its emergency flood response measures.
“Obviously we are looking at possible snowpacks bringing more water, but for now it’s just really observing the work that we have done and making sure it’s keeping that water back,” she said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday issued an executive order to help ready the Tulare Basin for potential flooding and “prepare communities for the impacts of snowmelt runoff from the Sierra Nevada in the months ahead.”
Newsom also secured a presidential major disaster declaration to further support response and recovery efforts in the storm-battered state.
Sean de Guzman, manager of snow surveys with the Department of Water Resources, said officials are continuing to advise agencies about the volume of snowmelt expected this year. Runoff in the Kings River Watershed could be as high as 265 percent of average, while the Kern River watershed could see “an absurdly high 422 percent of average,” he said.
He added that the state is expanding its aerial remote sensing operations to fly over watersheds and collect more data about snowpack and runoff, with a particular focus on the southern Sierra.
The joint state-federal Flood Operations Center, which has been activated since early March, is also continuing to respond to levee concerns along the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, said Arrich, of the water resources department.
That includes a 200-foot levee segment near Tracy and a 900-foot levee segment near Vernalis, both of which received emergency erosion repairs after the recent storms, Arrich said.
Though some water began receding after the rains, residents can “expect these San Joaquin River levels to remain high through much of the spring and into early summer,” he said.
(Haley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The avalanche, reported around noon local time, struck near Nathu La, a scenic mountain pass connecting Tibet to Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim state, according to India’s Border Roads Organization. Police said rescue work was paused late Tuesday amid darkness and more snowfall, and it remained unclear whether more people might still be missing or trapped under thick layers of snow.
The roads group, which maintains roads in the region, said on Twitter that hundreds of people were initially reported to be buried in the snow, and that rescue operations began quickly. It posted photos showing workers digging across a huge expanse of snow that had fallen down a slope.
Rescue workers used shovels and excavators to pull out people who had been trapped under the snow by the side of a steep mountain, according to videos and photos released on social media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences on Twitter, saying “All possible assistance is being provided to those affected.”
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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“This could be a night to just set up down in the basement to be safe,” said Tom Philip, a meteorologist in Davenport, Iowa.
The National Weather Service on Tuesday evening began issuing tornado warnings in Iowa and Illinois and said a confirmed twister was spotted southwest of Chicago near Bryant, Ill. No damage was immediately reported.
The storms were expected to hammer some areas hit by severe weather and possibly dozens of tornadoes just days ago that killed at least 32 people, meaning more misery for those whose homes were destroyed in Arkansas, Iowa and Illinois.
Experts warned that dangerous conditions also could stretch into parts of Missouri, southwestern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas. Farther south and west, fire danger remained high.
When a tornado hit Little Rock, AR, last Friday, Kimberly Shaw peeked outside to film the storm, then suffered a painful foot injury that required stitches when a glass door behind her shattered and wind nearly sucked her away. With another storm coming, Shaw said she intends to be far more cautious this time and will rush to an underground shelter at her home.
“The original plan was just, ‘If we see a tornado coming, we’ll get in the shelter,’” Shaw said. “But now it’s like you’re not going to see it coming. You’re not going to hear it coming. You just need to get (inside the shelter) as soon as the warning goes out or if you just feel unsafe.”
Shaw added: “And there will be no videotaping.”
Ryan Bunker, a meteorologist with the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla., predicted that Tuesday’s storm system could start as isolated supercells — with possible tornadoes, wind and hail — and “form into a line (of thunderstorms) and continue moving eastward.”
The tornado risk in the Upper Midwest was expected to be highest in the evening and late night Tuesday with storms targeting northern Illinois, eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin. Areas of southern Missouri and Arkansas were most at risk overnight.
Severe storms could produce strong tornadoes and large hail today across eastern Illinois and lower Michigan and in the Ohio Valley, including Indiana and Ohio, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
The weather threat extends southwestward across parts of Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee and Arkansas.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The snowpack is so deep that it currently contains roughly 30 million acre-feet of water — or more water than Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of snow sensor data. That’s enough water to cover the surface of California to a depth of 3.5 feet.
But while the bounty has eased drought conditions, experts warn that the dense Sierra Nevada snowpack will soon melt, potentially unleashing torrents of water and creating considerable concern about spring flooding in valleys, foothills and communities below.
“All of that water is going to have to come downhill sooner rather than later,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles. Incoming warmer weather is “good news for a lot of folks who need it, but it does mean that the ‘big melt’ is on the way.”
State officials announced the record snowpack Monday at their fourth snow survey of the season. The surveys are conducted monthly each winter at Phillips Station near South Lake Tahoe, with April 1 serving as the benchmark date when the snowpack is typically at its deepest.
The statewide snowpack on Monday was 237 percent of normal for the date — the deepest on record since the state’s network of snow sensors was established in the mid-1980s, and on par with earlier records measured using different tools and baselines. The snow water equivalent — or the amount of water contained in the snow — was 61.1 inches.
“As of this morning, as of right now, it’s looking like this year’s statewide snowpack will probably most likely be either the first or second biggest snowpack on record dating back to 1950,” said Sean de Guzman, manager of snow surveys for the Department of Water Resources.
De Guzman said 1952, 1969 and 1983 were the only other years since the early 1900s with snowpack greater than 200 percent of average in April.
Snowpack in the southern Sierra was even deeper, measuring 306 percent of normal for the date.
The Times’ analysis is based on calculations by hydroclimatologist Michael Dettinger of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Desert Research Institute in Nevada.
The extraordinary snowpack was the direct result of a succession of historic blizzards and more than a dozen atmospheric river storms that began pummeling the state at the start of the year. The storms replenished rivers and reservoirs and dropped piles of snow across the state, but also caused widespread flooding, levee breaches and nearly three dozen deaths.
The abundance of water allowed state and federal agencies to drastically increase allocations for water providers across the state, and also prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to roll back some of his drought emergency restrictions, which were issued in 2021 amid the state’s driest three years on record.
But while the U.S. Drought Monitor and other indicators of dryness are significantly improved, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, experts said.
With only a few more days of chilly weather on the horizon, conditions are expected to warm and dry across much of the state in the coming weeks. That includes the San Joaquin Valley, the Owens Valley and slopes of the southern Sierra.
“As that record southern Sierra snowpack melts in the days and weeks to come — and it is going to do that between now and June — most of it is going to melt and flow downhill,” Swain said.
The rushing water could fill some of the region’s smaller reservoirs “multiple times over, which means that essentially, those reservoir operators are going to have to release water continuously, (with) potentially high flows, to maintain safety margins in these reservoirs and these dams,” he said.
How high those flows will get, and what their ultimate impacts are, will largely depend on how quickly temperatures rise.
In “normal” years, snowpack melts gradually through the spring, feeding rivers, nourishing plants and refilling reservoirs that are designed to store water through the dry months of summer.
But rapid melting brought on by an early-season heat wave — or even just a warm, humid air mass — could swamp areas already coping with flooding.
Portions of the San Joaquin Valley were inundated with so much floodwater during the recent storms that the once-dry Tulare Lake has begun to reemerge.
Similar flooding occurred in the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Lake Basin after the winters of 1969 and 1983, Swain said.
Five of the largest reservoirs in the Tulare Basin are at an average of 67 percent capacity, according to state data. And unlike the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins, the Tulare Basin does not flow into the ocean.
Although some of the melting snow will seep into the ground or be lost to evaporation, it will still contribute to a sudden surge in rivers.
(Sean Greene & Hayley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The landslide occurred in Bolowa village in Masisi territory on Sunday, Lt. Col. Guillaume Ndjike Kaiko announced in a statement.
“As a result of this unfortunate incident, twenty people among our compatriots lost their lives and others are still missing and being searched for,” he said.
About 25 mothers with their children were doing laundry in a stream at the foot of a mountain when the landslide happened, burying some of them, Alphonse Mushesha Mihingano, a local administrator told The Associated Press.
Eastern Congo’s been wracked by violence linked to more than 120 armed groups fighting for power, land and natural resources, while some fight to protect their communities.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The storms tore a path through the Arkansas capital and also collapsed the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, stunning people throughout the region with the scope of the damage.
The number of deaths continued to grow Sunday.
“While we are still assessing the full extent of the damage, we know families across America are mourning the loss of loved ones, desperately waiting for news of others fighting for their lives, and sorting through the rubble of their homes and businesses,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Biden earlier declared broad areas of the country major disaster areas, making federal resources and financial aid available for recovery.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas, where at least five people were killed, already had declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard.
Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in 11 states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees and laid waste to neighborhoods.
The National Weather Service confirmed Sunday that a tornado was responsible for damage to several homes near Bridgeville, Del. One person was found dead inside a house heavily damaged by the storm Saturday night, Delaware State Police reported.
It may take days to confirm all the recent tornadoes. The dead included at least nine in one Tennessee county, five in Indiana and four in Illinois.
Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi.
Residents of Wynne, AR, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles west of Memphis, TN, woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. At least four people died.
Chainsaws buzzed as bulldozers plowed into debris Sunday. Utility crews restored power as some neighborhoods began recovery.
Tennessee recorded at least 15 deaths, including nine fatalities in McNairy County, east of Memphis, according to Patrick Sheehan, director the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee drove to the county Saturday to tour the destruction and comfort residents. He said the storm capped the “worst” week of his time as governor, coming days after a school shooting in Nashville that killed six people including a family friend whose funeral he and his wife just attended.
“It’s terrible what has happened in this community, this county, this state,” Lee said. “But it looks like your community has done what Tennessean communities do, and that is rally and respond.”
Rachel Milam lived in the basement with her 6-year-old daughter, while her mother and her mother’s boyfriend lived upstairs in their home on the outskirts of Waynesboro, Tenn.
All squeezed into the bathroom of the cinder block basement Friday night as the tornado approached and made whooshing sounds like a washing machine.
“As it ripped the roof off, the shower curtain fell,” Milam, 26, said Sunday. “So I’m trying to dig through the shower curtain and see. I saw darkness and then rain started to fall.”
Then absolute terror.
“And the house — I watched it pick up and move … about six inches and then pick up and it was gone.”
Elsewhere, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker traveled Sunday to Belvidere to visit the Apollo Theatre, which partially collapsed as about 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert.
Frederick Livingston, Jr., was pulled from the rubble but didn’t survive. He had gone to enjoy the concert with his son, Alex.
“I couldn’t save him,” his son told WLS-TV. The father and son were standing side by side when debris began raining down. “It happened so fast.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on the planet, several experts said. Two oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, jutting peninsulas like Florida, clashing storm fronts and the jet stream combine to naturally brew the nastiest of weather.
That’s only part of it. Nature dealt the United States a bad hand, but people have made it much worse by what, where and how we build, several experts told The Associated Press.
Then add climate change, and “buckle up. More extreme events are expected,” said Rick Spinrad, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Tornadoes. Hurricanes. Flash floods. Droughts. Wildfires. Blizzards. Ice storms. Nor’easters. Lake-effect snow. Heat waves. Severe thunderstorms. Hail. Lightning. Atmospheric rivers. Derechos. Dust storms. Monsoons. Bomb cyclones. And the dreaded polar vortex.
It starts with “where we are on the globe,” North Carolina state climatologist Kathie Dello said. “It’s truly a little bit ... unlucky.”
China may have more people, and a large land area like the United States, but “they don’t have the same kind of clash of air masses as much as you do in the U.S. that is producing a lot of the severe weather,” said Susan Cutter, director of the Hazards Vulnerability and Resilience Institute at the University of South Carolina.
The U.S. is by far the king of tornadoes and other severe storms.
“It really starts with kind of two things. Number one is the Gulf of Mexico. And number two is elevated terrain to the west,” said Victor Gensini, a Northern Illinois University meteorology professor.
In the West, it’s a drumbeat of atmospheric rivers. In the Atlantic, it’s nor’easters in the winter, hurricanes in the summer and sometimes a weird combination of both, like Superstorm Sandy.
“It is a reality that regardless of where you are in the country, where you call home, you’ve likely experienced a high-impact weather event firsthand,” Spinrad said.
Killer tornadoes in December 2021 that struck Kentucky illustrated the uniqueness of the U.S.
They hit areas with large immigrant populations. People who fled Central and South America, Bosnia and Africa were all victims. A huge problem was that tornadoes really didn’t happen in those people’s former homes, so they didn’t know what to watch for or what to do, or even know they had to be concerned about tornadoes, said Joseph Trujillo Falcon, a NOAA social scientist who investigated the aftermath.
With colder air up in the Arctic and warmer air in the tropics, the area between them — the mid-latitudes, where the United States is — gets the most interesting weather because of how the air acts in clashing temperatures, and that north-south temperature gradient drives the jet stream, said Northern Illinois meteorology professor Walker Ashley.
Then add mountain ranges that go north-south, jutting into the winds flowing from west to east, and underneath it all the toasty Gulf of Mexico.
The Gulf injects hot, moist air underneath the often cooler, dry air lifted by the mountains, “and that doesn’t happen really anywhere else in the world,” Gensini said.
If the United States as a whole has it bad, the South has it the worst, said University of Georgia meteorology professor Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society.
“We drew the short straw (in the South) that we literally can experience every single type of extreme weather event,” Shepherd said. “Including blizzards. Including wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes. Every single type. ... There’s no other place in the United States that can say that.”
Florida, North Carolina and Louisiana also stick out in the water so are more prone to being hit by hurricanes, said Shepherd and Dello.
The South has more manufactured housing that is vulnerable to all sorts of weather hazards, and storms are more likely to happen there at night, Ashley said. Night storms are deadly because people can’t see them and are less likely to take cover, and they miss warnings in their sleep.
The extreme weather triggered by America’s unique geography creates hazards. But it takes humans to turn those hazards into disasters, Ashley and Gensini said.
Just look where cities pop up in America and the rest of the world: near water that floods, except maybe Denver, said South Carolina’s Cutter. More people are moving to areas, such as the South, where there are more hazards.
“One of the ways in which you can make your communities more resilient is to not develop them in the most hazard-prone way or in the most hazard-prone portion of the community,” Cutter said. “The insistence on building up barrier islands and development on barrier islands, particularly on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast, knowing that that sand is going to move and having hurricanes hit with some frequency ... seems like a colossal waste of money.”
Construction standards tend to be at the bare minimum and less likely to survive the storms, Ashley said.
“Our infrastructure is crumbling and nowhere near being climate-resilient at all,” Shepherd said.
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Scientists said last week that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the planets in this solar system, some of which are in the sweet spot for harboring water and potentially life.
“This is not necessarily a bust” for the other planets, Massachusetts Institute of Technology astrophysicist Sara Seager, who wasn’t part of the study, said in an email. “But we will have to wait and see.”
The Trappist solar system — a rarity with seven planets about the size of our own — has enticed astronomers ever since they spotted it just 40 light-years away. That’s close by cosmic standards; a light-year is about 5.8 trillion miles. Three of the seven planets are in their star’s habitable zone, making this star system even more alluring.
The NASA-led team reported little if any atmosphere exists at the innermost planet. Results were published in the journal Nature.
The lack of an atmosphere would mean no water and no protection from cosmic rays, said lead researcher Thomas Greene of NASA’s Ames Research Center.
As for the other planets orbiting the small, feeble Trappist star, “I would have been more optimistic about the others” having atmospheres if this one had, Greene said in an email.
If rocky planets orbiting ultra-cool red dwarf stars like this one “do turn out to be a bust, we will have to wait for Earths around sun-like stars, which could be a long wait,” said MIT’s Seager.
Because the Trappist system’s innermost planet is bombarded by solar radiation — four times as much as Earth gets from our sun — it’s possible that extra energy is why there’s no atmosphere, Greene noted. His team found temperatures there hitting 450 degrees Fahrenheit on the side of the planet constantly facing its star.
By using Webb — the largest and most powerful telescope ever sent into space — the U.S. and French scientists were able to measure the change in brightness as the innermost planet moved behind its star and estimate how much infrared light was emitted from the planet.
The change in brightness was miniscule since the Trappist star is more than 1,000 times brighter than this planet, and so Webb’s detection of it “is itself a major milestone,” the European Space Agency said.
More observations are planned not only of this planet, but the others in the Trappist system. Looking at this particular planet in another wavelength could uncover an atmosphere much thinner than our own, although it seems unlikely it could survive, said Taylor Bell of the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute, who was part of the study.
(Marcis Dunn, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included seven in one Tennessee county, four in the small town of Wynne, Ark., three in Sullivan, Ind., and four in Illinois.
Other deaths from the storms that hit Friday night into Saturday were reported in Alabama and Mississippi, along with one near Little Rock, Ark., where city officials said more than 2,600 buildings were in a tornado’s path.
Residents of Wynne, a community of about 8,000 people 50 miles west of Memphis, Tenn., woke Saturday to find the high school’s roof shredded and its windows blown out. Huge trees lay on the ground, their stumps reduced to nubs. Broken walls, windows and roofs pocked homes and businesses.
Debris and memories of regular life lay scattered inside the shells of homes and on lawns: clothing, insulation, roofing paper, toys, splintered furniture, a pickup truck with its windows shattered.
Ashley Macmillan said she, her husband and their children huddled with their dogs in a small bathroom as a tornado passed, “praying and saying goodbye to each other, because we thought we were dead.” A falling tree seriously damaged their home, but no one in the family was hurt.
“We could feel the house shaking, we could hear loud noises, dishes rattling. And then it just got calm,” she said.
Recovery was already under way, with workers using chainsaws and bulldozers to clear the area. Utility crews worked to restore power.
At least seven people died in Tennessee’s McNairy County, east of Memphis along the Mississippi border, said David Leckner, the mayor of Adamsville.
“The majority of the damage has been done to homes and residential areas,” Leckner said, adding that although it appeared all people were accounted for, crews were going door to door to be sure.
Jeffrey Day said he called his daughter after seeing on the news that their community of Adamsville was being hit. Huddled in a closet with her 2-year-old son as the storm passed over, she answered the phone screaming.
“She kept asking me, ‘What do I do, daddy?’” Day said. “I didn’t know what to say.”
In Belvidere, Ill., part of the roof of the Apollo Theatre collapsed as about 260 people were attending a heavy metal concert. Some of them pulled a 50-year-old man from the rubble, but he was dead when emergency workers arrived. Officials said 40 other people were hurt, including two with life-threatening injuries.
“They dragged someone out from the rubble, and I sat with him and I held his hand and I was (telling him), ‘It’s going to be OK.’ I didn’t really know much else what to do,” concertgoer Gabrielle Lewellyn told WTVO-TV.
On Saturday, crews were cleaning up around the Apollo, with forklifts pulling away loose bricks. Business owners picked up shards of glass and covered shattered windows.
In Crawford County, Ill., three people were killed and eight others injured after a tornado hit around New Hebron, Bill Burke, the county board chair, said.
In the Little Rock area, at least one person was killed and more than 50 were hurt, some critically.
The National Weather Service said that tornado was a high-end EF3 twister with wind speeds up to 165 mph and a path as long as 25 miles.
(Adrian Sainz & Andrew Demillo, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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At least one person was killed and two dozen or more were hurt, some critically, in the Little Rock area, authorities said. The town of Wynne in northeastern Arkansas was also devastated, and officials reported two dead there, along with destroyed homes and people trapped in the debris.
There were more confirmed twisters in Iowa, damaging hail fell in Illinois and wind-whipped grass fires blazed in Oklahoma, as the storm system threatened a broad swath of the country home to some 85 million people.
The destructive weather came as President Joe Biden toured the aftermath of a deadly tornado that struck in Mississippi one week ago and promised the government would help the area recover.
The Little Rock tornado tore first through neighborhoods in the western part of the city and shredded a small shopping center that included a Kroger grocery store. It then crossed the Arkansas River into North Little Rock and surrounding cities, where widespread damage was reported to homes, businesses and vehicles.
Mayor Frank Scott Jr., who announced that he was requesting assistance from the National Guard, tweeted in the evening that officials were aware of 24 people who had been hospitalized in the city.
“Property damage is extensive and we are still responding,” he said.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders activated 100 members of the Arkansas National Guard to help local authorities respond to the damage throughout the state.
About 50 miles west of Memphis, TN, the small city of Wynne, AR, saw “widespread damage” from a tornado, Sanders confirmed.
City Councilmember Lisa Powell Carter told AP by phone that Wynne was without power and roads were full of debris.
“I’m in a panic trying to get home, but we can’t get home,” she said. “Wynne is so demolished. ... There’s houses destroyed, trees down on streets.”
Police Chief Richard Dennis told WHBQ-TV that the city suffered “total destruction” and multiple people were trapped.
Multiple tornadoes were reported moving through parts of eastern Iowa, with sporadic damage to buildings. Images showed at least one flattened barn and some houses with roofing and siding ripped off.
About 32,000 were without electricity in Oklahoma, where where wind gusts of up to 60 mph fueled fast-moving grass fires. People were urged to evacuate homes in far northeast Oklahoma City, and troopers shut down portions of Interstate 35 near the suburb of Edmond.
More outages were reported in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The temblor — which was initially reported to be a magnitude 4.5 — began 9 miles beneath the earth’s surface and was generated by the Elsinore fault system.
“This happened on an unnamed, smaller fault that’s part of the Elsinore,” said San Diego State University seismologist Tom Rockwell. “It is beneath Palomar Mountain, in an area of granitic rock.
“An aftershock in the 3.0 range could occur, and there will be several smaller aftershocks,” he said.
The USGS said online that seismic shaking occurred throughout most of Southern California, reaching as far northwest as the Santa Monica area of Los Angeles County and to the eastern side of the Salton Sea.
The shaking was noted in downtown San Diego, where the Padres were preparing for a 6:40 p.m. game against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park.
Earthquakes of this magnitude are not uncommon in Southern California. They occur regularly along the Brawley seismic zone near the Salton Sea. Quakes measuring 4.6 and 4.9 occurred near Brawley in 2020. Both of those caused shaking in San Diego County.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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“The focus is on stabilizing the railroad in the interim and (eventually) moving the trains off the bluff,” Allie DeVaux, a senior engineer and project manager for the agency, said Tuesday.
SANDAG will advertise for bids beginning in April and award a contract for the Phase 5 construction in the fall, Vaux said. On-site work should begin in November or December and will take about three years to complete.
Train service should not be interrupted by construction except for the regular weekend shutdowns scheduled in advance and publicized several times a year for maintenance and other work, DeVaux said.
Del Mar bluff stabilization efforts began more than 20 years ago with the installation of concrete-and-steel columns, retaining walls, drainage outlets and other erosion-control measures. Trains travel on a narrow right-of-way along a cliff more than 60 feet above the beach in the small seaside community.
The expected cost of Phase 5 has risen to $78 million and SANDAG has secured all the money, DeVaux said. In addition to the Transportation Commission funding, the agency has obtained $13 million from the Federal Transit Administration, $11.75 million from the Federal Railroad Administration, and money from the California Natural Resources Agency and the North County Transit District.
A sixth and final phase of bluff stabilization is planned and estimated to cost about $20 million, but when and how much work will need to be done depends on many factors, DeVaux said.
“Relocation ... is a really big priority, and making that happen as quickly as possible,” she said.
SANDAG’s long-term plan is to move the 1.7-mile segment of tracks off the bluffs in Del Mar.
Last year the agency secured a $300 million state grant to study possible routes for an inland tunnel to be bored beneath the city. That solution, which would improve the speed and safety of the route, is expected to cost more than $4 billion. The earliest it could be completed is 2035.
The coastal route is the only railroad link between San Diego and Los Angeles, with connections to the rest of the United States. The San Diego segment carries Coaster commuter trains, Amtrak passenger trains and BNSF freight. It’s also part of the Defense Department’s Strategic Corridor Network, serving Camp Pendleton and military bases throughout San Diego.
In 2019, before the pandemic, the so-called LOSSAN coastal corridor between San Diego, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo annually served a combined 7.6 million passengers and $1 billion in goods and services, with an average of 44 daily passenger trains and six freight trains, according to SANDAG.
The number of trains was reduced during the pandemic, when travel was restricted and many people worked from home. But ridership is increasing again, and the corridor is forecast to have 78 daily passenger trains and 22 freight trains by 2030.
“A safe, reliable, and efficient Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor is vital to moving goods, services and people to and from San Diego and throughout the state,” said Caltrans District 11 Director Gustavo Dallarda in a news release Friday.
“Stabilizing the Del Mar bluffs ensures the long-term viability of the corridor and protects the public and residents for decades to come,” he said.
The bluffs recede at an average rate of six inches per year, but the erosion is episodic, and large pieces can fall away at any time.
The California Transportation Commission grants awarded last week also included money for improvements to state Route 67 in Lakeside and Eucalyptus Hills, Interstate 805 in Chula Vista, Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas, and the bicycle network in National City.
“California and our federal partners are taking action now to create a safer, more resilient, and more equitable transportation future for all Californians,” said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares in a news release. “These visionary infrastructure investments are giving Caltrans the tools it needs to rebuild California.”
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The couple survived the Friday night storm, but as they picked through the ruins of their home Monday in Rolling Fork, he said they’re not sure how they’re going to pay for daily expenses, let alone long-term recovery.
The disaster makes life even more difficult in this economically struggling area. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and the majority-Black Delta has long been one of the poorest parts of Mississippi — a place where many people work paycheck to paycheck, often in jobs connected to agriculture.
People in poverty are vulnerable after disasters not only because they lack financial resources but also because they often don’t have friends or family who can afford to provide long-term shelter, said the Rev. Starsky Wilson, president and CEO of Children’s Defense Fund, which advocates for low-income families.
On Monday, the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency revised the state death toll from the tornado to 21, down from 25.
The tornado destroyed many homes and businesses in Rolling Fork and nearby town Silver City, leaving mounds of lumber, bricks and twisted metal.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A pipe ruptured at Trinseo PLC, a chemical plant, late Friday, sending about 8,100 gallons of a water-soluble acrylic polymer solution into Otter Creek in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, officials said.
“Contaminants have not been found in our water system at this time,” Michael Carroll, Philadelphia’s deputy managing director for transportation, infrastructure and sustainability, said at a news conference Sunday morning.
However, he said, “we cannot be 100 percent sure that there will not be traces of these chemicals in the tap water,” adding that a low level of exposure would not endanger human health.
The assurances from city officials did little to quell a rush to buy bottled water, videos on social media showed. Local television news also showed residents emptying grocery shelves of bottled water Sunday afternoon.
The spill appeared to result from an equipment failure, Trinseo said in a statement. Company representatives could not immediately be reached for further comment Sunday.
“It’s like the material you find in paint,” Tim Thomas, a vice president at the Trinseo chemical plant, told WPVI-TV in Philadelphia. “It’s your typical acrylic paint you have in your house. That’s what really this material is, in a water base.”
Philadelphia’s water system serves about 2 million people in the city and surrounding counties, sourcing more than half of it from the Delaware River basin. The Delaware River also supplies water to Delaware, New Jersey and New York.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection said on-site water samples had not detected any contaminants. As of Sunday morning, “no additional product was leaving the facility and entering the Delaware River,” the agency said.
Still, the U.S. Coast Guard, which also responded to the spill, said people should avoid the site where cleanup operations were under way.
Carroll said at the news conference that there were no concerns over skin exposure to the chemical or of a fire hazard.
“Bathing and washing dishes do not present a concern,” he said. “Likewise, we have no concern over inhaling fumes at the levels we are evaluating.”
In an update Sunday evening, Carroll said that tidal conditions and rain Saturday should help the river “flush itself out” into the Delaware Bay.
“In a matter of days, the water in the Delaware should be OK,” Carroll added.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The sanctions have not yet been announced, but they could make it difficult for Mexico to export some regulated animal and plant products like crocodile or snake skins, orchids and cactuses.
Commercial seafood species like shrimp would not be affected, but the ruling sets a precedent and some groups are pushing for seafood import bans.
"While no one relishes economically painful sanctions, all other efforts to prompt Mexico to save the vaquita have failed,” said Sarah Uhlemann, international program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We hope these strong measures wake up the Mexican government.”
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said in a statement that CITES had ruled that Mexico’s protection plan for the vaquita was insufficient.
Studies estimate there may be as few as eight vaquitas remaining in the Gulf of California, the only place they exist and where they often become entangled in illegal gill nets and drown.
The Foreign Relations Department said CITES had ruled the protection plan “inadequate” and said the full ruling — and possible sanctions — “will be officially announced next week.”
The department called the ruling an “unequal treatment of our country, because it did not take into account the many and exhaustive actions that have been taken.”
Mexico recently submitted a revised protection plan to CITES, after the body rejected an earlier version. Mexico's plan lists establishing “alternative fishing techniques” to gill net fishing as one its top priorities. But in reality, the government’s protection efforts have been uneven and face often violent opposition from local fishermen.
The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely refused to spend money to compensate fishermen for staying out of the vaquita refuge and to stop using gill nets. The nets are set illegally to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladders are a delicacy in China worth thousands of dollars per pound.
The government has also sunk concrete blocks with hooks to snare illegal nets in the last bit of the Gulf — also known as the Sea of Cortes — where the vaquitas have been seen.
Sea Shepherd says its joint efforts with the Mexican Navy — which have sunk about 193 concrete blocks onto the bottom of the Gulf to snag illegal nets in the reserve area — has resulted in a 79 percent reduction in the amount of time small boats spent illegally fishing in the protected area.
It dropped from 449 hours between Oct. 10 and Dec. 5, 2021, to 164 hours in the same period of 2022.
But that’s still a lot of fishing time spent in an area that’s supposed to be totally off-limits.
And with so few vaquitas remaining, those efforts may not be enough.
Moreover, experts say the Mexican government has not spent the money needed to train and compensate fishermen for using alternate fishing techniques such as nets or lines that won’t trap vaquitas.
“There is no alternative fishing gear” being offered, said Lorenzo Rojas, a marine biologist who has headed the international committee to save the vaquita. “The fisheries authorities have been notable for their absence,” leaving the effort to change practices up to civic groups and fishermen.
The Mexican government banned the use of gill nets in the area in 2017, with the understanding it would provide support payments and training on using less dangerous fishing methods.
The government said that while it disagreed with the resolution’s findings, it was willing to discuss the observations and work toward a resolution.
CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, signed by 184 countries; it regulates trade and protection for protected species.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The Mississippi tornado devastated a swath of the Delta town of Rolling Fork, reducing homes to piles of rubble, flipping cars on their sides and toppling the town’s water tower. Residents hunkered down in bath tubs and hallways during Friday night’s storm and later broke into a John Deere store that they converted into a triage center for the wounded.
“There’s nothing left,” said Wonder Bolden, holding her granddaughter while standing outside the remnants of her mother’s now-leveled mobile home in Rolling Fork. “There’s just the breeze that’s running, going through — just nothing.”
Based on early data, the tornado received a preliminary EF-4 rating, the National Weather Service office in Jackson said late Saturday in a tweet. An EF-4 tornado has top wind gusts between 166 mph and 200 mph, according to the service.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency announced late Saturday afternoon in a tweet that the death toll had risen to 25 and that dozens of people were injured. Four people previously reported missing had been found.
Other parts of the Deep South were digging out from damage caused by other suspected twisters. One man died in Morgan County, Ala., the sheriff’s department there said in a tweet.
Throughout Saturday, survivors walked around dazed and in shock as they broke through debris and fallen trees with chain saws, searching for survivors. Power lines were pinned under decades-old oaks, their roots torn from the ground.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency and vowed to help rebuild as he headed to view the damage in an area speckled with wide expanses of cotton, corn and soybean fields and catfish farming ponds. President Joe Biden promised federal help, describing the damage as “heartbreaking.”
The damage in Rolling Fork was so widespread that several storm chasers — who follow severe weather and often put up livestreams showing funnel clouds — pleaded for search-and-rescue help. Others abandoned the chase to drive injured people to the hospital.
However, the community hospital on the west side of town was damaged, forcing patients to be transferred.
Sheddrick Bell, his partner and two daughters crouched in a closet of their Rolling Fork home for 15 minutes as the tornado barreled through. Windows broke as his daughters cried and his partner prayed.
“I was just thinking, ‘If I can still open my eyes and move around, I’m good,’” he said.
Rodney Porter, who lives about 20 miles south of Rolling Fork and belongs to a local fire department, said he didn’t know how anyone survived as he delivered water and fuel to families there.
“It’s like a bomb went off,” he said, describing houses stacked on top of houses. Crews even cut gas lines to the town to keep residents and first responders safe.
The warning the National Weather Service issued as the storm hit didn’t mince words: “To protect your life, TAKE COVER NOW!”
Preliminary information based on estimates from storm reports and radar data indicate that the tornado was on the ground for more than an hour and traversed at least 170 miles, said Lance Perrilloux, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Jackson, MS, office.
“That’s rare — very, very rare,” he said, attributing the long path to widespread atmospheric instability.
Perrilloux said preliminary findings are that the tornado began its path of destruction just southwest of Rolling Fork before continuing northeast toward the rural communities of Midnight and Silver City, then moving toward Tchula, Black Hawk and Winona.
The supercell that produced the deadly twister also appeared to produce tornadoes that caused damage in northwest and north-central Alabama, said Brian Squitieri of the weather service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK.
In northern Alabama’s Morgan County, a 67-year-old man who became trapped beneath a trailer that flipped over during severe overnight storms was rescued by first responders, but he died later at a hospital, AL.com reported.
Even as survey teams work to assess how many tornadoes struck and their severity, the Storm Prediction Center warned of the potential for hail, wind and possibly a few tornadoes today in parts of Mississippi and Louisiana.
Cornel Knight waited at a relative’s home in Rolling Fork for the tornado to strike with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. Despite the darkness, its path was visible.
“You could see the direction from every transformer that blew,” he said. Just a cornfield away from where he was, the twister struck another relative’s home, collapsing a wall and trapping several people.
James Hancock was helping with search and rescue efforts in Rolling Fork late Friday as the storm tore through town.
He was part of a crew who forced open a John Deere store that community members started using as a home base to bring in injured people from the rain. It took two hours for ambulances to get to the store to start tending to the wounded because the “roads were so bad,” he said. As he moved from the ruins of one home to the next, he said he could hear people crying out in the dark.
“You could just hear people needing help, and it was just devastating last night,” he said. “Pitch black dark and just trying to get everybody out we could get out to a safe location.”
Royce Steed, the emergency manager in Humphreys County where Silver City is located, likened the damage to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“It is almost complete devastation,” he said after crews finished searching buildings and switched to damage assessments. “This little old town, I don’t know what the population is, it is more or less wiped off the map.”
The tornado looked so powerful on radar as it neared Amory, 25 miles southeast of Tupelo, that one Mississippi meteorologist paused to say a prayer after new radar information came in.
“Oh man,” WTVA’s Matt Laubhan said on the live broadcast. “Dear Jesus, please help them. Amen.”
Now that town is boiling its water, and a curfew is in effect. Three shelters in the state are feeding the throngs of displaced people.
(Emily Wagster Pettus, Michael Goldberg & Rogelio Solis, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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“Heading to Vicksburg hospital with injured residents of Rolling Fork, MS they need emergency personnel NOW,” storm chaser Reed Timmer posted on Twitter.
The Sharkey County Sheriff’s Office in Rolling Fork reported gas leaks and people trapped in piles of rubble, the Vicksburg News reported. Some law enforcement units were unaccounted for, according to the the newspaper.
Earlier Friday a car was swept away and two passengers drowned in southwestern Missouri during torrential rains that were part of a severe weather system. Authorities said six young adults were in the vehicle that was swept away as the car tried to cross a bridge over a flooded creek in the town of Grovespring.
Some parts of southern Missouri saw nearly 3 inches of rain Thursday night and into Friday morning as severe weather hit other areas. A suspected tornado touched down Friday in north Texas.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The National Weather Service sent teams to assess damage in Montebello and later confirmed that a tornado had touched down around 11:20 a.m.
“It’s definitely not something that’s common for the region,” said meteorologist Rose Schoenfeld with the weather service.
One person was injured and was taken to a hospital in Montebello, said Alex Gillman, a city spokesperson. He didn’t know the severity of the injury.
Michael Turner could hear the winds get stronger from inside his office at the 33,000-square-foot warehouse he owns just south of downtown Montebello. When the lights started flickering, he went outside to find his employees gazing up at the ominous sky. He brought everyone inside.
“It got very loud. Things were flying all over the place,” Turner said. “The whole factory became a big dustbowl for a minute. Then when the dust settled, the place was just a mess.”
Nobody was hurt, but the gas line was severed, fire sprinklers broke, all the skylights shattered and a 5,000-square-foot section of roof was “just gone,” Turner said. He said his polyester fiber business, Turner Fiberfill, could be closed for months.
Debris was spread over more than one city block. Inspectors checked 17 buildings in the area, and 11 of them were red-tagged as uninhabitable, according to the fire department. Several cars were also damaged.
The rare and violent weather came amid a strong late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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More than 100 people were brought to hospitals in the Swat valley region of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a state of shock, Bilal Faizi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s emergency services told The Associated Press.
“These terrified people collapsed, and some of them collapsed because of the shock of the earthquake,” he said. Faizi said most were later discharged from the hospital.
Faizi and other officials said nine people were killed when roofs collapsed in various parts of northwestern Pakistan. Dozens of others were injured in the quake, which was centered in Afghanistan and also felt in bordering Tajikistan. The earthquake triggered landslides in some of the mountainous areas, disrupting traffic.
Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority in the northwest, said at least 19 mudbrick homes collapsed in remote areas. “We are still collecting data about the damages,” he said.
The powerful tremors sent many people fleeing their homes and offices in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, some reciting verses from the Quran, Islam’s holy book. Media reports suggested cracks had appeared in some apartment buildings in the city.
In Afghanistan, Sharafat Zaman Amar, Taliban’s appointed spokesman for the public health ministry said, so far at least two people died and around 20 others were injured in the earthquake in Afghanistan.
Zaman Amar said: “Unfortunately, there could be more casualties as the quake was so powerful, in most parts of the country” all hospitals and health facilities are ready to save lives of people, he added.
The scene was repeated in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan.
“The quake was so strong and terrifying, we thought houses are collapsing on us, people were all shouting and were shocked,” said Shafiullah Azimi, a Kabul resident.
Aziz Ahmad, 45, another Kabul resident, said “In my life this was first time I have experienced such powerful quake, everyone was terrified,” He added he and all his neighbors stayed out of their homes for hours, afraid of aftershocks. “We couldn’t dare to get back homes.”
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the magnitude 6.5 quake was 25 miles south-southeast of Jurm in Afghanistan’s mountainous Hindukush region, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. The quake struck 116 miles deep below the Earth’s surface, causing it to felt over a wide area.
Physician Rakhshinda Tauseed was at her hospital in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore when the earthquake hit. “I quickly asked patients to go move to a safer place,” she said.
Khurram Shahzad, a resident in Pakistan’s garrison city of Rawalpindi, said he was having dinner with his family at a restaurant when the walls started swaying.
“I quickly thought that it is a big one, and we left the restaurant and came out,” he told The Associated Press by phone. He said he saw hundreds of people standing on the streets.
(Munir Ahmed, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A week after a large sinkhole began slowing traffic on state Route 78 in Oceanside, the ground gave way on a street in Vista, damaging a sidewalk and dirt shoulder.
More than 6,300 San Diego Gas & Electric customers from Encinitas to Otay Mesa to El Cajon lost power as strong winds stressed the utility’s electrical network.
The winds this time seemed to have a mean streak, toppling a eucalyptus tree that fell on the tracks of the beloved miniature train in Balboa Park.
The gusts, which exceeded 50 mph in some spots along the coast, also helped deposit a couple of boats onto the rocks in San Diego Bay. They were towed to safety. Offshore, the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt stayed at sea rather than trying deal with the rain, wind and fog at its berth at Naval Air Station North Island.
All of this happened by 1 p.m. Tuesday.
The sun briefly appeared, leading sunbathers to lay out towels in places such as Oceanside Harbor. But the second wave of the storm moved in by evening with more rain, more winds and lots of snow.
The overall impact of the system won’t be known until midday today, when the storm clears to the east.
San Diego International Airport reported 1 inch of rain through 6 p.m., lifting its seasonal average to about 13 inches. The airport averages 9.79 inches during the season, which lasts from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. Encinitas logged 1.45 inches.
Palomar Mountain got 3.61 inches of rain, pushing its seasonal average to about 53.5 inches. That’s more than 20 inches above normal.
The precipitation was heavy enough to push the San Diego River in Mission Valley close to flood stage, leading to minor street flooding near Fashion Valley mall.
Flooding also closed all lanes of the eastbound El Camino Real on-ramp to state Route 78. The closure is near the spot where a major sinkhole developed during a storm last week.
The wind was just as impressive as the rain.
The system has produced gusts up to 83 mph on Palomar Mountain, 57 mph at Mount Laguna and 48 mph at Imperial Beach.
San Diego International Airport reported numerous delays in the morning and had to deal with resurgent winds after sunset.
Elsewhere in the state, the storm proved much stronger than expected, particularly in the southern half of the San Francisco Bay and Monterey Bay areas, UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a briefing Tuesday. He said the system had reached the benchmark for a phenomenon known as bombogenesis, or a “bomb cyclone,” which indicates a rapid drop in pressure.
Unlike an earlier bomb cyclone this winter — which occurred about 1,000 miles southwest of San Francisco — “this is very close to the coast,” Swain said. “So the impacts are actually more immediate and greater than they were back then.”
The National Weather Service has issued high wind warnings for a stretch of the coast from San Francisco to San Diego, as well as inland areas, including Palmdale, Lancaster and the Antelope Valley. Late Tuesday, it issued a tornado warning for parts of Ventura and Los Angeles County.
Heavy rain was forecast to lead to rapid runoff and areas of flooding as the storm moved south Tuesday. Heavy snow was expected to pose hazards in the mountains of Southern California as well as the central and southern Sierra Nevada, where up to 4 feet could accumulate at higher elevations.
The weather service issued special statements covering large swaths of Ventura and Los Angeles counties, citing the potential for hail as well as the possibility of landspouts through late Tuesday.
Landspouts are similar to tornadoes, but the circulation from the funnel starts at ground level and is pulled up into towering cumulus clouds, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
On Tuesday afternoon, as the storm approached the Bay Area, the system developed two “eyes,” or areas of low pressure, which intensified winds as they danced around each other, said Brian Garcia, a National Weather Service meteorologist in the Bay Area.
The phenomenon, known as the Fujiwhara effect, was contributing to peak wind gusts “upward of 60 to 75 mph in the Santa Cruz Mountains,” said Rick Canepa, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Monterey County, along with strong 50- to 60-mph winds across Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties.
One person was killed when a tree fell onto a vehicle in Portola Valley, according to the California Highway Patrol. Falling trees injured multiple people in the San Francisco Bay Area, some of them critically, San Francisco Fire Department spokesman Jonathan Baxter said Tuesday night.
By late Tuesday afternoon, about 246,000 Californians were without power, primarily in the Bay Area, according to an outage tracking website.
David King, a meteorologist at the weather service in Monterey, said the storm had developed a “sting jet,” or a localized acceleration of winds next to a center of low pressure.
UCLA’s Swain said that was part of the reason that winds were so strong from Santa Cruz down to Monterey County, and he likened the phenomenon to “a scorpion’s tail descending from the sky.”
The storm arrives after a season of wet and destructive weather, including a series of nine back-to-back atmospheric river storms in January, which contributed to the deaths of nearly two dozen people.
In late February and early March, historic snowstorms dropped fresh powder at elevations as low as 1,000 feet and trapped residents under feet of snow in the San Bernardino Mountains, where at least 13 people died.
More storms in recent weeks brought levee breaches and devastating floods in California, including in Pajaro and in Tulare County communities near the Tule River, both of which endured evacuations and widespread property damage as floodwaters streamed from swollen rivers.
Thousands of residents in Tulare remained under evacuation orders Tuesday, including the areas of Alpaugh and Allensworth and portions of Porterville along the Tule River, where officials continued to be concerned about rising river levels as they released water from Lake Success to make room for incoming flows.
The lake was at about 96 percent of capacity, and officials were “continuing a high output to get it lower in anticipation of today’s rainfall and future snowmelt,” said Daniel Potter, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
(Gary Robbins, Karen Kucher & Teri Figueroa, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Light rain was falling in many regions Monday, the first day of spring, with precipitation expected to gain strength early today and linger into Wednesday.
Unlike recent warm atmospheric river storms that pulled moisture from the tropical Pacific, the incoming system will be a “cold, powerful, dynamic storm coming out of the northwest,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. The greatest effects are expected in Southern California.
“The main event starts to approach tonight, and it really hits us hard tomorrow — that’s when we’re going to get the heaviest rain, the strongest winds and the heaviest snow in the mountains,” Sweet said Monday. High temperatures will be 10 to 15 degrees below normal.
San Diego Gas & Electric has warned its customers that the storm could cause unplanned power outages in the county, primarily due to the fierce winds that will rake the coast and inland foothills.
The National Weather Service said the system was expected to move into North County about 4 a.m. today and spread south and east, dropping 1 to 1.5 inches of rain at the coast, 2 to 3 inches in the foothills and up to 5 inches at Palomar Mountain.
The storm also will generate winds that could hit or exceed 50 mph at local beaches and coastal bluffs, with slightly weaker gusts across inland areas.
Forecasters said the winds will race ashore around 9 to 10 a.m., at roughly the same time that the storm front moves in with heavier bands of rain that will last into this afternoon. The rain will weaken for a while then regain strength tonight and produce substantial rain into Wednesday.
The weather service said the unstable air could produce thunderstorms that would result in heavier-than-anticipated rainfall, which in turn would produce street flooding, water ponding on local freeways, and possibly mudslides in various parts of the county.
Lower mountain and foothill areas around Los Angeles could see up to 4 inches of rain, Sweet said. Up to 4 feet of snow is possible at elevations above 6,000 feet, with a significant threat of avalanches.
Damaging winds — including gusts of up to 80 mph in mountain and desert areas — are possible, which could down trees and cause power outages. But the arrival of more moisture remains a top concern.
“We’ll have our eye on (wildfire) burn areas, we’ll have our eye on just about any location, really, for the possibility of flooding,” Sweet said. “At this point, we’ve gotten so much rain that any additional rain has the potential to cause problems.”
That was certainly the case in Central California, where Tulare County residents continued to deal with flood threats from surging rivers and breached levees.
The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office on Sunday ordered evacuations in Alpaugh and Allensworth due to a nearby levee breach, with at least one official indicating the breach may have been caused by someone intentionally cutting through an earthen barrier with machinery.
Meanwhile, evacuations were also under way in nearby Porterville along both banks of the Tule River because of erosion and high water levels, officials said. More than 100 people were in emergency shelters in Exeter, Ivanhoe and Porterville, and nearly 15,000 people were under evacuation orders and warnings.
The area is threatened by water flowing out of the mountains into Lake Success, said Carrie Monteiro, spokeswoman for the Tulare County Emergency Operations Center.
Though the incoming storm is expected to bring less rainfall, “our waterways are significantly stressed,” Monteiro said.
“We have over 500 personnel working on this incident,” she added, “ready, prepared for wherever a levee break or breach may happen because our canals, waterways, creeks and streams are very, very saturated, very stressed, and not used to having this amount of water.”
However, much of the focus today will be on Southern California.
“The heaviest rain is definitely going to be in Southern California, and L.A. and San Diego will both probably see more rain out of this storm than a lot of other storms this winter,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said during a briefing Monday.
Swain described it as “an unusually rapidly strengthening low-pressure system,” the likes of which is not often seen off the coast of California.
The center of the system will probably be over the San Francisco Bay Area, but the strongest winds and heaviest rain are expected to stretch from the Monterey Bay region “all the way south to the Mexican border,” he said.
The storm in Southern California will be associated with a moderate atmospheric river, while Northern California won’t have an atmospheric river component but will be affected by the low-pressure system itself, he said.
“This is going to bring a whole litany of concerns that are probably greater than we had initially anticipated a few days ago,” he said of the storm.
In Orange County and the Inland Empire, rainfall totals are likely to range from 1.5 to 2 inches, with storm activity ramping up late Monday and continuing through Wednesday, said Samantha Connolly, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in San Diego. Lower-lying mountain areas “will see some pretty significant rainfall” — about 3 to 5 inches, though higher localized amounts are possible, she added.
The additional showers will threaten to further saturate hillsides already thoroughly soaked after weeks of wet weather, and flooding is expected in low-lying roads and urban areas that have poor drainage. In San Clemente, several buildings were evacuated last week after a major landslide — and officials warned additional rain could exacerbate the danger.
Fresh snow is expected in the San Bernardino Mountains, where at least 13 people were found dead this month after a historic blizzard trapped residents in their homes. Snowfall totals won’t be anywhere close to those seen during that storm, but areas around Wrightwood and Big Bear Lake could see 3 feet or more of new powder.
San Bernardino County officials said they were pre-positioning equipment and mobilizing swift-water rescue teams, as well as public works and flood control crews, in anticipation of the latest storm. County officials urged residents to stock up on necessary supplies and limit travel during adverse weather.
The San Bernardino County communities of Oak Glen, Forest Falls, Mountain Home Village, Angelus Oaks and northeast Yucaipa were under an evacuation warning starting Monday night because of the expected heavy storm and possibility of mud and debris flows, authorities said.
Elsewhere in the state, residents were similarly girding for more wet weather. After light rain in the San Francisco Bay Area on Monday, heavier downpours were expected late Monday night into today, with showers lingering into Wednesday, the weather service said.
Monterey County, which saw significant flooding along the Pajaro River last week, is likely to avoid more heavy rain but will see minor street flooding and rising creeks, said meteorologist Sean Miller of the weather service’s Bay Area office.
Officials with Monterey County said Monday it could take at least a week for people to gain access to their homes. Dozens of structures have experienced major or minor damage, according to ongoing damage assessment mapping.
In the greater Sacramento area, Shasta County saw heavy rain, small hail and minor flooding Sunday night, while two people in Placer County were hospitalized after a tree fell and struck their vehicles on Auburn Folsom Road.
Swain said one of the biggest threats moving forward wasn’t so much another huge flood pulse but, instead, prolonged periods of high flows along rivers as the state’s near-record snowpack continues to melt through the spring.
“The consensus is that there’s just so much water stored up there in the snowpack — and we’re already seeing flood issues — that, unfortunately, the likelihood that it gets worse before better is almost 100 percent at this point,” he said.
A break in the weather is expected in much of the state Thursday through Sunday, though unsettled patterns may begin again around Monday, said Sweet, the weather service meteorologist in Oxnard.
(Haley Smith, Luke Money & Ian James, LOS ANGELES TIMES; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The report, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, offers the most comprehensive understanding to date of ways in which the planet is changing. It says that global average temperatures are estimated to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels sometime around “the first half of the 2030s,” as humans continue to burn coal, oil and natural gas.
That number holds a special significance in global climate politics: Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, virtually every nation agreed to “pursue efforts” to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond that point, scientists say, the impacts of catastrophic heat waves, flooding, drought, crop failures and species extinction become significantly harder for humanity to handle.
But Earth has warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since the industrial age, and, with global fossil-fuel emissions setting records last year, that goal is quickly slipping out of reach.
There is still one last chance to shift course, the new report says. But it would require industrialized nations to join together immediately to slash greenhouse gases roughly in half by 2030 and then stop adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050s. If those two steps were taken, the world would have about a 50 percent chance of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Delays of even a few years would most likely make that goal unattainable, guaranteeing a hotter, more perilous future.
“The pace and scale of what has been done so far and current plans are insufficient to tackle climate change,” said Hoesung Lee, chair of the climate panel. “We are walking when we should be sprinting.”
The report comes as the world’s two biggest polluters, China and the United States, continue to approve new fossil fuel projects. Last year, China issued permits for 168 coal-fired power plants of various sizes, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Finland. Last week, the Biden administration approved an enormous oil drilling project known as Willow that will take place on pristine federal land in Alaska.
The report, which was approved by 195 governments, says that existing and currently planned fossil fuel infrastructure — coal-fired power plants, oil wells, factories, cars and trucks across the globe — will already produce enough carbon dioxide to warm the planet roughly 2 degrees Celsius this century. To keep warming below that level, many of those projects would need to be canceled, retired early or otherwise cleaned up.
“The 1.5 degree limit is achievable, but it will take a quantum leap in climate action,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said. In response to the report, Guterres called on countries to stop building new coal plants and to stop approving new oil and gas projects.
Many scientists have pointed out that surpassing the 1.5-degree threshold will not mean humanity is doomed. But every fraction of a degree of additional warming is expected to increase the severity of dangers that people around the world face, such as water scarcity, malnutrition and deadly heat waves.
The difference between 1.5 degrees of warming and 2 degrees might mean that tens of millions more people worldwide experience life-threatening heat waves, water shortages and coastal flooding. A 1.5-degree world might still have coral reefs and summer Arctic sea ice, while a 2-degree world most likely would not.
“It’s not that if we go past 1.5 degrees everything is lost,” said Joeri Rogelj, director of research at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London. “But there’s clear evidence that 1.5 is better than 1.6, which is better than 1.7, and so on. The point is we need to do everything we can to keep warming as low as possible.”
Scientists say that warming will largely halt once humans stop adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere, a concept known as “net zero” emissions. How quickly nations reach net zero will determine how hot the planet ultimately becomes. Under the current policies of national governments, Earth is on pace to heat up by 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius this century, analysts have estimated.
Both the United States and European Union have set goals of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, while China has set a 2060 goal and India is aiming for 2070. But in light of the report’s findings, Guterres said, all countries should move faster and wealthy countries should aim to reach net zero by 2040.
The new report is a synthesis of six previous landmark reports on climate change issued by the U.N. panel since 2018, each one compiled by hundreds of experts across the globe, approved by 195 countries and based on thousands of scientific studies. Taken together, the reports represent the most comprehensive look to date at the causes of global warming, the impacts that rising temperatures are having on people and ecosystems across the world and the strategies that countries can pursue to halt global warming.
The report makes clear that humanity’s actions today have the potential to fundamentally reshape the planet for thousands of years.
Many of the most dire climate scenarios once feared by scientists, such as those forecasting warming of 4 degrees Celsius or more, now look unlikely, as nations have invested more heavily in clean energy. At least 18 countries, including the United States, have managed to reduce their emissions for more than a decade, the report finds, while the costs of solar panels, wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles have plummeted.
At the same time, even relatively modest increases in global temperature are now expected to be more disruptive than previously thought, the report concludes.
At current levels of warming, for instance, food production is starting to come under strain. The world is still producing more food each year, thanks to improvements in farming and crop technology, but climate change has slowed the rate of growth, the report says. It’s an ominous trend that puts food security at risk as the world’s population soars past 8 billion people.
Today, the world is seeing record-shattering storms in California and catastrophic drought in places like East Africa. But by the 2030s, as temperatures rise, climate hazards are expected to increase all over the globe as different countries face more crippling heat waves, worsening coastal flooding and crop failures, the report says. At the same time, mosquitoes carrying diseases like malaria and dengue will spread into new areas, it adds.
To stave off a chaotic future, the report recommends that nations move away from the fossil fuels that have underpinned economies for more than 180 years.
Governments and companies would need to invest three to six times the roughly $600 billion they now spend annually on encouraging clean energy in order to hold global warming at 1.5 or 2 degrees, the report says. While there is currently enough global capital to do so, much of it is difficult for developing countries to acquire. The question of what wealthy, industrialized nations owe to poor, developing countries has been divisive at global climate negotiations.
A wide array of strategies are available for reducing fossil-fuel emissions, such as scaling up wind and solar power, shifting to electric vehicles and electric heat pumps in buildings, curbing methane emissions from oil and gas operations, and protecting forests.
But that may not be enough: Countries may also have to remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year, relying on technology that barely exists today.
The report acknowledges the enormous challenges ahead. Winding down coal, oil and gas projects would mean job losses and economic dislocation. Some climate solutions come with difficult trade-offs: Protecting forests, for instance, means less land for agriculture; manufacturing electric vehicles requires mining metals for use in their batteries.
And because nations have waited so long to cut emissions, they will have to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to adapt to climate risks that are now unavoidable.
The new report is expected to inform the next round of U.N. climate talks this December in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where world leaders will gather to assess their progress in tackling global warming. At last year’s climate talks in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, language calling for an end to fossil fuels was struck from the final agreement after pressure from several oil-producing nations.
While the next decade is almost certain to be hotter, scientists said the main takeaway from the report should be that nations still have enormous influence over the climate for the rest of the century.
The report “is quite clear that whatever future we end up with is within our control,” said Piers Forster, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds who helped write one of the panel’s earlier reports. “It is up to humanity,” he added, “to determine what we end up with.”
(Brad Plumer, NEW YORK TIMES)
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Three skiers were caught in Sunday’s large avalanche in the Maroon bowl area outside of the Aspen Highlands resort near Aspen, the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office said.
Two of the skiers managed to escape. Further details about the victim were not immediately available.
On Saturday, Colorado authorities recovered the body of skier Joel Shute, 36, of Glenwood Springs, after he and two others were caught in a large backcountry avalanche southwest of Marble in western Colorado.
Shute had been missing since Friday evening, when the avalanche swept 2,400 feet down a mountainside as they were backcountry touring.
The avalanche was two to three feet deep where it began and up to 500 feet wide, the Colorado Avalanche Information Center said. Rescue teams found the victim’s body buried in avalanche debris, the center said.
A skier and snowboarder who were with Shute survived. The snowboarder hiked out to get help and rescue teams evacuated the injured skier by helicopter. Both were taken to the hospital, the Gunnison County Sheriff’s Office said.
Recent storms have raised avalanche risks.
Nineteen people have been killed across the U.S. by avalanches so far this winter, including nine fatalities in Colorado.
Avalanches in the winter of 2020-2021 killed 37 people nationwide, which was the most recorded by the avalanche center in records going back to 1950.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Grief hung in the air on Sunday, a day after a powerful temblor rocked this city, toppling homes and buildings along the coast and as far off as the Ecuadorian highlands and even parts of Peru.
Rubble covered some streets of Machala. Neighbors held simple funerals to bury the dead. A pier was no more. And a day after the quake that killed nine residents alone along this hard-hit coast, many in Machala were feeling anguished and uneasy.
“The city is quiet, fear and mourning are felt,” resident Luis Becerra said. “You feel the pain, the drama, wherever you go. Everyone is alert, with great fear in case” a major aftershock.
The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey reported at magnitude 6.8, killed at least 15 people and injured more than 445 others. Fourteen died in Ecuador, and one in Peru.
The quake damaged and brought down hundreds of homes and buildings in vastly different communities, in both coastal areas and the highlands. Many were old, did not meet modern building standards of a quake-prone country and many of their inhabitants were poor.
Machala resident Hamilton Cedillo said Sunday that he and his family barely slept in the hours afterward, fearful of deadly aftershocks. They have come up with an evacuation plan and watched videos on how to protect themselves should another quake strike.
“I am afraid of leaving and that my family will be left here alone at home,” Cedillo said.
Ecuador’s government issued an emergency declaration covering the roads in Azuay, where the quake debris cut off several roads. One of the victims was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the community of Cuenca.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The U.S. Geological Survey reported an earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 that was centered just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city. One of the victims died in Peru, while 14 others died in Ecuador, where authorities also reported that at least 126 people were injured.
Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso told reporters the earthquake had “without a doubt ... generated alarm in the population.” Lasso’s office in a statement said 12 of the victims died in the coastal state of El Oro and two in the highlands state of Azuay.
In Peru, the earthquake was felt from its northern border with Ecuador to the central Pacific coast. Peruvian Prime Minister Alberto Otárola said a 4-year-old girl died from head trauma she suffered in the collapse of her home in the Tumbes region, on the border with Ecuador.
One of the victims in Azuay was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the Andean community of Cuenca, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, Ecuador’s emergency response agency.
In El Oro, the agency also reported that several people were trapped under rubble.
Ecuador’s government also reported damage to health care centers and schools.
In Guayaquil, about 170 miles southwest of the capital, Quito, authorities reported cracks in buildings and homes, as well as some collapsed walls. Authorities ordered the closure of three vehicular tunnels in Guayaquil, which anchors a metro area of over 3 million people.
(Gonzalo Solano, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Polio has been diagnosed in an unvaccinated 4-year-old child in the western part of the country and in two other children who were contacts of the child, authorities in Burundi confirmed in a statement on Friday. Officials also found traces of the virus in sewage samples, confirming the circulation of polio.
The virus that sickened the children was found to be a mutated strain of polio that initially came from an oral vaccine.
The Burundi government declared the polio outbreak to be a national public health emergency and plans to start an immunization campaign within weeks, aimed at protecting all children up to age 7.
Polio is a highly infectious disease mostly spread through water and typically strikes children under five. There is no treatment. Although the oral vaccine used in the global effort to eradicate the disease is highly effective, it requires four doses.
The oral vaccine can also cause polio in about two to four children per 2 million doses. In extremely rare cases, the weakened virus can also sometimes mutate into a more dangerous form and spark outbreaks, especially in places with poor sanitation and low vaccination levels.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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In Porterville, residents in two areas along the swollen Tule River have been ordered to evacuate, and the stretch of river between them spanning about 5 miles is under an evacuation warning.
Overflow from nearby Lake Success upstream has already flooded dozens of homes in the area. Snowmelt from the mountains is feeding the frigid floodwater, which was waist-high Wednesday in some homes near a breach in the Tule River.
On Friday morning, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for the San Joaquin River west of Modesto near Vernalis.
“Turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads,” the warning said. “Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.”
Visalia is under a state of emergency through Monday due to the potential for flooding from a near-capacity Lake Kaweah. The lake sits between Three Rivers and Woodlake, where significant flooding has already occurred.
A new storm, which would be the 12th atmospheric river to hit the state this rainy season, is forecast to bring precipitation to Central and Southern California starting Sunday through Wednesday. Peak rainfall and snow is expected Tuesday.
In Central California, residents can expect about half an inch of rain along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, said Jim Bagnall, a meteorologist with the weather service in Hanford. In Southern California, residents should expect a “long period of steady light to moderate rain” totaling 1 to 3 inches, said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the weather service in Oxnard.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Yet another potential casualty of the powerful rainstorms that drenched coastal California: hundreds of acres of fresh strawberries slated for America’s supermarket shelves this summer.
Industry experts estimate about a fifth of strawberry farms in the Watsonville and Salinas areas have been flooded since the levee ruptured late Friday about 70 miles south of San Francisco and another river overflowed. It’s too soon to know whether the berry plants can be recovered, but the longer they remain underwater the more challenging it can get, said Jeff Cardinale, a spokesperson for the California Strawberry Commission.
“When the water recedes, what does the field look like — if it is even a field anymore?” Cardinale said. “It could just be a muddy mess where there is nothing left.”
For years, California’s farmers have been plagued by drought and battles over water as key sources have run dry. But so far this winter, the nation’s most populous state — and a key source of food for the nation — has been battered by 11 atmospheric rivers as well as powerful storms fueled by arctic air that produced blizzard conditions in the mountains.
Many communities have been coping with intense rainstorms and flooding, including the unincorporated community of Pajaro, known for its strawberry crop. The nearby Pajaro River swelled with runoff from last week’s rains and the levee — built in the 1940s to provide flood protection and a known risk for decades — ruptured, forcing the evacuation of more than 8,000 people from the largely Latino farmworker community.
Farmworkers have seen their hours reduced or slashed entirely due to the storms, said Antonio De Loera-Brust, a spokesperson for United Farm Workers. The most critical issue, he said, is helping those in the community of Pajaro rebuild.
The overwhelming majority of U.S.-grown strawberries come from California, with farms in different regions of the state harvesting the berries at distinct times of the year. About a third of the state’s strawberry acreage is in the Watsonville and Salinas areas, according to the commission.
Peter Navarro grows strawberries, raspberries and blackberries on a farm by the Pajaro River. He said he was fortunate his fields weren’t flooded by the levee rupture, but still expects his crop to be delayed several weeks due to the rainy, cold weather.
After planting berries last year, Navarro said he and other farmers were concerned about water sources drying up due to prolonged drought.
“When it started raining, we were elated, happy, saying, ‘This is what we need, a rainy season,’” Navarro said. “We certainly were not expecting all these atmospheric rivers. It just overwhelmed us — and overwhelmed the river.”
Other crops are also affected by the deluge in the Pajaro Valley, such as lettuce and other greens. Some vegetables had already been planted, but many hadn’t, and might see delays in planting due to the storms, said Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.
“Right now, I think everyone’s out trying to save the farm, so to speak,” Groot said, adding more rain was forecast for the weekend.
Monterey County is home to Pajaro and the crop-rich Salinas Valley, and has more than 360,000 farmed acres, said Juan Hidalgo, the county’s agricultural commissioner. The county estimates the farm sector was hit by $324 million in losses from January storms, and strawberries, raspberries and greens will likely be affected by this one, he said.
But, he added, many acres of farmland won’t be, and consumers may not feel the impact of the storms. “We’re still going to have a lot of production,” he said.
A challenge for strawberry growers is the plants are already in the ground. Soren Bjorn, president of Driscoll’s of the Americas, said the company works with a network of independent growers to package, ship and sell strawberries. In the Pajaro Valley, farmers did their planting last fall so the berries would hit stores during the summertime when it’s too hot to grow the fruits further south, he said.
Right now, farmers can’t even access the fields, because roads are covered in water. But with about 900 acres under water in the Pajaro Valley and another 600 acres flooded in nearby Salinas, Bjorn said the potential impact is significant, especially as farmers not only face the challenge of mud-soaked plants but also damaged equipment.
In the peak of the summer, Bjorn said most of the strawberries in the country come from this region.
“It’s too soon to know the full impact of this,” he said. “There is no way we are going to get what we had planned for.”
(Amy Taxin, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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No flooding or damage was reported, and the waters had receded to a little under 12 feet by Thursday afternoon. The previous high for the river this year was a little over 10 feet after a series of storms in January. Usually it’s less than 6 feet deep.
The 69-mile-long river drains about 562 square miles including Bonsall and Lake Henshaw, beginning in the Cleveland National Forest. Minor flood stage is 21 feet and major flood stage is 28 feet, according to the National Weather Service.
Historically, the river’s high waters posed a threat to life and property. In January 1916 a flood killed three people, washed out bridges and flooded the whole San Luis Rey valley floor. Other storms in 1969, 1978 and 1980 brought heavy damage and at least one death.
A $66 million flood-control project in the early 1990s lined about seven miles of the channel in Oceanside with concrete walls for reinforcement. However, parts of the project remain unfinished because of recent environmental laws and a lack of additional funding.
| Location | 2-day total (in) |
| by 17:45 Wed 3/15 | |
| Palomar Mt. | 5.65 |
| Bonsall | 2.98 |
| Escondido | 2.75 |
| Oceanside | 2.58 |
| Julian | 2.44 |
| Vista | 2.30 |
| Miramar | 1.83 |
| Alpine | 1.82 |
| Poway | 1.67 |
| Santee | 1.58 |
| National City | 1.15 |
| S.D. International Airport | 1.05 |
A little more than 15 years ago, sea ice quickly lost more than half its thickness, becoming weaker, more prone to melting and less likely to recover, according to the study that emphasizes the importance of two big “regime shifts” that changed the complexion of the Arctic.
Those big bites came in 2005 and 2007. Before then, Arctic sea ice was older and misshapen in a way that made it difficult to move out of the region. That helped the polar area act as the globe’s air conditioner even in warmer summers.
But now the ice is thinner, younger and easier to push out of the Arctic, putting that crucial cooling system at more risk, the study’s lead author said.
Before 2007, 19 percent of the sea ice in the Arctic was at least 13 feet thick — taller than most elephants — but now only about 9.3 percent of ice is at least that thick. And the age of the ice has dropped by more than a third, from an average of 4.3 years to 2.7 years, according to the study in Wednesday’s journal Nature.
It cited “the long-lasting impact of climate change on the Arctic sea ice.”
“Ice is much more vulnerable than before because it’s thinner, it can easily melt,” said study lead author Hiroshi Sumata, a sea ice scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Thicker sea ice is crucial to all sorts of life in the Arctic, he said.
The study shows “how the Arctic sea ice environment has undergone a fundamental shift,” said Walt Meier, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who wasn’t part of the research. “This paper helps explain why the sea ice has not recovered from those big drops.”
Past studies concentrated more on the extent of Arctic sea ice, or how widespread it is, because that’s easily measured by satellites, which don’t observe volume well. But 90 percent of the sea ice eventually is pushed out of the Arctic through the Fram Strait by Greenland, so Sumata overcame the challenges of measuring from space by focusing his observations on that ground-based choke point.
He found that first ice was getting younger, which made it thinner and more uniform, and easier to push out through the Fram Strait. Thicker ice has all sorts of edges and weird shapes that make it harder to force out of the Arctic because of aerodynamics, but that’s not the case for sleeker, younger ice, Sumata said.
Scientists had known before that sea ice was shrinking in extent and getting thinner, but this “flushing” is key, said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, who wasn’t part of the study.
“Such flushing episodes have reduced the residence time of ice in the Arctic Ocean by more than a year so there’s less time for it to thicken and it’s the thick ice that’s resistant to melting out,” Serreze said in an email. “But since the Arctic is quickly warming up, we’re probably past the point of hoping the Arctic Ocean can recover.”
What likely happened in 2005 and 2007 were periods with warm, large, ice-free open water in the Arctic that exceeded periods of previous summers, Sumata said. White ice reflects the sun’s rays, but the dark ocean absorbs it and warms up — something called ice albedo feedback. This cycle of warmer water made it harder for ice to form, survive and get thicker, he said.
Once the ocean has accumulated that heat, it can’t go back easily. So in the future more big warmer shifts can happen to make ice thinner and weaker, but don’t count on sudden, healing cooling changes, scientists said.
Sumata and Serreze think those sudden warm jumps will happen soon and are surprised they haven’t quite happened yet. Recent projections predict the Arctic ocean will be ice free in parts of summer in 20 to 30 years.
Sea ice thickness and overall Arctic health is crucial even to areas thousands of miles away that don’t freeze up, Sumata said.
“It will affect the entire Earth because the north and south pole is something like a radiator of the Earth, the air conditioning system of the Earth,” Sumata said. “And the situation we observed indicates the air conditioner is not working well.”
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California decided to end the emergency conservation mandate for agencies in portions of Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties that depend on supplies from the State Water Project. Officials said the change reflects improvements in the available supplies, but they urged residents and businesses to continue conserving to help address what is still a water deficit, and to prepare for expected cuts in supplies from the Colorado River’s depleted reservoirs.
“This year’s very wet weather has improved our water supply conditions enough that we no longer need to mandate the most serious of the restrictions that we had on nearly 7 million people,” said Brad Coffey, Metropolitan’s water resource manager. “But because we have to refill our storage that’s been drawn down by this drought, and because of the longstanding drought on the Colorado River, we’re still asking consumers to conserve. Conserving lets us refill storage and be prepared for another dry year.”
The decision by the MWD board on Tuesday ends emergency drought measures that were imposed in June 2022, which required six of the district’s member agencies to restrict outdoor watering to one day a week or reduce overall use to stay within certain limits.
The measures were intended to deal with the critical shortage last year on the State Water Project, the system of aqueducts and reservoirs that deliver water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to Southern California.
The series of atmospheric river storms have dramatically eased the water-supply deficit since January. Agencies that depend on the State Water Project’s supplies were only able to get 5 percent of their full allocations last year, but with the storms and the rise in reservoirs levels, state officials have told agencies they will be able to receive 35 percent of requested water supplies, and that figure is expected to increase further with the latest storms.
(Ian James, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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In the Tulare County city of Porterville, residents on both sides of the Tule River were ordered to evacuate Wednesday morning as levels rose at Lake Success, sending water running over the spillway at Schafer Dam.
“Right now the dam is in good working order — there’s no threat to the structure of the dam — but we have significant water coming off of the spillway,” said Carrie Monteiro, a spokeswoman for the Tulare County Emergency Operations Center.
Lake Success saw a significant increase in inflows overnight, peaking at nearly 19,800 cubic feet of water rushing in per second Wednesday morning, according to state data.
The increased flow from the spillway is adding more water to the river and tributaries below, both of which are already full from the last storm, Monteiro said, adding that there is “flood concern.”
Water was about 6 inches from the bottom of one of the bridges on the Tule River; nearby, bulldozers were clearing debris and piling dirt mounds in an effort to protect a neighborhood from potential flooding.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said the devastation across the state was indicative of extreme weather swings driven by climate change.
“You look back at the last few years in this state — it’s been fire to ice, and no warm bath in between,” he said during a news briefing Wednesday in Pajaro, the Monterey County town flooded by a levee breach last week. “If anyone has any doubt about Mother Nature and her fury — if anyone has any doubt about what this is all about in terms of what’s happening to the climate and the changes that we’re experiencing — come to the state of California.”
Storm clouds were beginning to clear Wednesday, though many effects are expected to linger.
More than 150,000 people remained without power statewide, many in the San Francisco Bay Area.
In San Clemente, four apartment buildings were evacuated after mud, rocks and debris tumbled down a hillside behind the buildings, the Orange County Fire Authority said. No injuries were reported.
Multiple rainfall records for the date were set by large margins Tuesday, including 2.54 inches in Santa Barbara, breaking a record of 1.36 inches set in 1952, and 2.25 inches in Oxnard, beating 1930’s mark of 1.46 inches.
Perhaps the most lasting effect of the storm will be in the flooded community of Pajaro. A levee breach on the Pajaro River late Friday sent floodwaters rushing into the migrant town of about 3,000 people, prompting widespread evacuations and cutting off potable water to the area. It is likely that some people will never be able to return to their homes, county spokesman Nicholas Pasculli said.
State and county officials were working to stabilize the breach, but there was no timeline for when it will be fixed.
Officials knew for decades that the levee was vulnerable to failure but never prioritized repairs because they believed it did not make financial sense to protect the low-income area, a Los Angeles Times report found this week.
On Wednesday, California Sen. Alex Padilla grilled Shalanda Young, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, about the Army Corps of Engineers’ policy.
“We need to address how the Army Corps, as well as OMB, should be thinking beyond just the benefit-cost ratio in order to ensure we’re protecting vulnerable communities equitably,” Padilla said.
Young committed to working with Congress to ensure lasting changes “because there’s never enough money even with the infrastructure law,” she said.
A project to improve the Pajaro River levee system is anticipated to go to construction in 2024, and has so far received $67 million from President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed in 2021. That is the first in a series of federal investments.
The total project is expected to cost more than $400 million. Roughly 65 percent will be paid by the federal government, and the remainder by the state.
“Lots of communities have flood control projects that we can’t get to,” Young said. “But this idea that poor communities don’t deserve the same flood control protection as those with higher value and houses is just patently unfair.”
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The storm began Monday night and lasted throughout Tuesday, dumping as much as 3 feet of snow and gusty winds. Others got just a few inches or a wintry mix.
Some of the highest snow totals reported were 35 inches in Peterborough, N.H., and in Ashby, Mass., the National Weather Service said. At least 2 feet of snow fell in parts of northern New York and the Catskill Mountains, with Indian Lake in New York’s Adirondack Mountains recording 31 inches.
“It just snowed, and snowed, and snowed,” said Geoff Settles, a supervisor at a manufacturer who lives in Peterborough. “My wife and I were helping some of the neighbors dig out. Literally, we had to shovel five and six different times just to keep it from being basically up to our chest.”
Settles, who grew up in Leominster, Mass., remembered blizzards there in the late 1970s. “I would say this is the most snow I’ve seen all my life,” he said Wednesday.
In Pittsfield, Mass., which got at least 18 inch of snow, Michael Garvey was using his snow blower to clear his sidewalk and help a neighbor dig out his driveway.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve seen some snowstorms in April, so it doesn’t surprise me at all,” the 71-year-old retired Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office worker said.
About 67,000 customers in the region were remained without power by Wednesday evening, according to the PowerOutage.us tracking site.
“We are still expecting this to be a multiday restoration effort,” Unitil spokesperson Alec O’Meara said. Crews from New York and Pennsylvania arrived to help bring back power in parts of Massachusetts and help assess damage from trees and downed lines.
In a dramatic overnight rescue, a search team located two hikers stranded in heavy snow in Massachusetts’ Mount Washington State Forest.
The two male hikers, ages 47 and 53, had hoped to reach a cabin but called 911 on Tuesday night and said they could no longer see trail markings. Rescuers first attempted to use snowmobiles, but the snow was too deep and the six-person team — including two troopers from the State Police Special Emergency Response Team, three local firefighters, and a park ranger — set out on foot.
After trudging through snow for more than two hours, the searchers found the hikers at about 2:30 a.m. Wednesday and led them out of the woods just before dawn.
During the worst of the storm on Tuesday, about 2,100 flights traveling to, from or within the U.S. were canceled, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. Numerous schools had been closed; many ran on a delayed schedule Wednesday.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Caltrans said commuters began to report the sinkhole — described as “massive” by Vista Mayor John Franklin — in the middle of traffic lanes on the westbound side of the highway about 8:50 a.m.
Eventually, all lanes on the westbound side from College Boulevard to El Camino Real were closed for emergency work. Caltrans said the closure is expected to last until Saturday, at which time emergency repairs will begin on the eastbound side.
Motorists will detour on Vista Way in Oceanside.
The damage arose from a Pacific storm that drew extra moisture from the subtropics, making it stronger as it moved into California.
“This was the kind of juicy storm that you usually see in January or February,” said Samantha Connolly, a forecaster at the National Weather Service.
The system, which blew ashore just a few days before the start of spring, whipped up strong winds before morning flights at San Diego International Airport and produced fog that shrouded the Carl Vinson, an aircraft carrier docked at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado.
By noon, the airport had received more than an inch of rain, pushing its seasonal total to nearly 12 inches. The season lasts from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30. It’s been three years since the airport recorded a higher amount of seasonal precipitation.
The rain mostly fell between midnight and dawn and pushed the San Diego River in Mission Valley and the Santa Margarita River in Camp Pendleton near flood stage.
The system met forecasters’ expectations, hitting North County really hard then losing some of its punch as it spread south and east.
Through late afternoon, Palomar Observatory recorded 5.58 inches of rain and Camp Pendleton received 3.49 inches. Carlsbad reported 2.73 inches, Oceanside got 2.58 inches and Encinitas received 2.21 inches. Farther inland, Julian received 2.44 inches.
Streets and freeways flooded, contributing to serious traffic accidents.
A driver lost control of his car and went off Interstate 8 near Pine Valley during heavy rain shortly after 7:30 a.m., the California Highway Patrol said.
The 61-year-old man, a resident of Yuma, Ariz., was traveling at a high rate of speed when he lost control of his car and went off the side of the freeway. The car overturned several times, ejecting him from the vehicle, the CHP said. He died before he could be taken to a hospital.
Earlier in the morning, a traffic alert was issued shortly after 5:45 a.m. because of flooding on state Route 78 near Carlsbad. California Highway Patrol officers closed a section of the freeway, and officers diverted all westbound and eastbound vehicles off the freeway at El Camino Real.
That is a spot that typically floods in heavy rain, according to a CHP dispatcher.
Around 4:15 a.m., a eucalyptus tree fell onto northbound lanes of state Route 163 in the Hillcrest area, blocking both traffic lanes. A traffic alert was in place until crews were able to clear the debris off the freeway.
San Diego city officials announced several streets closed in the Mission Valley area that cross the San Diego River. Those streets included: San Diego Mission Road, Ward Road, Qualcomm Way, Camino de la Reina, Mission Center Road, Camino del Este, Avenida del Rio, Fashion Valley Road and Camino Arroyo.
Several streets also were flooded in the North Park neighborhood.
A westbound lane of University Avenue at Arizona Street was closed as “city crews work to draw down flood waters and assess the area,” said city spokesperson Anthony Santacroce.
“The City urges caution today for those navigating our roads today especially near street flooding,” he said in an email. “Do not attempt to drive, walk or ride through standing flood water and report street flooding to the City’s Get It Done app.”
The storm will give way to mostly clear skies today. A weak system could roll in over the weekend, forecasters said. And a major storm could arrive Tuesday.
(Gary Robbins, Karen Kucher & Caleb Lunetta, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Heavy rains that triggered floods and mudslides have killed 199 people in Malawi, authorities said Tuesday. President Lazarus Chakwera declared a “state of disaster” in the country’s southern region and the now-ravaged commercial capital, Blantyre. Some 19,000 people in the south of the nation have been displaced, according to Malawi’s disaster management directorate.
“Power and communications are down in many affected areas, hindering aid operations,” said Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. secretary-general’s spokesperson at a press briefing Tuesday. The most affected regions remain inaccessible so the full extent of the damage is so far unknown.
Reports from Mozambique’s disaster institute on Tuesday confirmed that 20 people have died in the country and 1,900 homes have been destroyed in the coastal Zambezia province. Tens of thousands of people are still holed up in storm shelters and accommodation centers.
Freddy will continue to thump central Mozambique and southern Malawi with extreme rainfall before it exits back to the sea late Wednesday afternoon, the U.N.’s meteorological center on the island of Réunion projected.
Amnesty International has called on the international community to mobilize resources and boost aid and rescue efforts in the two countries. Relief efforts in the nations are strained and were battling a cholera outbreak when Freddy struck.
In November last year, nations agreed to compensate countries affected by extreme weather exacerbated by human-caused climate change. Cyclones are wetter, more frequent and more intense as the planet heats up, scientists say.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The brunt of the storm appeared to be affecting northwestern Massachusetts, where 28 inches of snow had been recorded in Windsor, according to the National Weather Service.
In Pittsfield, Mass., southwest of Windsor, the police said there were downed power lines and felled trees throughout the area.
“If you don’t have to drive, can you please do us all a favor and not go out on the roads,” the Pittsfield Police Department said on Facebook.
“We have wires down everywhere. We have trees down everywhere, and it’s not going to get any better.”
Two feet of snow had been recorded in Franklin County in Massachusetts, and 11 inches of snow had been reported in southern New Hampshire, according to the weather service.
In Piseco, N.Y., in the southern Adirondacks, about 2.5 inches of snow fell in the span of an hour Tuesday, bringing snow depth to 31 inches, said the weather service office in Albany, N.Y.
In Vermont, more than 32 inches of snow had been reported in Marlboro, near the state line with Massachusetts, according to the weather service.
An additional 3 to 8 inches of snow were expected over portions of New York and New England into today, the weather service said, with more power outages and tree damage expected.
Joe Villani, a meteorologist with the service in Albany, said that the storm was producing wet snow, which can build up on power lines and trees, weighing them down and causing outages.
“Even this morning, having maybe 3 inches of snow in my driveway, it was extremely heavy to push and lift around,” Villani said Tuesday. “This is really probably our one real, true nor’easter we’ve seen this entire winter season.”
More than 250,000 customers were without power as of Tuesday afternoon in parts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont, according to PowerOutage.us.
Dozens of flights were delayed or canceled Tuesday at airports across the Northeast, including La Guardia Airport in New York and Logan International Airport in Boston, according to FlightAware.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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More than a dozen locations along major rivers were overflowing as the high-impact storm moved south through the state, including areas along the Salinas, Sacramento and Merced rivers. The Pajaro River, which suffered a levee breach from a similar storm last week, continued to spill water onto neighboring farmlands and communities.
At least 90 flood watches, warnings and advisories were in effect statewide, as were avalanche warnings in portions of Mono and Inyo counties and the Lake Tahoe area, according to the National Weather Service, which said the storm would “create considerable to locally catastrophic flooding impacts below 5,000 feet elevation.”
About 336,000 households across the state were without power as of Tuesday afternoon, according to data compiled by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. The majority of those households were in Santa Clara County, which had about 128,000 customers without power.
Much of San Diego County was expected to receive 1 to 3 inches of rain by early today, the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters said Escondido could get up to 2 inches, and 1.5 inches could fall in parts of San Diego and Imperial Beach, the weather service said.
“This atmospheric river storm is stronger than the one we just had,” said Phil Gonsalves, a weather service forecaster.
The heaviest precipitation locally was expected to fall in the hours before dawn. Sporadic showers will last into the afternoon and skies will clear on Thursday.
The current system is too warm to produce snow in the San Diego County mountains.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, the storm was causing minor urban flooding, road closures, downed trees and gusty winds of up to 50 mph, said Eleanor Dhuyvetter, a weather service meteorologist. Because of strong winds, about 40 percent of flights out of San Francisco International Airport experienced delays, and 72 had been canceled as of Tuesday afternoon.
In downtown San Francisco, a shelter-in-place order was instituted for the area around a 52-story skyscraper on California Street. One window was blown out amid winds of up to 50 mph and another was damaged on the 43rd floor of what was previously called the Bank of America building.
Fire officials said the gusts might have contributed to the dangerous situation.
In Monterey County, where a farm town was already inundated by the Pajaro River, more than 10,000 residents were under evacuation warnings and orders because of the surging Salinas River. County officials feared that more flooding could lead to significant crop loss in the heavily agricultural region.
Up to 6 inches of rain was expected to fall before midnight in the Santa Lucia Mountains, which includes part of the Salinas River watershed, Dhuyvetter said.
On Tuesday afternoon, officials were considering how to address near-overflowing levees protecting Watsonville, where evacuation orders were in effect. All schools in the area were closed.
“The real question today is about manually breaching a section (of the Pajaro River) to relieve pressure,” said Zach Friend, a Santa Cruz County supervisor whose district includes Watsonville.
The breach would occur at the Highway 1 bridge, which is downstream from the city and surrounded by farmland.
Only about half of the 350-foot section that was breached upstream of Pajaro late Friday had been stabilized as officials attempted to prevent it from widening.
Despite the threat, some residents in the migrant town of about 3,000 people chose not to evacuate.
“I know some people criticize us for not leaving, but the flooding danger isn’t here, it’s somewhere else,” said Dora Alvarez, 54, pointing south toward Salinas Road, which was submerged.
But officials said flooding wasn’t the only risk in the area. Major utility lines run through the levee under Highway 1, and a wastewater treatment facility is downstream.
“If the water continues to erode through the levee such that it re-enters the river system … it could overwhelm the river system downstream of Highway 1,” where the wastewater treatment plant for Watsonville sits, said Mark Strudley, executive director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency.
If the water overtops or seeps through the levee, Strudley said, “we stand to destroy parts of the plant and may end up releasing untreated sewage to the floodplain, to the river and then ultimately to the Monterey Bay.”
Meanwhile, in the Sacramento area, officials warned of high winds and heavy precipitation, with the heaviest rain likely in Shasta County and over the foothills and northern Sierra Nevada.
The Tres Pinos area in San Benito County was rattled by a 3.4-magnitude earthquake as the storm pounded the region, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Farther inland, flood advisories were in effect from Bakersfield to Yosemite National Park, with a high risk of flash flooding east of the Fresno area, said Jim Brusda, a weather service meteorologist in Hanford. Up to 1.5 inches of rain was possible across much of the Central Valley.
“The soil just can’t absorb all the new rain that we’re going to get, and that’s the problem,” Brusda said. “The rainfall might be a little bit less than last week, but the impacts are going to be the same, if not more, because the rivers and creeks are already so high, and the ground is already saturated.”
One farmer who declined to give his name said his fields in Auberry were flooded.
“They won’t let us use the water, and now we’ve got too much,” he said, referencing contentious water use issues for Central Valley farms.
Precipitation totals will increase significantly east of Highway 99 — including up to 4 inches of rain in the southern Sierra and more than 2 feet of snow in mountain areas around 7,000 feet, Brusda said. Areas at 8,000 feet or higher could see more than 6 feet of snow.
The atmospheric river storm, which is drawing moisture from Hawaii in a phenomenon sometimes referred to as a “pineapple express,” was rapidly moving south, raising concerns of flooding in burn scars and more snow on Southern California’s already covered mountains.
Flood watches are in effect in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties through this morning. Up to 4 inches of rain could fall in Santa Barbara and western Ventura County, said Ryan Kittell, a weather service meteorologist in Oxnard.
Santa Barbara County officials have issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents in areas around the burn scars of the Thomas, Alisal and Cave fires, advising residents to leave immediately. Burn scars are known to be waxy, water-repellent and highly vulnerable to debris flows and other hazards.
The worst of the storm occurred in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties Tuesday afternoon and into the evening. Los Angeles was expected to bear the brunt of the weather late Tuesday night. The National Weather Service in Los Angeles said rain would probably increase in intensity later in the day, with roadway flooding and rock slides and mudslides possible.
Residents in the San Bernardino Mountains also braced for more rain and snow — even as some people remain trapped from previous snowstorms. At least a dozen people were found dead after those storms blocked roads and left residents stranded and unable to dig out from their homes.
“Significant” rainfall totals are expected above 3,000 feet, said Gonsalves of the weather service in San Diego, which covers the San Bernardino area. “We’re looking at anywhere from 2.5 to locally 5 inches,” he said. Snow is expected around 8,000 feet or higher.
“The bad news is that this event is going to dump a lot of rain on the remaining snowpack, and the snowmelt is going to contribute to the threat of flooding, or debris flows and rock slides and whatnot over the next 18 hours,” Gonsalves said.
Flood watches were in effect across the San Bernardino, Riverside and Santa Ana mountains, as well as portions of the Inland Empire “in close proximity to the foothills” and inland Orange County until this afternoon, he said.
A state of emergency from Gov. Gavin Newsom remains in place in 40 counties statewide.
The storm arrives amid near-record snowpack and one of California’s wettest winters in recent memory. Nine back-to-back atmospheric river storms bombarded the state in late December and early January, and a 10th deluged the state last week.
Though conditions are expected to clear after the storm, the relief will be short-lived as yet another atmospheric river has set its sights on California next week, forecasters said — just in time for the first day of spring.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The Pajaro River’s first levee rupture grew to at least 400 feet since it failed late Friday, officials said. More than 8,500 people were forced to evacuate, and about 50 people had to be rescued as the water rose that night.
Still, some stayed behind in Pajaro, an unincorporated community that’s known for its strawberry crops and is now mostly flooded. The largely Latino farmworker community there is already struggling to find food with so many roads and businesses closed in the storm’s aftermath.
“Some people have nowhere to go and maybe that’s why there’s still people around,” resident Jorbelit Rincon said Monday. “Pretty much they don’t know where to go and don’t have money to provide for themselves.”
A second breach opened up another 100 feet of the levee closer to the Pacific coast, providing a “relief valve” for the floodwaters to recede near the mouth of the river, officials said Monday during a news conference.
Built in the late 1940s to provide flood protection, the levee has been a known risk for decades and had several breaches in the 1990s. Emergency repairs to a section of the berm were undertaken in January. A $400 million rebuild is set to begin in the next few years.
Forecasters warned of more flooding, wind damage and potential power outages from the new atmospheric river that came ashore Monday evening in northern and central parts of the state and was expected to move south over several days. California has been pummeled this winter by 10 atmospheric rivers, which are long, narrow plumes of moisture that turn into rain and snow when they make landfall.
Water from the newest storm will likely go over the Pajaro River’s levee — but crews were working to make sure the rupture doesn’t get any larger, said Shaunna Murray of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Local police said 51 people in Malawi, including 36 in Chilobwe in the financial hub of Blantyre in the center of the country have died, with several others missing or injured. Authorities in Mozambique reported that five people were killed in the country since Saturday.
The deaths in Malawi include five members of a single family who died in Blantyre’s Ndirande township after Freddy’s destructive winds and heavy rains demolished their house, according to a police report. A 3-year-old child who was “trapped in the debris” is also among the victims, with her parents among those reported missing, authorities also said.
“We suspect that this figure will rise as we are trying to compile one national report from our southwest, southeast and eastern police offices which cover the affected areas,” Malawi police spokesperson Peter Kalaya told the AP.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Yet another atmospheric river will bring new flood concerns to Northern California beginning today through Tuesday.
The Bay Area is now seeing bands of rain showers and thunderstorms, but “the focus is going to be on the next atmospheric river that arrives Monday evening,” said Patrick Ayd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Flood and high wind watches are in effect for the Bay Area and Central Coast starting this evening, he said.
The upcoming storms are expected to hit the same areas as the last round, Ayd said, with the worst impact at higher elevations.
In the aftermath of the recent storms, “we have very saturated soils, which will make us even more prone to flooding,” and power outages are expected, especially around Monterey, Ayd said. Rock and mud slides are also possible.
The weather service predicted showers and thunderstorms for Sunday, mainly from Fresno County northward, but was already looking to the next storm system that will roll in today, bringing as much as 6 inches of rain at higher elevations.
Rivers and creeks “are already running high,” meteorologist Jim Bagnall said, “so this additional water on top of that makes flooding our main concern,” especially in the Springville area in Tulare County northeast of Porterville.
“Anywhere up there in the hills is going to be of concern,” he said. Bagnall urged residents to “pay attention to the forecast. Listen to the local officials. And if they are told they need to get out, heed the advice of the local officials there.”
Southern California will see rain Tuesday and Wednesday, with flooding possible in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, according to the National Weather Service.
“This next atmospheric river event is not looking like it’s going to be as strong, but when you have a flood on top of a flood, it just makes a bigger flood,” said weather service meteorologist Cindy Kobold. “That means this next one could be more impactful, because the ground is way overly saturated, and we’re going to have additional rainfall, with gusty winds.”
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Across the Central Coast’s Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents — many of them Latino farmworkers — from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.
Officials said the Pajaro River’s levee breach is about 100 feet wide. Crews had gone door to door Friday afternoon to urge residents to leave before the rains came but some stayed and had to be pulled from floodwaters early Saturday.
First responders and the California National Guard rescued more than 50 people overnight. One video showed a member of the Guard helping a driver out of a car trapped by water up to their waists.
“We were hoping to avoid and prevent this situation, but the worst case scenario has arrived with the Pajaro River overtopping and levee breaching at about midnight,” wrote Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, on Twitter. Alejo called the flooding “massive.”
The Pajaro River separates the counties of Santa Cruz and Monterey in the area that flooded Saturday. Floodwaters that got into the region’s wells might be contaminated with chemicals, officials said, and residents were told not to drink or cook with tap water for fear of illness.
Weather-related power outages affected more than 17,000 customers in Monterey County late Saturday, according to the Office of Emergency Services.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office on Saturday said it was monitoring the situation in Pajaro.
“Our thoughts are with everyone impacted and the state has mobilized to support the community,” Newsom’s office wrote on Twitter.
The Pajaro Valley is a coastal agricultural area known for growing strawberries, apples, cauliflower, broccoli and artichokes. National brands like Driscoll’s and Martinelli’s are headquartered in the region.
This week’s storm marked the state’s 10th atmospheric river of the winter, storms that have brought enormous amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped lessen the drought conditions that had dragged on for three years.
Across the state on Saturday, Californians contended with drenching rains and rising water levels in the atmospheric river’s aftermath. By Saturday morning, many areas of San Diego County had recorded between a half-inch and an inch of rain, with Palomar Mountain recording 1.93 inches.
In Tulare County, the sheriff ordered residents who live near the Tule River to evacuate, while people near the Poso Creek in Kern County were under an evacuation warning.
Funnel clouds were spotted in the Jamestown area — the heart of California’s Gold Rush — on Saturday, and the weather service issued a tornado warning for the Sierra Nevada foothills as severe thunderstorms, hail and high winds blanketed the region. Tornado warnings also were issued in Fresno County. Flash flood warnings were in effect late Saturday in Tuolumne County, with roads submerged around Sonora and neighboring communities.
There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Newsom has declared emergencies in 34 counties in recent weeks, and the Biden administration approved a presidential disaster declaration for some on Friday morning, a move that will bring more federal assistance. President Joe Biden spoke with Newsom on Saturday to pledge the federal government’s support in California’s response to the emergency, the White House said.
Yet another atmospheric river is already in the forecast for early this week. State climatologist Michael Anderson said a third appeared to be taking shape over the Pacific and possibly a fourth.
(Nic Coury & Stefanie Dazio, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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One person, who has not been identified, was killed when a portion of a roof collapsed at a coffee distribution warehouse in Oakland, authorities said. He was a worker at the facility, where at least one other employee was injured in the collapse.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services did not immediately confirm details of the second death. Director Nancy Ward said approximately 9,400 people are under evacuation orders statewide, and about 54,000 were without power.
The OES has readied high-water vehicles, search-and-rescue teams, fire resources and other emergency operations to respond to areas most vulnerable to flooding and overtopped rivers, Ward said.
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration request from Gov. Gavin Newsom, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to support state and local responses to the storm.
Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in 34 counties, activating the California National Guard and other state agencies to respond to storm-related emergencies.
“California is deploying every tool we have to protect communities from the relentless and deadly storms battering our state,” Newsom said. “In these dangerous and challenging conditions, it is crucial that Californians remain vigilant and follow all guidance from local emergency responders.”
By Friday morning, the “Pineapple Express” storm — which is gathering warm, subtropical moisture from Hawaii — had made landfall in several communities as it carved a path from the Central Coast toward the southern Sierra.
“This is an unrivaled, unparalleled weather event not experienced in several decades,” Kris Mattarochia, science and operations officer with the National Weather Service in Hanford, said during a briefing in Fresno. “There will be high water in areas that are usually not impacted. So everyone needs to be ready. ... Combined with snow melt, the Kings River, along with smaller streams like Mill Creek, will be pushed to limits which are unimaginable.”
At least 13 areas of the state’s river systems were forecast to flood, including the Russian River at Hopland, the Salinas River at Bradley and Spreckels, the Carmel River at Robles Del Rio, the Merced River at Stevinson, the Cosumnes River at Michigan Bar, the Eel River at Fernbridge, the Pit River at Canby, the Sacramento River at Tehama Bridge and Ord Ferry, and Bear Creek at McKee Road.
Nearly 30 river systems were above “monitor stage” Friday, indicating the potential for overtopping and flooding in low-lying areas, according to the National Weather Service.
Major flash flooding was reported in the Tulare County area of Springville — where images of severe roadway flooding had been shared to social media — and in Kernville, where the roaring Kern River surrounded some houses and mobile homes, spurring an evacuation order.
In San Luis Obispo County, emergency crews rescued two people and a dog who were stranded on an island in Paso Robles, officials said. Elsewhere in the county, people sandbagged the doors of low-lying businesses along San Luis Obispo Creek, where the churning brown water was rising.
“Hopefully, we’re as prepared as we can be,” said Gina Wigney, 27, an employee at a property management company where the doors were blocked with sandbags, tarps and wood barriers.
In January, the creek flooded and covered the road, inundating the business. Wigney said the water was about 5 inches deep inside last time and damaged furniture and drywall. After that flood, she helped pull out the soaked carpet, which was replaced with tile.
“Hopefully, it’s not going to get too crazy like last time,” Wigney said. “It’s kind of scary.”
The California Department of Transportation has asked the public to limit nonessential travel during the peak of the storm in affected areas and to be extremely cautious if travel is necessary. As little as 1 foot of water can sweep a car off the road, the agency warned.
Nearly 90 flood watches and advisories were in effect across the state, including urgent flash flood warnings in portions of Tulare, Fresno and San Luis Obispo counties. Evacuation warnings were in effect for dozens of communities as reports of rapidly rising rivers, streams and creeks rang out.
“A dangerous excessive rainfall event is underway across much of Central California,” the weather service said. Rainfall totals of up to 9 inches are possible in many areas, with the highest flood risk in coastal areas from Salinas to San Luis Obispo and throughout the Central Valley.
In Santa Cruz County, the San Lorenzo River had already crested Friday morning, prompting evacuation orders for nearby areas due to flooding. County officials shared video of significant flooding along in Soquel.
“After a while, you’ve just got to laugh, otherwise you’re just gonna have horrible mental health,” said Cindi Busenhart, a stranded resident of Soquel.
She lives near Bates Creek, where a portion of the road collapsed Thursday night. She and all of her neighbors are essentially stuck — unable to drive in or out, depending on friends and relatives on the other side to help with transporting people, food and goods.
“I don’t know how long it’s gonna take before they can actually, like, fix it. ... I mean, the creek is just raging,” she said. “It didn’t take a little bit of a road out. It took a massive amount of the road out. So it’s definitely going to impact the residents here because there’s no way out.”
Flash flood warnings were in effect in San Luis Obispo County, where isolated rainfall totals of up to 15 inches were possible and streams near Cambria and San Simeon were already reaching concerning levels.
In the Merced County town of Planada, officials went door to door to many homes Wednesday and Thursday to warn of possible disaster. The town was almost entirely flooded after a levee broke in January.
“People are full of fear,” County Supervisor Rodrigo Espinosa said Thursday as he returned from watching crews lay sandbags at nearby Bear Creek. He hoped that the sandbags, debris clearance and other infrastructure improvements would prevent a worst-case scenario.
Officials said flood-control dams on major creeks near Planada were expected to reach their maximum capacity by Friday evening.
And in Fresno, officials warned residents to be prepared for rainfall that would test the limits of the county’s water management systems.
“The soils are so saturated from all the rain we’ve received, it will not take much at all for those trees or power lines to perhaps fall across roadways, fall on top of homes, fall on top of other infrastructure,” said Mattarochia, of the National Weather Service. “We’re going to have enhanced wind gusts, and we’re going to have enhanced rainfall rates, which can exacerbate the situation over some of these hot spots, like Mill Creek, like Kings River.
“We want everyone to know that this is not a normal situation. This is something that is completely outside the realm of even possibilities that we can imagine as meteorologists,” he said.
Indeed, the incoming storm is falling atop soaked soils and some of the deepest snowpack California has recorded, including historic snowpack in the San Bernardino Mountains, where many residents were trapped for days.
At least 13 people have been found dead in the wake of the snowstorms, and on Friday, residents and officials were bracing for the arrival of rain.
“It’s just going to make the snow heavier,” said Rich Eagan, a spokesman for the county’s incident command team. “It’s also adding weight to the roofs.”
There have been multiple roof collapses in the area, and with about an inch of rain forecast for some parts, Eagan said it would be “a miracle” if there aren’t more.
The state has already seen a spate of roof collapses from heavy snow, including a grocery store providing crucial supplies in Crestline. The roof of a Dollar General store in Amador County reportedly collapsed Thursday night.
Several of the state’s rivers flooded in January, when a series of nine back-to-back atmospheric rivers sent water rushing over levees and onto properties and roadways. The storms contributed to nearly two dozen deaths, including people trapped by floodwaters and killed by falling trees.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES; NEW YORK TIMES)
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That’s usually good news for the United States and other parts of the world, including drought-stricken northeast Africa, scientists said.
The globe is now in what’s considered a “neutral” condition and probably trending to an El Niño in late summer or fall, said climate scientist Michelle L’Heureux, head of NOAA’s El Niño/La Niña forecast office.
“It’s over,” said research scientist Azhar Ehsan, who heads Columbia University’s El Niño/La Niña forecasting. “Mother Nature thought to get rid of this one because it’s enough.”
La Niña is a natural and temporary cooling of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide. In the United States, because La Niña is connected to more Atlantic storms and deeper droughts and wildfires in the West, La Niñas often are more damaging and expensive than their more famous flip side, El Niño, experts said and studies show.
Generally, American agriculture is more damaged by La Niña than El Niño. If the globe jumps into El Niño it means more rain for the Midwestern corn belt and grains in general and could be beneficial, said Michael Ferrari, chief scientific officer of Climate Alpha, a firm that advises investors on financial decisions based on climate.
When there’s a La Niña, there are more storms in the Atlantic during hurricane season because it removes conditions that suppress storm formation. Neutral or El Niño conditions make it harder for storms to get going, but not impossible, scientists said.
Over the last three years, the U.S. has been hit by 14 hurricanes and tropical storms that caused a billion dollars or more in damage, totaling $252 billion in costs, according to NOAA economist and meteorologist Adam Smith. La Niña and people building in harm’s way were factors, he said.
Climate change is a major factor in worsening extreme weather, alongside La Niña, scientists said and numerous studies and reports show.
Human-caused warming is like an escalator going up: It makes temperatures increase and extremes worse, while La Niña and El Niño are like jumping up and down on the escalator, according to Northern Illinois University atmospheric sciences professor Victor Gensini.
La Niña has also slightly dampened global average temperatures, keeping warming from breaking annual temperature records, while El Niño slightly turbocharges those temperatures, often setting records, scientists said.
La Niña tends to make Western Africa wet, but Eastern Africa, around Somalia, dry.
The opposite happens in El Niño, with drought-stricken Somalia likely to get steady “short rains,” Ehsan said. La Niña has wetter conditions for Indonesia, parts of Australia and the Amazon, but those areas are drier in El Niño, according to NOAA.
El Niño means more heat waves for India and Pakistan and other parts of South Asia and weaker monsoons there, Ehsan said.
This particular La Niña, which started in September 2020 but is considered three years old because it affected three different winters, was unusual and one of the longest on record. It took a brief break in 2021 but came roaring back with record intensity.
“I’m sick of this La Niña,” Ehsan said. L’Heureux agreed, saying she’s ready to talk about something else.
The few other times that there’s been a triple-dip La Niña have come after strong El Niños and there’s clear physics on why that happens. But that’s not what happened with this La Niña, L’Heureux said. This one didn’t have a strong El Niño before it.
Even though this La Niña has confounded scientists in the past, they say the signs of it leaving are clear: Water in the key part of the central Pacific warmed to a bit more than the threshold for a La Niña in February, the atmosphere showed some changes and along the eastern Pacific near Peru, there’s already El Niño-like warming brewing on the coast, L’Heureux said.
Think of a La Niña or El Niño as something that pushes the weather system from the Pacific with ripple effects worldwide, L’Heureux said. When there are neutral conditions like now, there’s less push from the Pacific.
That means other climatic factors, including the long-term warming trend, have more influence in day-to-day weather, she said.
Without an El Niño or La Niña, forecasters have a harder time predicting seasonal weather trends for summer or fall because the Pacific Ocean has such a big footprint in weeks-long forecasts.
El Niño forecasts made in the spring are generally less reliable than ones made other times of year, so scientists are less sure about what will happen next, L’Heureux said.
But NOAA’s forecast said there’s a 60 percent chance that El Niño will take charge come fall.
There’s also a 5 percent chance that La Niña will return for an unprecedented fourth dip. L’Heureux said she really doesn’t want that but the scientist in her would find that interesting.
(Seth Borenstein, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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At least 10 rivers are forecast to overflow from the incoming “Pineapple Express” storm, which is expected to drop warm, heavy, snow-melting rain as it moves from the Central Coast toward the southern Sierra beginning Thursday night into Saturday.
Among them are rivers that flooded at the start of the year, when nine atmospheric river storms pummeled the state. The waterways include the Cosumnes River near Sacramento, where more than a dozen levee breaches sent floodwaters onto roadways and low-lying areas, trapping drivers and contributing to at least three deaths along Highway 99.
“This is a very dynamic system,” Department of Water Resources director Karla Nemeth said at a briefing Thursday. “Rivers and creeks can rise very quickly, and so it does have the potential to be a dangerous situation, particularly in areas that had experienced flooding before.”
Officials activated the State-Federal Flood Operation Center on Thursday morning, Nemeth said, which indicates an elevated level of coordination and monitoring before the storm.
Yet another atmospheric river is expected to follow early next week, and there is a potential for a third around March 19, according to state climatologist Mike Anderson.
“We were well on our way to a fourth year of drought” at the beginning of January, Anderson said. “We’re in a very different condition now.”
The incoming storm will fall atop soaked soils and some of the deepest snowpack California has recorded. Both can exacerbate the potential for runoff and erosion.
The conditions are in some ways akin to those that led to a near-catastrophic failure of the Oroville Dam in 2017, when heavy rains damaged an emergency spillway and threatened to send floodwaters down to communities below.
Officials on Thursday said there is no danger of a similar event now since the spillway has been reconstructed with several feet of thick concrete. However, the second-largest reservoir in California is about 60 feet below its maximum elevation, said Ted Craddock, DWR’s deputy director of the State Water Project, and operators have begun releasing water to ensure room for incoming flows.
Increased releases from Oroville’s Hyatt Power Plant started Wednesday, Craddock said, with more to begin today from its gated spillway at a combined rate of 15,000 cubic feet per second from both facilities. It will mark the first use of the main spillway since April 2019.
“This is a relatively small release out of the spillway, and as we look further into the forecast, with the possibility of additional storms, we will be adjusting releases from the lake,” Craddock said.
Officials from the DWR, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are also ramping up releases at other locations before the storm, including Lake Shasta and Millerton Lake, said Levi Johnson, deputy operations manager of the Central Valley Project with the Bureau of Reclamation.
Folsom Lake — which primarily acts as a flood control system for the Sacramento area — still has “quite a bit of storage space,” Johnson said, but officials are anticipating flows there will increase with the current storms. Releases went up to about 15,000 cubic feet per second Thursday, and will increase to 30,000 today.
“These releases are in anticipation of the inflows due to these storms,” Johnson said. “We will be prepared to increase further if needed and as we see how the inflows from these storms shape up.”
Despite assurances, some people in the Central Valley said they’re concerned about the risks of devastating floods in the coming days.
“I am fearing levee failures and flooded homes,” said John Ennis, a civil engineer who owns a consulting firm in Fresno.
Ennis said he’s worried that “there’s just going to be too much water on top of the snowpack, and it all dissolves at once” — a scenario that could send floodwaters roaring down from Sierra Nevada into the Central Valley.
Anne Lynch, integrated water management lead with the consulting firm GHD, said it’s good news that the state’s reservoirs are being actively managed for flood control, especially in areas that saw flooding previously.
“They’re managing for our water supply, which has also got to be front-of-mind, but they’re also managing for the ability to not have reservoirs overtopping,” she said. “It’s a complicated thing.”
Some areas that flooded during the previous storms, such as Wilton, are “natural flow areas” that almost always flood during heavy rains and are likely to flood again, Lynch noted. Although some incidents are inevitable, she said, such events are also reason to invest in infrastructure.
“There’s the things that are outside of our control, and then the things that haven’t been built,” she said.
According to the National Weather Service, some of the highest flood risk will be in coastal areas from Salinas to San Luis Obispo, and throughout the Central Valley.
Officials in Fresno, Madera, Modesto and Santa Cruz counties have issued evacuation warnings for some communities due to likely flooding.
The system is expected to produce light rain in San Diego County when it moves ashore late Friday, the National Weather Service said.
Forecasters said the region will get brushed by the outer-most edge of the storm. Cities at and near the coast will receive about one-quarter of an inch of rain while communities farther inland are expected to get roughly twice as much.
(Hayley Smith & Ian James, LOS ANGELES TIMES; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Studies estimate there may be as few as eight vaquitas remaining in the Gulf of California, the only place they exist and where they often become entangled in illegal gill nets and drown.
The government submitted a protection plan this week to the international wildlife body known as CITES, which had rejected an earlier version. It lists establishing “alternative fishing techniques” to gill-net fishing as one its top priorities.
In reality, the government’s protection efforts have been uneven.
The administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has largely refused to spend money to compensate fishermen for staying out of the vaquita refuge and to stop using gill nets. The nets are set illegally to catch totoaba, a fish whose swim bladders are a delicacy in China worth thousands of dollars per pound.
The activist group Sea Shepherd, which has joined the Mexican Navy in patrols to deter the fishermen and to help destroy gill nets, says the efforts have successfully reduced the gill-net fishing.
But the Mexican government has not spent the money needed to train and compensate fishermen for using alternate fishing techniques such as nets or lines that won’t trap vaquitas.
“What is needed is fewer plans and bureaucracy, and more concrete actions in the vaquita’s habitat,” said Alex Olivera, the Mexico representative for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Olivera noted that CITES, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, could recommend trade sanctions if Mexico doesn’t take reasonable action.
“There is no alternative fishing gear” being offered, said Lorenzo Rojas, a marine biologist who has headed the international committee to save the vaquita. “The fisheries authorities have been notable for their absence,” leaving the effort to change practices up to civic groups and anglers.
The Mexican government banned the use of gill nets in the area in 2017, with the understanding it would provide support payments and training on using less-dangerous fishing methods.
Sea Shepherd has for years posted ships in the Gulf of California to try to discourage the illegal fishing and remove abandoned “ghost nets” that keep trapping vaquitas.
Sea Shepherd says its joint efforts with the Mexican Navy — which have sunk about 193 concrete blocks onto the bottom of the Gulf to snag illegal nets in the reserve area — has resulted in a 79 percent reduction in the amount of time small boats spent illegally fishing in the protected area.
It dropped from 449 hours between Oct. 10 and Dec. 5, 2021, to 164 hours in the same period of 2022.
But that’s still a lot of fishing time spent in an area that’s supposed to be totally off-limits.
“We have to do better,” said Pritam Singh, the Sea Shepherd chair.
A fisheries trade magazine, Notipesca, has reported that the Mexican government plans to fund a study examining teeth of vaquitas gathered in the past in hopes of proving they once lived in an estuary habitat fed by the Colorado River containing a mix of salt and freshwater.
Little freshwater comes down to the Mexican waters since the United States began building dams on the river in the 1930s. According to one theory, the United States — not Mexico — would be responsible for the vaquitas’ decline, by cutting off the flow.
However, experts note that vaquitas found dead typically have died by drowning in nets, not from malnourishment or other causes.
(Mark Stevenson, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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But one practice that’s off-limits for Brundy is fallowing — leaving fields unplanted to spare the water that would otherwise irrigate crops. It would save plenty of water, Brundy said, but threatens both farmers and rural communities economically.
“It’s not very productive because you just don’t farm,” Brundy said.
Many Western farmers feel the same, even as a growing sense is emerging that some fallowing will have to be part of the solution to the increasingly desperate drought in the West, where the Colorado River serves 40 million people.
“Given the volume of water that is used by agriculture in the Colorado River system, you can’t stabilize the system without reductions in agriculture,” said Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources. “That’s just math.”
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is looking at paying farmers to idle some fields, many in the vast Imperial Valley in California and Yuma County in Arizona that grow much of the nation’s winter vegetables and rely on the river. Funding would come from $4 billion set aside for Western drought aid in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Federal officials and major irrigators have been negotiating for months. Neither side has disclosed details of the negotiations or said how much money is being sought or offered.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, said fallowing has to be on the table. The challenge is figuring out fair payments when farmers work land of varying quality and plant crops of varying value, he said.
“Water in certain parts of the Colorado River basin is worth more than water in other parts. And somehow the Bureau of Reclamation has got to address that in a way that is fair, or at least perceived to be,” Hickenlooper said.
Agriculture uses between 70 percent and 80 percent of the Colorado River’s water, and ideas for reducing that have long been contentious. Farmers and the irrigators who serve them say their water use is justified since nearly the entire country eats the produce grown in the region, as well as meat from cattle fed on the grasses grown locally.
Water officials from cities and other states with less demand from farms say agriculture’s large take from the river allows wasteful farming practices to continue even as water grows scarcer. They note that Western water law, which gives preference to more senior users, allows farmers with those rights to grow thirsty crops in converted desert even as key reservoirs fed by the Colorado dip to all-time lows.
In the Imperial Valley, leaving fields idle to save water isn’t a new idea.
For 15 years, the Imperial Irrigation District ran fallowing programs as part of a historic water transfer deal it cut with San Diego in 2003. The programs expired in 2017. Nearly 300,000 acres of farmland were fallowed, conserving 1.8 million acre-feet of water and costing $161 million in payments to farmers, the district said.
The Colorado River is in worse shape now, but in Imperial Valley, memories of that program linger. And farmers want far more than they were paid back then.
Larry Cox, who has grown produce and grasses in the Imperial Valley for decades, said he idled a few hundred of his 4,000 acres back then. He used the payments to buy sprinkler pipes and other equipment to make his irrigation systems more efficient. But he also let go between 5 percent and 10 percent of his workforce of irrigators, farm hands and tractor drivers.
Today, he worries about the effect of fallowing on rural communities. Besides the potential economic losses to farmers, the businesses that supply them with tires, fertilizer, gas and other needs are affected.
“It damages our community as a whole,” he said.
(Suman Naishadham, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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A late-February blast of arctic air produced a rare blizzard in the San Bernardino Mountains, where thousands of people live at high elevations in forest communities or visit for year-round recreation.
Extraordinary snowfall buried homes and businesses, overwhelming the capability of snowplowing equipment geared toward ordinary storms.
By last weekend, all highways leading up into the mountains were closed and have opened intermittently since then to residents and convoys of trucks loaded with food or other supplies.
The estimate by San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus was an improvement in the outlook, which previously ranged up to two weeks.
“We’ve said we could push it out as far as two weeks but because of the state’s efforts and the equipment that’s coming in behind us we’re hoping to drop that down to a week,” he said at a news conference.
The sheriff and other officials said progress has been made, but they described severe conditions that have forced firefighters to reach emergency scenes such as fires in snowcats.
“The enormity of this event is hard to comprehend,” said state Assembly member Tom Lackey. “You know, we’re thinking, ‘We’re in Southern California,’ but yet we have had an inundation that has really, really generated a severe amount of anxiety, frustration and difficulty, especially to the victims and those who are actually trapped in their own home.”
San Bernardino County is one of 13 counties where California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared states of emergency due to the impacts of severe weather, including massive snowfalls that have collapsed roofs due to too much weight.
In Mono City, a small community on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada near Yosemite National Park, some residents have been snowed in without power for a week, the Mono County Sheriff's Office posted Friday on Facebook. In the northern part of the state, mountain communities grappling with the conditions have smaller populations and are more accustomed to significant snowfall.
Residents and vacationers trapped in the San Bernardino range have taken to social media to show their plight and wonder when plows are coming.
Shelah Riggs said the street she lives on in Crestline hasn’t seen a snowplow in eight days, leaving people in about 80 homes along the roadway with nowhere to go. Typically, a plow comes every day or two when it snows, she said.
“We are covered with 5 or 6 feet; nobody can get out of their driveways at all,” she said by telephone.
Riggs, who lives with her 14-year-old daughter, said everyone is working to keep snow and ice off their decks to prevent collapse and making sure the gas vents on their homes are kept clear.
She said the county’s response has been “horrible” and that “people are really angry.”
Devine Horvath, also of Crestline, said it took her and her son 30 minutes to walk down the street to check on a neighbor — a trek that normally takes just a few minutes.
Horvath said she was lucky to make it to the local grocery store before its roof collapsed several days earlier but hadn’t been able to leave her street since.
Officials said crews were dealing with such tremendous depths of snow that removal required front-end loaders and dump trucks rather than regular plows. A reopened road may only be the width of a single vehicle with walls of ice on each side.
(John Antczak, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Three people were killed by falling trees in Alabama as severe weather swept through the state. In Mississippi, a woman died inside her SUV after a rotted tree branch struck her vehicle, and in Arkansas a man drowned after he drove into high floodwaters. News outlets reported two people died in Tennessee when trees fell on them.
Three weather-related deaths also were reported in Kentucky. The deaths happened in three different counties as storms with straight-line winds moved through the state. More than a million utility customers in Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan were without power Friday evening, according to poweroutage.us.
The storm also barreled Friday afternoon into the Detroit area, quickly covering streets and roads with a layer of snow. The weather service said some areas could see blizzard conditions with snowfall approaching 3 inches per hour.
Detroit-based DTE Energy reported more than 130,000 customers lost power Friday evening. It was the latest slap after ice storms last week left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power.
The National Weather Service reported poor road conditions and numerous vehicle crashes across much of northwest Indiana because of heavy snowfall Friday afternoon.
The storm system was heading toward New England, where a mix of snow, sleet and rain was expected to start Friday night and last into today, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a winter storm warning.
There’s a chance of coastal flooding in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the storm could bring as much as 18 inches of snow to parts of New Hampshire and Maine. The storm will also bring strong winds with gusts of 40 to 50 mph, which could cause power outages.
Airport officials in Portland, Maine, canceled several flights for today ahead of the weather and some libraries and businesses in the region announced weekend closures. Still, with warmer weather expected to return by the end of the weekend, most New Englanders were taking the storm in stride.
Many residents of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas emerged Friday to find their homes and businesses damaged and trees toppled by the reported tornadoes. Tens of thousands were without power and some were also without water.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Tornado watches were issued until late Thursday night for Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding areas of Texas where wind gusts could reach 80 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
“If your phone’s alerted and you hear sirens, that is for wind speeds as strong as a weak tornado,” the weather service tweeted. “So treat it like one! Get inside, away from windows!”
About 100 miles east of Dallas, a twister that hit the ground near the small town of Fouke moved northeast toward Texarkana at 55 mph, the weather service said.
North of Dallas, winds brought down trees, ripped the roof off a grocery store and overturned four 18-wheelers along U.S. Route 75. Only minor injuries were reported, police said.
Further east in Louisiana, a tornado touched down near Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
More than 340,000 utility customers in Texas had no electricity as of Thursday evening, according to poweroutage.us.
And FlightAware.com reported Dallas airports tallied more than 400 cancellations.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The latest estimate from the U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday, shows almost 17 percent of California has exited drought completely, with an additional 34 percent now classified as “abnormally dry.” That means less than half of the state technically remains under drought conditions, which range from moderate to exceptional drought, according to the monitor.
“It’s pretty amazing, the changes, not only over the past week but going back to December of 2022,” said Brad Pugh, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one of the authors of the Drought Monitor. At the end of last year, no part of the state was classified as out of drought and less than 1 percent was considered abnormally dry.
Officials attributed the development to the recent winter storms that dropped heaps of rain and snow in several regions, including Southern California and the Sierra, as well as the series of nine atmospheric river storms that hammered California in January.
“The Pacific weather systems of this week and last week added to copious precipitation that has been received from atmospheric rivers since December 2022, especially over California and states to the east,” the latest update said.
According to the mapping, which includes data on hydrology, soil moisture and other climate indexes, “Central California’s Sierra Nevada mountains and foothills are now free of drought and abnormal dryness for the first time since January 2020.”
The rain and snow arrived on the heels of California’s driest three years on record, which contributed to dramatically low reservoir levels, urgent conservation orders and a statewide drought emergency declaration. That declaration, issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2021, remained in place as of Thursday.
Jay Lund, co-director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, said it would still be premature to rescind that order — at least until April 1, which typically marks the end of the state’s wet season and the point at which full assessments can be made.
“It’s a hard decision for the governor because California is a really big place, and it’s very diverse, so even in some wet years there can be parts of California in drought, and in some dry years there can be parts of California that aren’t in drought,” he said.
For example, portions of the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California have already experienced a wetter-than-average season, but other areas, including the Sacramento Valley, are still below average, Lund said. “Since you don’t really know what this year’s going to be until the end of March, and you don’t want to make declarations and then rescind them, it’s probably best to wait until the end of March.”
But there is no denying the moisture made a difference. Statewide snowpack is 192 percent of normal, according to state data. In the southern Sierra, it’s 232 percent of normal. Snowpack typically provides about one-third of California’s water supply.
Snowpack was so substantial that the Yosemite Valley broke a 54-year-old daily record on Tuesday, when 40 inches of fresh powder fell, surpassing the 36-inch record set in February 1960. As much as 15 feet fell in some parts of the park over the course of the storm.
Reservoirs have also seen a boost this winter, with Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville now at 60 percent and 73 percent of capacity, respectively, up from 34 percent and 37 percent two months ago. More rain and snow are expected next week and possibly throughout all of March.
“The pattern through the next two to three weeks appears colder than normal, so we should be able to maintain the snowpack, and signs are good for even enhancing the snowpack over the next couple of weeks,” Pugh said.
Still, the Drought Monitor estimates that roughly one-fourth of California remains in the third-worst category: severe drought. Those areas include portions of eastern San Bernardino and Inyo counties, as well as multiple counties in the northern part of the state. About 24 percent of the state is under moderate drought. Most of San Diego County is listed as “abnormally dry.”
Lund said the map can be a helpful “rough indicator” of hydrologic conditions, but it’s not always a reflection of available supplies. People who are dependent on groundwater, or people who are concerned with forests and endangered species, “probably are still very worried about drought and the lingering effects of drought,” he said.
Indeed, though the update reflects measurable drought relief, the report’s authors note that three years of dryness have further depleted some historically low groundwater levels, and that some aquifers may take “months to recover.”
Southern California’s other major water source, the Colorado River, also remains perilously low as the American Southwest suffers one of its driest two-decade periods in more than 1,200 years.
“What we have here in California is two things on top of each other: a chronic overuse of water, relative to average water availability in many parts of the state, and we have natural climate-enhanced fluctuations in water availability both on the wet sides and the dry sides,” Lund said. “We need to be banking more of that ‘wet year water,’ and we need to get used to using less water, even in wet years.”
Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said officials in the coming weeks will be “assessing the impact the latest round of storms has had on the drought.”
“It’s great to see improved conditions reflected in the U.S. Drought Monitor,” Nemeth said in a statement. “We continue to monitor conditions across California, and while recent rain and snow has been promising, it will take more than a single wet year for California to fully recover from the last three years — the driest ever recorded in state history.”
State water officials are expected to gather today for their third snow survey of the season.
(Haley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Crews across the state worked to clear roadways as more snow fell Wednesday amid a blizzard warning that has been in place since Monday.
Record-breaking snowfall forced Yosemite National Park to close and emergency officials pleaded with people to stay home and avoid the roads.
The Sierras were particularly hard hit, with all the major roads to Lake Tahoe closed and reports of at least one 200-yard-wide avalanche.
Many residents remained trapped in their homes in the San Bernardino Mountains on Wednesday as crews worked to clear roads of snow that has blanketed the area, leading to at least one report of a collapsed roof and hampering the emergency response to a structure fire that injured two people.
Crews from the California Department of Transportation had planned to escort residents over mountain highways that have been closed since Friday, but those plans were suspended Wednesday morning because drivers continued to get stuck in the snow even with chains on their tires.
Workers are racing to clear the highways for residents in the Lake Arrowhead, Crestline and Running Springs communities, according to county officials.
“We understand the nature of this emergency and how it is impacting our residents,” San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe said during a news conference Wednesday. “We know we have stranded residents. It is our number-one priority to get to those residents so that they can have the safe environment that we hope to provide to them.”
About 80,000 people live either part- or full-time in the communities affected, said David Wert, a county spokesperson.
Lake Arrowhead has received 2.5 feet of snow in the last 48 hours, according to the National Weather Service, and the surrounding area has seen over 6 feet of snow in the last week.
Some residents posted videos on social media of their journeys up the mountain highways with escorts from Caltrans before they were put on pause.
Brooke Cutler and her family spent most of Tuesday digging their way out of the snow at their home in Lake Arrowhead.
A plow had cleared the paved and dirt roads in her neighborhood overnight. Large mounds of snow were piled up outside her home, but by the time Cutler and her family dug their way out, the roads were covered by snow again.
The plows “had just gotten to the neighborhood roads and did a good job of clearing them,” Cutler said. “We had to shovel out our cars, and by the time we had shoveled them out it was dark and the snow started again.”
Cutler figured that if a few inches fell overnight, she could dig herself out in the morning with her family.
“It ended up being 1 to 2 feet, so we’re stuck again,” Cutler said. “We imagine the plows are starting over on the cycle again to clear the other roads.”
Farther north, rangers at Yosemite National Park estimate up to 15 feet of snow had fallen at the higher elevations. Snow reached up to the second floor of the Badger Pass ski lodge.
The snowfall broke a 54-year daily record by more than a few inches. Experts say this year could bring record snowfall for many other parts of California.
“In all of my years here, this is the most snow that I’ve ever seen at one time,” said Scott Gediman, a spokesperson for Yosemite and ranger for 27 years. “This is the most any of us have ever seen.”
The park was closed Wednesday as rangers and park staff dug their way out of up to 40 inches of snow that fell overnight in Yosemite Valley, among the park’s lowest elevations. The previous record on the valley floor had been set at 36 inches on Feb. 28, 1969.
While the West Coast grappled with wintry weather, forecasters warned a new, powerful weather system will affect most of the lower 48 states this week. Six to 12 inches of snow could eventually fall in upstate New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, meteorologist David Roth said.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, record high temperatures were expected Wednesday along the Gulf Coast and into the Ohio Valley while the southern Plains to the mid-South braced for possible tornadoes today, according to the National Weather Service.
The next, larger weather system will spread across much of the country today, and areas such as the lower Mississippi Valley and Tennessee Valley could see heavy rain, thunderstorms and some flash flooding.
The high temperatures could top 100 degrees across far south Texas, and windy, dry conditions would make for a critical risk of wildfire in parts of the Southwest for the next few days, according to the weather service.
(Nathan Solis, Grace Toohey & Summer Lin, LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Through 4 p.m. Wednesday, the airport has recorded 9.86 inches of precipitation since the rainy season began on Oct. 1. The airport averages 9.79 inches between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30.
San Diego recorded 6.10 inches of rain last season and 4.50 inches the season before that.
“You have to look at the cumulative effect,” said James Brotherton, a weather service forecaster. “We had below-average rain the past two years so we have to make up for that. But this year’s rain is good news.”
The latest storm is like many that have preceded it this winter — extremely windy.
The wind gusted to 86 mph on Palomar Mountain. That’s the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane. Elsewhere, the wind hit 77 mph at Volcan Mountain northeast of Julian, 68 mph at Pine Valley, 67 mph at Julian, 46 mph at Camp Pendleton, 45 mph in Encinitas, 43 mph at Carlsbad Airport, 37 mph in San Diego and 35 mph at Imperial Beach.
Gusty winds knocked a tree onto train tracks in North County, causing a one-hour delay of the southbound Amtrak Pacific Surfliner train 1774 from the Oceanside station. The tracks were cleared and service resumed around 3:30 p.m., according to a Pacific Surfliner Twitter account. Reports of minor flooding and rock slides prompted road closures elsewhere in the county.
The storm made a dramatic exit late in the afternoon, bringing a mixture of rain and hail across the county, with even some snowflakes reported in some of the upper foothills, said weather service forecaster Mark Moede.
Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna, already white-capped from previous storms, each received another 10 inches of snow.
Reported rain included
| Amount (in) | Location | Elevation (ft)* |
| San Diego Mountains | ||
| 3.80 | Henshaw Dam | 2750 |
| 2.62 | Julian* | 4230 |
| 2.13 | Santa Ysabel | 2990 |
| 1.84 | Warner Springs* | 3040 |
| 1.74 | Pine Valley* | 3730 |
| 1.51 | Campo* | 2610 |
| 1.17 | Ranchita* | 4008 |
| San Diego Valleys | ||
| 2.25 | Alpine | 2041 |
| 1.87 | Deer Springs* | 1000 |
| 1.86 | Valley Center | 1295 |
| 1.56 | Lake Wohlford* | 1490 |
| 1.46 | Mt. Woodson* | 1720 |
| 1.23 | Ramona | 1420 |
| 1.20 | Fallbrook | 675 |
| 1.17 | Barona*/td> | 1280 |
| 1.14 | Escondido | 640 |
| 1.04 | La Mesa | 530 |
| 0.95 | Santee* | 300 |
| 0.93 | Rancho Bernardo* | 690 |
| 0.89 | Miramar Lake* | 720 |
| 0.83 | Poway* | 440 |
| San Diego Coastal | ||
| 1.07 | Carlsbad | 305 |
| 0.94 | Vista* | 330 |
| 0.75 | Oceanside* | 30 |
| 0.66 | Miramar* | 477 |
| 0.65 | National City* | 82 |
| 0.60 | Kearny Mesa* | 455 |
| 0.58 | Montgomery Field* | 423 |
| 0.56 | San Onofre* | 162 |
| 0.42 | Point Loma* | 364 |
| 0.38 | Encinitas* | 242 |
| 0.27 | Fashion Valley* | 20 |
| 0.22 | San Diego Intl Airport* | 42 |
| Latest Snow Reports* | ||
| 31 | Bear Mtn Snow Summit | 7100-8200 |
| 31 | Lake Arrowhead | 5170 |
| 24-30 | Snow Valley | 7000-8000 |
| 24-30 | Big Bear City | 6800 |
| 22 | Birch Hill Palomar | 5700 |
| 20 | Green Valley Lake | 6900 |
| 17 | Idyllwild | 5700 |
| 10 | Lake Cuyamaca | 4637 |
| 10 | Mt. Laguna | 6100 |
| 10 | Palomar Mountain | 5600 |
| 6 | Banning | 3400 |
| 4 | Julian | 4100 |
| 3 | Anza | 4300 |
| Record Low Maximum Temperature for Date* | |||
| Location | New Record(deg F) | Old Record | Old Year |
| Anaheim | 59 | 62 | 2021 |
| Oceanside Harbor | 55 | 55 | 1962 |
| Vista | 52 | 55 | 2015 |
| Lake Elsinore | 49 | 49 | 1951 |
| San Jacinto | 49 | 49 | 1979 |
| Escondido | 53 | 53 | 2015 |
| Ramona | 50 | 50 | 2015 |
| Alpine | 46 | 49 | 1953 |
| El Cajon | 54 | 54 | 1979 |
| Big Bear | 27 | 32 | 2015 |
| Idyllwild | 32 | 37 | 1981 |
| Palomar Mountain | 32 | 32 | 2015 |
| Indio | 56 | 60 | 2015 |
| Borrego | 55 | 62 | 2015 |
The latest quake struck just after noon Monday, south of the city of Malatya, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Malatya is the capital of the province of the same name, one of 11 Turkish regions affected by the Feb. 6 tremor.
Yunus Sezer, the head of Turkey’s emergency response agency, said at least one person had been killed and 69 injured in the latest quake. He urged people in the affected region not to enter damaged buildings for fear of aftershocks or further collapses. The agency said 29 buildings in Malatya had collapsed and five people had been rescued from the rubble. Rescuers were also searching for survivors from seven other buildings.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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A tornado touched down Sunday night in far western Oklahoma near the town of Cheyenne, where 20 homes were damaged and four others destroyed, Roger Mills County Emergency Manager Levi Blackketter reported.
Statewide, Oklahoma officials received reports from area hospitals of 55 people who suffered weather-related injuries.
Officials in Norman, Okla., confirmed 12 weather-related injuries after tornadoes and wind gusts as high as 90 mph were reported in the state Sunday night. The winds toppled trees and power lines, closed roads, and damaged homes and businesses around Norman and Shawnee.
Meanwhile, a blizzard warning was in effect for most of the Sierra Nevada into Wednesday and an avalanche warning was issued for the backcountry around Lake Tahoe, where up to 6 feet of snow was expected over the next two days in the upper elevations and gale-force winds could create waves up to 5 feet high on the lake, said the National Weather Service in Reno.
State offices across northern Nevada and the Nevada Legislature in Carson City both shut down on Monday due to the winter storms.
The new series of storms arrived even as parts of California were still digging out from last week’s powerful storm.
In the Sierra, Yosemite National Park announced it would be closed until midweek, and numerous roads were closed in Sequoia National Park. Trans-Sierra highways were subject to closures and chain requirements.
Roads to San Bernardino Mountain resort communities around Big Bear Lake were reopening after closures because of last week’s huge snowfall. The storm stranded more than 600 students at science camps in the Big Bear area over the weekend. The students from Irvine were expected home Friday but officials decided it was safer to keep them in the mountains until the roads could be cleared. The California Highway Patrol began escorting out buses carrying the students on Monday, the Irvine Unified School District said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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In hard-hit southeastern Michigan, the state’s two main utilities reported about 171,000 homes and businesses without power Sunday.
California, meanwhile, was getting a brief break Sunday from a powerful storm that on Saturday left Los Angeles-area rivers swollen to dangerous levels and brought snow to low-lying areas.
Some Michigan residents faced a fourth straight day in the dark on Sunday as crews continued working to restore power to more than 165,000 homes and businesses in the Detroit metropolitan area following last week’s ice storm.
Leah Thomas, whose home north of Detroit in the suburb of Beverly Hills lost power Wednesday night, was still waiting Sunday afternoon for the power to come back on.
Thomas said she feels lucky, because while her husband is away traveling, she and their 17-year-old son have been able to stay at her parents’ nearby home, which still has power but was unoccupied because her parents are in Florida.
With her husband out of town, Thomas said it was up to her to recharge the battery to their home’s backup sump pump Sunday with her car after she went to multiple stores to find a 30-foot cable.
“I’m a strong woman. I figured it out,” she said. “Our basement is OK, so we’re the lucky ones.”
In California, Saturday’s storm swelled rivers to dangerous levels, flooded roads and dumped snow at elevations as low as 1,000 feet. The sun came out briefly Sunday in greater Los Angeles, where residents emerged to marvel at mountains to the north and east that were blanketed in white.
Suburban Santa Clarita, in hills north of Los Angeles, received its first significant snowfall since 1989.
“We went outside and we let our sons play in the snow,” resident Cesar Torres told the Santa Clarita Signal. “We figured, while the snow’s there, might as well make a snowman out of it.”
The weather service said Mountain High, one of the closest ski resorts to Los Angeles, received an eye-popping 7.75 feet of snow during the last storm, with more possible this week.
Rain and snow were falling again Sunday in Northern California as the first of two new storms started to move in. Blizzard warnings go into effect at 4 a.m. today and will last until Wednesday for much of the Sierra Nevada, where crews were still clearing roads after last week’s icy storm.
“Extremely dangerous and near to impossible mountain travel is expected due to heavy snow and strong wind,” the weather service’s Sacramento office warned on Twitter.
After fierce winds toppled trees and downed wires, about 65,000 utility customers remained without electricity statewide as of Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. The majority of the outages were in Los Angeles.
Days of downpours dumped almost 11 inches of rain in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, while nearly 7 inches were reported in Beverly Hills.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Through 5 p.m. Friday, 25 inches of snow had fallen from previous storm waves this week at Mount Laguna. Palomar Mountain reported 15 inches, and Julian recorded 10 inches.
The system slowed down late Friday and made a more direct turn toward Los Angeles, leading the National Weather Service to reduce estimated precipitation for San Diego.
The seas grew so rough off Los Angeles that 30 Salk Institute researchers at a retreat on Santa Catalina Island were told that passenger ferries won’t be able to pick them up until Sunday.
Trouble also could be on tap in San Diego.
“This is a tricky system that’s hard to predict, but it is still going to bring a lot of rain here, with the heaviest part coming from 4 a.m. or so until about 6 a.m. Saturday,” said Ivory Small, a weather service forecaster.
The runoff could turn streams, rivers and flood channels into raging waterways, threatening public safety. The San Diego River in Mission Valley is expected to reach flood stage tonight, which would cause localized flooding.
“We definitely aren’t taking the position that this is business as usual,” said Mónica Muñoz, a spokesperson for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
The agency set up an incident management team Friday morning with an operational period expected to last through at least 8 a.m. today, Muñoz said. That included eight San Diego lifeguard swift-water rescue teams stationed around the city in “problematic areas” that typically flood when rains are heavy, such as Mission Valley.
“The lifeguards will sleep in fire stations near their assigned areas, if they get a chance to sleep,” Muñoz wrote in an email. “Let’s hope we don’t have to do these rescues, but we are available if the public needs us.”
The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department’s eight swift-water rescue teams, which comprise two lifeguards each, will be stationed in Mission Valley, near the Fashion Valley mall, in Sorrento Valley and in the South Bay area of the city, Muñoz said. Two of the teams are designated as rovers, ready to go to any area at a moment’s notice, though all of the teams are ready to move quickly if they’re needed elsewhere.
Cal Fire San Diego also had two swift-water rescue teams staging near traditional problem areas such as Valley Center and Otay Lakes, according to Cal Fire Capt. Brent Pascua. All of Cal Fire San Diego’s front-line engines were also equipped with swift-water rescue gear.
Officials said 18 county crews were ready to respond to storm-related issues, from rock slides and downed trees to road flooding and snow-covered highways.
Authorities from every agency warned drivers of the potential dangers of driving though flooded areas.
Donna Durckel, a county spokesperson, added that drivers “do not know the condition of the road under the water. Roadbeds may be washed out.”
She said if floodwaters are rising around a vehicle, its occupants should abandon the vehicle and “move to higher ground if you can do so safely.”
The powerful storm, which has already left a mess in Northern California, was gaining strength and moisture as it traveled south off the Pacific Coast. Forecasters said it was tapping into an atmospheric river system, an enhanced plume of moisture that can deliver large amounts of precipitation.
A string of such storms pummeled California earlier this winter, causing widespread damage, flooding and more than 20 deaths.
By Friday evening, the system was advancing on Southern California, with rare blizzard warnings in effect in the Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino county mountains. The National Weather Service also issued a flash flood warning for the valleys and foothills of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, warning of heavy rainfall and other potential hazards such as debris flow and flooded roadways.
Heavy snow fell at higher altitudes, spurring the closure of many mountain passes. Interstate 5 through the Grapevine was closed through the Tejon Pass in both directions, with no estimated time of reopening.
Other closures included portions of state Route 2 in the Angeles National Forest and state Route 33 north of Ojai, according to California Department of Transportation spokesman Marc Bischoff.
In portions of Ventura County, an evacuation warning remained in place until 10 a.m. today because of “anticipated flooding and debris flows,” while an evacuation warning was in effect for the Bond fire burn area in Orange County. In western Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, the weather service warned of waterspouts that could become small onshore tornadoes.
The storm system originated in Canada and moved through Oregon, delivering more than 10 inches of snow in Portland and setting a city record as the second snowiest day in history. As it moved over the ocean, the storm brought snow to coastal cities in Northern California, including Eureka and Crescent City, and to the Sierra Nevada.
(Alex Riggins & Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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In Michigan, hundreds of thousands of people remained without power Friday after a storm earlier this week coated power lines, utility poles and branches with ice as thick as three-quarters of an inch. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called Friday for more accountability on restoration efforts by the state’s two largest utilities.
Annemarie Rogers had been without power for a day and a half in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan. She sent two kids to stay with relatives and put extra blankets on the bed to try to keep warm.
“It’s kind of miserable,” she said. “We do have a gas fireplace that’s keeping us warm in one room. There’s some heat generating from the furnace, but with no electricity to the blower, it’s not circulating well.“
At one point, more than 820,000 customers in Michigan were in the dark. By Friday, that was down to fewer than 600,000, most in the state’s populous southeastern corner around Detroit. But promises of power restoration by Sunday, when low temperatures were expected to climb back above zero, were of little consolation.
“That’s four days without power in such weather,“ said Apurva Gokhale, of Walled Lake, Mich. “It’s unthinkable.”
Tom Rankin said he and his wife were unable to reach his 100-year-old mother-in-law Friday morning by phone. The couple drove to her home in Bloomfield Township, Mich., to find her in bed “with a whole lot of blankets,” Rankin said, adding they helped her to their car, planning to ride out the outage at another relative’s home.
“We’ve not had an ice storm in the last 50 years that has impacted our infrastructure like this,” said Trevor Lauer, president of Detroit-based DTE Electric.
At least three people have died in the storms. A Michigan firefighter died Wednesday after coming in contact with a downed power line, while in Rochester, Minn., a pedestrian died after being hit by a city-operated snowplow. Authorities in Portland, Ore., said a person died of hyperthermia.
Much of Portland was shut down with icy roads not expected to thaw until today after the city’s second-heaviest snowfall on record this week — nearly 11 inches.
Tim Varner sat huddled with blankets in a Portland storefront doorway that shielded him from some of the wind, ice and snow. Local officials opened six overnight shelters but the 57-year-old, who has been homeless for two decades, said it was too hard to push a shopping cart containing his belongings to get to one.
“It’s impossible,” he said. “The snow gets built up on the wheels of your cart, and then you find slippery spots and can’t get no traction. So you’re stuck.”
More than 1,200 flights were canceled and more than 17,000 were delayed Friday across the U.S., although problems were easing as night fell, according to FlightAware.com.
The Upper Midwest into the Northeast, northern mid-Atlantic and central Appalachians could continue to get snow and freezing rain in some parts through this evening, forecasters said.
“This intense blast of winter severely impacted our communities across the state,” Capt. Kevin Sweeney, deputy state director of emergency management and homeland security for the Michigan State Police, said in a news release Thursday.
Hundreds of schools in Minneapolis canceled classes Thursday. Detroit Public Schools have been on a winter break all week.
The storm also caused trouble in the Northeast on Thursday. In Buffalo, N.Y., which was crushed by a late December blizzard that killed dozens, about a half-inch of freezing rain fell, according to the weather service. More than 17,000 customers were without power, but by Friday it was nearly all restored.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS; NEW YORK TIMES)
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A slow-moving system out of Alaska will tap moisture from the subtropics and carry it directly into the mountains of Southern California. Snowfall can be hard to predict. But forecasters said that Palomar Mountain and Mount Laguna could get 3 to 4 feet of snow, adding to the foot or so they’ve already gotten this week. As much as 5 feet of snow could fall in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains, where a blizzard warning is in effect.
“People should absolutely not try to drive up to the mountains (in San Diego County) to see this, even if they’ve driven in snow before,” said Liz Schenk, a weather service forecaster. “It would be difficult if not impossible to drive. There could be a whiteout.”
The storm also is expected to drop 2 to 2.5 inches of rain in cities at and near the coast, up to 3 inches in places such as Escondido and Ramona, and up to 4 inches across some inland foothills. At times, communities could get a half-inch of rain in an hour. Forecasters are expecting a deluge because the “atmospheric river” arriving from the south will last for up to 24 hours. The rivers usually hit the region for six to 12 hours.
Winds will gust close to 40 mph at the coast, nearly as fast as they moved earlier this week during a wild windstorm.
If the forecast is correct, the county will experience the biggest combination of snow and rain that it has received since February 2011.
The storm also underlines the spectacular power of nature.
The San Diego River watershed will receive about 300,000 acre feet of water, enough to serve about 500,000 homes for a year if there was a way to capture it all, said Marty Ralph, director of the University of California San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes.
The county lacks that capacity, and most of the water will flow into the sea. But the deluge will have impact. The San Diego River is expected to become at least 10 feet deep late today or early Saturday, causing street flooding in the Fashion Valley mall area of Mission Valley.
The incoming storm represents the third wave of cold, moist, unstable air that has traveled to San Diego this week from Canada and Alaska.
On Thursday, snow and rain fell on Interstate 8 where it turned into black ice, prompting dozens of drivers to come to a stop in the westbound lanes. The situation worsened a short time later when a big-rig jackknifed on the freeway around 10:30 a.m., blocking the slow lane and the shoulder.
Officials said there were three snowplows working the area but said they couldn’t keep up with the snow, which fell to the 2,000-foot level overnight.
“It is just actively snowing so they can just do so much,” said California Highway Patrol Officer Jared Grieshaber. “We have tons of calls out there, with people stopped on the side of the road.”
Motorists began calling CHP dispatchers around 9:15 a.m. to report being stuck on westbound Interstate 8 near the Pine Valley checkpoint, which is about a mile east of Sunrise Highway and west of Buckman Springs Road.
One caller said there were about 50 vehicles unable to drive because of black ice on the freeway.
Grieshaber said some motorists were stuck in the snow while others were stopping because they were uncomfortable trying to drive in the snowy conditions.
Chains are recommended on state Route 78 at Santa Ysabel east of Ramona and are required for drivers heading up Sunrise Highway from I-8, starting around Old Highway 80 in the Pine Valley area, according to the CHP. Drivers in four-wheel drive vehicles can drive on the roads as long as they have chains in the vehicle.
(Gary Robbins & Karen Kucher, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Here are some weather warnings and safety and travel tips, along with what to expect and where to go for the latest information about the storm.
Avoid rivers, creeks and streams and surrounding areas
Forecasters are expecting a downpour as the storm system pushes south and taps into moisture from an atmospheric river. Be mindful of possible street flooding throughout the county, and watch for rivers, creeks and streams to rise quickly.
Prepare for the San Diego River in Mission Valley to overflow into streets and neighboring roadways, as it often does during heavy rains.
Do not attempt to drive through flooded areas
In January, swift-water crews rescued 11 people from flooded areas. The rescues took place in Mission Valley near the San Diego River, in the Otay Lakes area of east Chula Vista and other areas in the county. Even a few inches of rainwater can sweep away a car or truck, according toa recent warning from county officials.
Heed travel warnings
If you are thinking of leaving town this weekend, look closely at forecasts in neighboring counties and consider staying home.
Heavier rain and snow are expected in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. The National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning from 4 a.m. Thursday to 4 p.m. Saturday and predicted as much as 5 feet of snow in the San Bernardino Mountains.
The weather service warns that “travel will be very difficult to impossible” and that hazardous conditions will impact the morning and evening commutes on Saturday, with near-zero visibility.
The Orange County coastal areas are on flood watch through Saturday evening with 3 to 4 inches
of rain expected to fall, and a wind advisory is in place from until Saturday at 6 a.m.
Avoid the mountains and hiking trails
Heavy snow and wind gusts are expected to lead to dangerous conditions in the mountains.
Officials are asking the public to postpone any nonessential or non-emergency travel during the storm, especially through the snowy mountain areas.
“We cannot stress enough how unsafe it will be to travel Friday afternoon through Saturday morning,” the National Weather Service in San Diego tweeted on Thursday. “Four-wheel-drive and snow chains will not help you with blizzard conditions and near-zero visibility!”
Snow reports Thursday evening listed 22 inches of snow at Mount Laguna, 12 inches at Palomar Mountain and 10 inches in Julian, with more snow on the way.
Closures have been announced for Maple Canyon, Chollas Lake, Los Peñasquitos Preserve and Mission Trails Regional Park.
Be careful or avoid the beach and coastal bluffs
The National Weather Service predicts “strong winds and hazardous seas” along the coast.
High surf is expected to impact local beaches, along with a high rip current risk — meaning life-threatening rip currents are likely — and surf up to 6 feet is expected through Saturday.
Where to go for the latest information
Get traffic, road closure and safety information from the California Department of Transportation District 11:
Few places were untouched by the wild weather, including some at the opposite extreme: long-standing record highs were broken in cities in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and Southeast.
The wintry mix hit hard in the northern United States, closing schools, offices, even shutting down the Minnesota Legislature. Travel was difficult. Weather contributed to more than 1,600 U.S. flight cancellations, according to the tracking service FlightAware. More than 400 of those were due to arrive or depart from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Another 5,000-plus flights were delayed across the country.
At Denver International Airport, Taylor Dotson, her husband, Reggie, and their 4-year-old daughter, Raegan, faced a two-hour flight delay to Nashville on their way home to Belvidere, Tenn.
Reggie Dotson was in Denver to interview for a job as an airline pilot.
“I think that’s kind of funny that we’ve experienced these types of delays when that’s what he’s looking into getting into now as a career,” Taylor Dotson said.
The roads were just as bad.
In Wyoming, rescuers tried to reach people stranded in vehicles but high winds and drifting snow created a “near-impossible situation” for them, said Sgt. Jeremy Beck of the Wyoming Highway Patrol.
“They know their locations, it’s just hard for them to get them,” he said.
Wyoming’s Transportation Department posted on social media that roads across much of the southern part of the state were impassable.
In the Pacific Northwest, high winds and heavy snow in the Cascade Mountains prevented search teams from reaching the bodies of three climbers killed in an avalanche on Washington’s Colchuck Peak over the weekend. Two experts from the Northwest Avalanche Center were hiking to the scene Wednesday to determine if conditions might permit a recovery attempt later this week.
Powerful winds were the biggest problem in California, toppling trees and power lines. By Wednesday evening, more than 65,000 customers in the state were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
A 1-year-old child was critically injured Tuesday evening when a redwood crashed onto a home in Boulder Creek, a community in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco, KTVU reported.
For the first time since 1989, a blizzard warning was issued for the mountains of Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, effective until 4 p.m. Saturday, the National Weather Service said.
“Nearly the entire population of CA will be able to see snow from some vantage point later this week if they look in the right direction (i.e., toward the highest hills in vicinity),” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain tweeted.
A more than 200-mile stretch of Interstate 40 from central Arizona to the New Mexico line closed due to snow, rain and wind gusts of up to 80 mph. More than 8,000 customers were without power in Arizona.
In the northern U.S. — a region accustomed to heavy snow — the snowfall could be significant. More than 18 inches may pile up in parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, the National Weather Service said Wednesday evening. According to the National Weather Service, the biggest snow event on record in the Twin Cities was 28.4 inches from Oct. 31 through Nov. 3, 1991.
Temperatures could plunge as low as minus 20 degrees today and to minus 25 Friday in Grand Forks, N.D. Wind chill readings may fall to minus 50, said Nathan Rick, a meteorologist in Grand Forks.
Wind gusts may reach 50 mph in western and central Minnesota, resulting in “significant blowing and drifting snow with whiteout conditions in open areas,” the weather service said.
The weather even prompted about 90 churches in western Michigan to cancel Ash Wednesday services, WZZM-TV reported.
The storm will make its way toward the East Coast later this week. Places that don’t get snow may get dangerous amounts of ice. Forecasters expect up to a half-inch of ice in parts of southern Michigan, northern Illinois and some eastern states.
The potential ice storm has power company officials on edge. Nearly 1,500 line workers are ready to be deployed if the ice causes outages, said Matt Paul, executive vice president of distribution operations for Detroit-based DTE Electric. He said a half-inch of ice could cause hundreds of thousands of outages.
A half-inch of ice covering a wire “is the equivalent of having a baby grand piano on that single span of wire, so the weight is significant,” Paul said.
More than 192,000 customers in Michigan and nearly 89,000 in Illinois were without electricity Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.
As the northern U.S. dealt with the winter blast, National Weather Service meteorologist Richard Bann said some mid-Atlantic and Southeastern cities set new high temperature marks by several degrees.
The high in Lexington, Ky., reached 76 degrees, shattering the Feb. 22 mark of 70 degrees set 101 years ago. Nashville reached 78 degrees, topping the 1897 record by 4 degrees. Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Atlanta and Mobile, Ala., were among many other places seeing record highs.
(Amancai Biraben & Jim Salter, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Monday evening had its epicenter in the Defne district of Turkey’s Hatay province, which was one of the areas worst affected by the Feb. 6 magnitude 7.8 quake that killed nearly 46,000 people in the two countries.
Turkey’s disaster management authority, AFAD, said the new quake killed six people and injured 294 others, including 18 who were in critical condition. In Syria, a woman and a girl died as a result of panic during the earthquake in the provinces of Hama and Tartus, pro-government media said.
Monday’s quake was felt in Jordan, Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon and Egypt. A magnitude 5.8 quake followed, along with dozens of aftershocks. The White Helmets, northwest Syria’s civil defense organization, said about 190 people suffered injuries in rebel-held areas and that several flimsy buildings collapsed but there were no reports of anyone trapped under the debris.
Turkish officials warned residents not to go into the remains of their homes, but people have done so to retrieve what they can. Three of the people killed Monday were inside a damaged four-story building when the new quake hit.
Aftershocks and the instability of the structure complicated the rescue effort, and it took several hours for search crews to find the bodies, Turkish news agency DHA said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Snow was beginning out West, with some falling at low elevations of 1,000 feet and even as low as 500 feet in Northern and Central California. The extreme weather threat then shifts toward the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains, where more than 13 million people were under a winter storm warning and 1 to 2 feet of snow was expected in the mountains.
The heavy snow and strong winds that develop over the Northern Rockies on Tuesday will spread south and east, according to an advisory from the National Weather Service. The weather system was extending into the Plains by the evening, packing heavy snow, strong winds and freezing rain. The weather services warned of possible disruptions to power lines as a result.
The Upper Midwest, Great Lakes and parts of the Northeast are expected to get a taste of the wintry mix today, when weather conditions are expected to worsen. Wind gusts greater than 30 mph could cause blizzard conditions over portions of the Midwest, forecasters said.
More than 8 inches of snow is likely in areas from South Dakota east through southern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and in parts of Michigan.
The weather service office in Billings, Mont., said snow and high temperatures around 3 degrees Fahrenheit were expected today. “Might be a good day to stay home,” the forecasters said. “Definitely not a day for travel or outdoor activities.”
Although the storm was expected to wallop the Rockies and Midwest, it was also forecast to bring snow to a portion of the Northeast later in the week. A winter storm watch was in effect for parts of Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Officials in Madagascar reported that at least 2 million people could feel the impact of Freddy, which made landfall as a Category 2 storm, and perhaps another 600,000 may eventually face the storm in Mozambique, according to local reports.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Worst hit was the city of Sao Sebastiao, where at least 35 were dead. In neighboring Ubatuba a 7-year-old girl was killed. The disaster, in an area famous for beaches flanked by mountains, prompted cancellations in many cities of the Carnival festivities now in full swing elsewhere in the country.
Gov. Tarcisio de Freitas told television network Globo that another 40 people were missing. Nearly 800 people were homeless and 1,730 people have been displaced, his state government said in a statement.
Members of the armed forces joined the search and rescue efforts, aggravated by poor access to many areas after landslides blocked the snaking roads in the region’s highlands and floods washed away chunks of pavement in low-lying and oceanfront areas.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Turkey’s disaster management agency said in a message posted on Twitter that the earthquake, recorded at 6.4 magnitude, was centered in the southern Hatay province, an area that experienced some of the worst destruction in the two earthquakes on Feb. 6.
Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, speaking in Hatay late Monday, said that three people had died after the quake and 213 people had been sent to hospitals. He warned citizens to avoid entering buildings to recover their belongings, because of frequent aftershocks.
Turkey sits on two major fault zones and has frequently suffered from earthquakes. The Feb. 6 earthquakes, the deadliest in Turkey’s modern history, left a path of destruction spanning hundreds of miles as village homes and city apartment blocks were flattened. In places, the tremors formed new canyons.
Monday’s earthquake was felt as far away as Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq.
Frightened people fled into the streets in several Turkish cities, along with Aleppo in Syria and other nearby Syrian towns, residents reported.
Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said late Monday that there had been at least 20 aftershocks.
Lutfu Savas, the mayor of Hatay, told Turkish broadcaster NTV the authorities had received reports of people trapped under rubble. A state hospital in Iskenderun, northwest of Hatay, was evacuated, Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency reported.
The White Helmets, a civil defense force in northern Syria, said on Twitter that several civilians had been injured by “falling debris, stampedes, and jumping from high areas.”
(WASHINGTON POST)
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The natural three-year climate condition La Niña — a cooling of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide temporarily but lasted much longer than normal this time — is the chief culprit in a drought that has devastated central South America and is still going on, according to a flash study released Thursday by international scientists at World Weather Attribution. The study has not been peer reviewed yet.
Drought has hit the region since 2019, with last year seeing the driest year in Central Argentina since 1960, widespread crop failures and Uruguay declaring an agricultural emergency in October. Water supplies and transportation were hampered, too.
“There is no climate change signal in the rainfall,” said study co-author Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College in London. “But of course, that doesn’t mean that climate change doesn’t play an important role in the context of these droughts. Because of the extreme increase in heat that we see, the soils do dry faster and the impacts are more severe they would have otherwise been.”
The heat has increased the evaporation of what little water there is, worsened a natural water shortage and added to crop destruction, scientists said. The same group of scientists found that climate change made the heat wave last December 60 times more likely.
In this drought’s case, the models show a slight, not significant, increase in moisture from climate change but a clear connection to La Niña, which scientists say is waning. It will still take months if not longer for the region to get out of the drought — and that depends on whether the flip side of La Niña — El Niño — appears, said study co-author Juan Rivera, a scientist at the Argentine Institute for Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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State rules say when it rains and snows a lot in California, much of that water must stay in the rivers to act as a conveyer belt to carry tens of thousands of endangered baby salmon into the Pacific Ocean.
But this week, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked state regulators to temporarily change those rules. He says the drought has been so severe it would be foolish to let all of that water flow into the ocean and that there’s plenty of water for the state to take more than the rules allow while still protecting threatened fish species.
If Newsom gets his way, the state would stop about 300,000 acre-feet of water from flowing through the rivers. One acre-foot of water is generally enough water to supply two households for one year.
Environmental groups say pulling that much water out of the rivers would be a death sentence for the salmon and other threatened fish species that depend on strong, cool flows in the rivers to survive. They say they’re furious with Newsom, whom they view as a hypocrite for touting himself as a champion of the environment while disregarding the laws designed to protect it.
“This governor is the most anti-environmental governor, with respect to endangered species and California water, that we’ve had in my lifetime,” said Jon Rosenfield, senior scientist for the San Francisco Baykeeper, an environmental group that focuses on the San Francisco Bay and its watershed.
It’s one of the oldest disputes in California, a state that for more than a century has manipulated the natural flow of rivers and streams to transform the Central Valley into one of the most fertile stretches of farmland on Earth while also supplying some of the nation’s most populous coastal cities.
Those demands have threatened the delicate environmental balance of the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, one of the largest estuaries in the country. That has put multiple fish species at risk, including the Delta smelt, longfin smelt, Central Valley steelhead, spring-run Chinook salmon, winter-run Chinook salmon and the green sturgeon, according to Rosenfield.
Those rules protect more than just fish, including a host of other rare and endangered species while also benefiting commercial and recreational fishing and other recreational pursuits.
The Newsom administration says a changing climate requires new rules. Historically, rain has been spread fairly evenly through the winter months. More water is typically left in the rivers when it rains because there’s an assumption that more rain will follow.
That’s not happening now. Scientists say climate change is contributing to so-called “weather whiplash,” when periods of intense rain are followed by extreme dryness. Newsom fears California’s intense January storms will be followed by an unusually dry spring.
That makes it more difficult to manage the state’s sparse water supply, especially “this early in the season before we’ve really had a sense of exactly how the water year is going to turn out,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources.
Jennifer Pierre, general manager for the State Water Contractors — a nonprofit association representing 27 public water agencies — said the proposed rule changes are an “appropriate action to help realign California’s water management decision making with the latest and most relevant science and the current hydrology.”
“California is still recovering from years of drought and water cutbacks,” she said. “We must be nimble in ensuring responsible water management for both water supply and the environment.”
If the state doesn’t change the rules, Nemeth warned that would mean the state has far less water to make available in the spring and summer for farmers and major cities such as Los Angeles.
Nemeth said there’s plenty of water in the rivers to support fish, though the Newsom administration acknowledged in its proposal that it could lead to more deaths of baby salmon. The state would monitor the fish and “quickly respond,” if needed. For example, Nemeth said if state officials detect fish near the pumps in the river, they can turn the pumps down so as not to harm them.
“That’s protective enough of the species,” she said.
Environmental groups argue that the administration’s plan for fish is not enough. Last year, the survival of winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River was the lowest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Once state officials see fish near the pumps, that means many more have already been swept away, said John McManus, president of the Golden State Salmon Association.
Most of the state’s reservoirs — including the two biggest ones at Oroville and Shasta — are at or near their historic averages. Plus, the amount of snow in the mountains is nearly double what it has been historically for this time of year. That’s why McManus says Newsom is acting too soon to change the rules to store more water.
“The only real emergency that we’re facing is the collapse of our salmon runs in California and the family income jobs all up and down the coast and inland California tied to our salmon fishery,” he said.
(Adam Beam, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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While the death toll is almost certain to rise even further, many of the tens of thousands of survivors left homeless were still struggling to meet basic needs, like finding shelter from the bitter cold.
Confirmed deaths in Turkey passed those recorded from the massive Erzincan earthquake in 1939 that killed around 33,000 people.
Erdogan said 105,505 were injured as a result of the Feb. 6 quake centered around Kahramanmaras and its aftershocks. Almost 3,700 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, taking the combined toll in both countries to over 39,000.
The Turkish president, who has referred to the quake as “the disaster of the century,” said more than 13,000 people were still being treated in hospital.
Speaking in Ankara following a five-hour Cabinet meeting held at the headquarters of disaster agency AFAD, Erdogan said 47,000 buildings, which contained 211,000 residences, had been destroyed or were so badly damaged as to require demolition.
“We will continue our work until we get our last citizen out of the destroyed buildings,” Erdogan said of ongoing rescue efforts.
Aid agencies and governments were stepping up efforts to bring help to devastated parts of Turkey and Syria.
The situation was particularly desperate in Syria, where a civil war has complicated relief efforts and meant days of wrangling over how to even move aid into the country, let alone distribute it. Some people there said they have received nothing.
The Syrian Health Ministry announced a final count of 1,414 deaths and 1,357 injuries in areas under government control.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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That’s posing a threat to the timing and availability of water in California, according to authors of a recent study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, which found that the effects of climate change are compounding to accelerate snowpack decline.
“As wildfires become larger, burn at higher severities, and in more snow-prone regions like the Sierra Nevada, the threats to the state’s water supply are imminent,” said Erica Siirila-Woodburn, a research scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and one of the authors of the study.
The timing of snowmelt is critical in California because it typically provides water in hot, dry months when precipitation is low and demand is high, Siirila-Woodburn said. “So, if snow melts earlier in the year, then there is a further disconnect between that supply and demand, potentially causing water scarcity issues.”
There are several systems at work to create this unwanted effect, including climate change, forest management practices and worsening drought and wildfires. In 2020 and 2021, the state saw a nearly tenfold increase in wildfire activity in snowy places compared with the years 2001-19, according to the study.
The burn scars of those fires are increasingly meeting with midwinter droughts, or periods when rain and snow stop falling in the midst of the state’s wet season. Last year, for example, a wet December gave way to the state’s driest January through March on record.
That, in effect, shifts the “melt season” into the middle of winter, said Benjamin Hatchett, an assistant research professor at the Desert Research Institute and one of the study’s lead authors. It also has the potential to turn mountain snow from a resource into a hazard.
“We’re going to be getting a lot more water potentially earlier in the season, so it’ll put (us) out of the phase when we want that water and when we need it, and when it’s actually coming out of the mountains,” he said.
The Caldor fire, which seared through 222,000 acres near South Lake Tahoe in the fall of 2021, is a perfect example of the effect. When snow fell onto the fire’s burn scar that winter, it was exposed to more sunlight due to the lack of tree canopy. Charred vegetation from the fire also mixed with the snow to lower its reflectivity. As a result, the snow melted much faster than during a comparable midwinter dry spell in 2013.
In fact, the study found that the reflectivity of snow — also known as albedo — declined as much as 71 percent when it fell onto burned areas, leading to fewer snow-covered days. The enhanced snowmelt was so pronounced within the Caldor fire burn scar that researchers recorded 50 fewer days with snow cover that winter, the lowest number of snow cover days on record in the area.
“We have a lot more area that’s now exposed to these potential dry periods and post-fire environments that can lead to melting of the snow,” Hatchett said. “So we should start thinking about how we are going to deal with this, because we expect more dry periods in a warmer climate and we expect more fire in the mountains, so it’s giving us reasons to think about how we manage our forests, how we manage our water resources.”
Indeed, earlier-than-usual snowmelt can lead to a “whole chain of cascading impacts” in addition to reduced water availability, he said, including reduced resources for hydropower and negative effects on fish species.
One of the researchers’ key recommendations is that water managers factor the effects of wildfires on snowmelt into their short- and long-term planning, as the effects are unlikely to reverse any time soon.
The study joins a growing body of work that examines the ways in which climate change is upending long-held relationships among wildfire, water and drought in California. The state’s blazes are climbing to ever-higher elevations and increasing the chances of hazardous runoff, while drought is making the prospect of a “no-snow” winter more likely within the coming decades.
John Abatzoglou, an associate professor of climatology at UC Merced, who did not work on the study, said some of the findings “suggest that we might have to retool how we translate midwinter snowpack into spring melt, runoff and water availability.”
Abatzoglou in 2021 published a study that found that climate warming has exposed an additional 31,400 square miles of U.S. forests to fires at higher elevations. That study also found that between 1984 and 2017, fires in the Sierra Nevada advanced in elevation by more than 1,400 feet.
He said the effect of lower albedo in midwinter could make the snowmelt more vulnerable to “rain on snow events” and create challenges for reservoir management. Less water in mountain snowpack is compounding observed warming trends and highlighting the “importance of the water shortage problem that the state faces,” he said.
And although some studies have shown that the effect of fire on snow wanes over time, the early disappearance of snow could transform some ecosystems recovering from fire, Abatzoglou said.
“This is very site specific, but some species do much better with ample soil water into summer to generate,” he said. “The early disappearance of snow doesn’t help on this front.”
There is no silver bullet for fixing the issue, said Siirila-Woodburn, who also worked on the study about the potential for a “no-snow” California.
However, “approaches like forecast-informed reservoir operations, managed aquifer recharge at scale, and widespread water treatment involving lowering the cost and energy associated with desalination of unconventional water sources are valuable paths forward to build water resource resilience,” she said.
Kristen Guirguis, an associate project scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and another of the study’s authors, said the findings build on previous research about “weather whiplash,” or worsening climate extremes in California. Research has found that the characteristics of California’s precipitation are changing, and the frequency of dry days is increasing, she said.
The latest paper “is the first time I’ve seen it quantified that having a fire changed the properties of the snow and the snow environment in a way that made snowmelt accelerate,” she said.
“It was a pretty strong signal — you can clearly see the acceleration of snowmelt in those fire-impacted regions,” she said.
But while climate change plays a significant role in the process, it’s not the only factor. Hatchett said failures of forest management, including policies that allowed for a century’s worth of vegetation to build up forests, are also contributing to this worsening effect.
He said the findings underscore the need to bring “good fire” back to the landscape — meaning prescribed burns or cultural burns that allow for low-severity fires to improve forest health. That will “make our forests more resilient so that we don’t have to have severe fire that causes these really long-term damages,” he said.
Still, he said, the findings “should be a bit terrifying.”
“I hope it motivates people to think about how we can learn from what we’re seeing now,” he said. “To modernize our land management, get good fire back onto the land, and really make our forests and water supply and environment more resilient to whatever climate change is going to throw at us.”
(Hayley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Teams in southern Turkey’s Hatay province cheered and clapped when a 13-year-old boy identified only by his first name, Kaan, was pulled from the rubble. In Gaziantep province, rescue workers, including coal miners who secured tunnels with wooden supports, found a woman alive in the wreckage of a five-story building.
Stories of such rescues have flooded the airwaves in recent days. But tens of thousands of dead have been found during the same period, and experts say the window for rescues has nearly closed, given the length of time that has passed, the fact that temperatures have fallen to minus 21 degrees and the severity of the building collapses.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake and its aftershocks struck southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6, reducing huge swaths of towns and cities to mountains of broken concrete and twisted metal. The death toll has surpassed 35,000.
In some areas, searchers placed signs that read “ses yok,” or “no sound,” in front of buildings they had inspected for any sign that someone was alive inside, HaberTurk television reported.
Associated Press journalists in Adiyaman saw a sign painted on a concrete slab in front of wreckage indicating that an expert had inspected it. In Antakya, people left signs displaying their phone numbers and asking crews to contact them if they found any bodies in the rubble.
The quake’s financial damage in Turkey alone was estimated at $84.1 billion, according to the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation, a non-governmental business organization. Calculated using a statistical comparison with a similarly devastating 1999 quake, the figure was considerably higher than any official estimates so far.
In other developments, Syria’s president agreed to open two new crossing points from Turkey to the country’s rebel-held northwest to deliver desperately needed aid and equipment for millions of earthquake victims, the United Nations announced.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres welcomed the decision by Syrian leader Bashar Assad to open crossing points at Bab Al-Salam and Al Raee for an initial period of three months. Currently, the U.N. has only been allowed to deliver aid to the northwest Idlib area through a single crossing at Bab Al-Hawa.
Some 60 miles from the epicenter, almost no houses were left standing in the Turkish village of Polat, where residents salvaged refrigerators, washing machines and other goods from wrecked homes.
Not enough tents have arrived for the homeless, forcing families to share the tents that are available, survivor Zehra Kurukafa said.
“We sleep in the mud, all together with two, three, even four families,” Kurukafa said.
Turkish authorities said Monday that more than 150,000 survivors have been moved to shelters outside the affected provinces. In the city of Adiyaman, Musa Bozkurt waited for a vehicle to bring him and others to western Turkey.
“We’re going away, but we have no idea what will happen when we get there,” said the 25-year-old. “We have no goal. Even if there was (a plan), what good will it be after this hour? I no longer have my father or my uncle. What do I have left?”
Fuat Ekinci, a 55-year-old farmer, was reluctant to leave his home for western Turkey, saying he did not have the means to live elsewhere and that his fields need to be tended.
“Those who have the means are leaving, but we’re poor,” he said. “The government says, go and live there a month or two. How do I leave my home? My fields are here, this is my home, how do I leave it behind?”
Volunteers from across Turkey have mobilized to help millions of survivors, including a group of chefs and restaurant owners who served traditional food such as beans and rice and lentil soup to survivors who lined up in the streets of downtown Adiyaman.
The widespread damage included heritage sites in places such as Antakya, on the southern coast of Turkey, an important ancient port and early center of Christianity historically known as Antioch. Greek Orthodox churches in the region have started charity drives to assist the relief effort and raise funds to rebuild or repair churches.
In Syria, authorities said a newborn whose mother gave birth while trapped under the rubble of their home was doing well. The baby, Aya, was found hours after the quake, still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, who was dead. She is being breastfed by the wife of the director of the hospital where she is being treated.
Such accounts have given many hope, but Eduardo Reinoso Angulo, a professor at the Institute of Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said the likelihood of finding people alive was “very, very small now.”
David Alexander, a professor of emergency planning and management at University College London, agreed. He said the odds were not very good to begin with.
Many of the buildings were so poorly constructed that they collapsed into very small pieces, leaving very few spaces large enough for people to survive in, Alexander said.
“If a frame building of some kind goes over, generally speaking we do find open spaces in a heap of rubble where we can tunnel in,” Alexander said. “Looking at some of these photographs from Turkey and from Syria, there just aren’t the spaces.”
Winter conditions further reduced the window for survival. In the cold, the body shivers to keep warm, but that burns a lot of calories, meaning that people also deprived of food will die more quickly, said Dr. Stephanie Lareau, a professor of emergency medicine at Virginia Tech.
Many in Turkey blame faulty construction for the vast devastation, and authorities have begun targeting contractors allegedly linked with buildings that collapsed.
Turkey has introduced construction codes that meet earthquake-engineering standards, but experts say the codes are rarely enforced.
As the scale of the disaster has come into view, sorrow and disbelief have turned to rage over the sense that the emergency response was ineffective.
That anger could be a political problem for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who faces a tough re-election battle in May.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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In a statement on Monday, the U.N. agency confirmed the epidemic after samples from Equatorial Guinea were sent to a lab in Senegal to pinpoint the cause of disease after an alert from a health official last week.
The WHO said there were nine deaths and 16 suspected cases with symptoms including fever, fatigue, diarrhea and vomiting. The agency said it was sending medical experts to help officials in Equatorial Guinea stop the outbreak and was sending protective equipment for hundreds of workers.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in bats and spreads between people via close contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or surfaces, like contaminated bed sheets.
Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88 percent of people.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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These earthquake survivors were among more than a dozen people pulled out of the rubble alive Friday after spending over four days trapped in frigid darkness following the disaster that struck Turkey and Syria.
The unlikely rescues, coming so long after Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake brought down thousands of buildings, offered fleeting moments of joy amid a catastrophe that saw its death toll rise to nearly 24,000 people Friday, and has injured at least 80,000 others and left millions homeless.
In the Mediterranean coastal city of Iskenderun, a crowd chanted “God is great!” as Haci Murat Kilinc and his wife, Raziye, were carried on stretchers to a waiting ambulance.
“You’ve been working so many hours, God bless you!” a relative of the couple told one of their saviors.
One rescue worker said that Kilinc had been joking with crew members while still trapped beneath the rubble, trying to boost their morale.
But the flurry of dramatic rescues could not obscure the devastation spread across a sprawling border region that is home to more than 13.5 million people. Entire neighborhoods of high-rises have been reduced to rubble. Millions have been left homeless, officials said.
Relatives wept and chanted as rescuers pulled 17-year-old Adnan Muhammed Korkut from a basement in the Turkish city of Gaziantep, near the quake’s epicenter. He had been trapped for 94 hours, forced to drink his own urine to survive.
For one of the rescuers, identified only as Yasemin, Adnan’s survival hit home hard.
“I have a son just like you,” she told him after giving him a warm hug. “I swear to you, I have not slept for four days. ... I was trying to get you out.”
Even though experts say trapped people can live for a week or more, the odds of finding more survivors were quickly waning. Temperatures remained below freezing across the large region, and many people have no shelter.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The makeshift, rapidly expanding cemetery just outside Kahramanmaras, a city near the initial quake’s epicenter, hinted at the massive effort that would be required in the coming weeks to bury the victims, as a small battalion of gravediggers, prosecutors, mortuary workers and others descended on the site.
Elsewhere, desperate efforts were still under way to rescue survivors and help the tens of thousands of people displaced by the earthquakes. A U.N. aid convoy crossed into rebel-held northwest Syria through Turkey on Thursday, the first since the earthquake disaster flattened neighborhoods in both countries.
Recovery efforts in Syria have been hampered by the effects of the civil war that divided the country into areas of government and opposition control. The United Nations said damage to delivery routes delayed aid to the rebel enclave, where millions of people are displaced and many live in camps.
The hope of finding more people in the wreckage was dimming on both sides of the border, and survivors and opposition politicians in Turkey expressed frustration at what they said was the government’s slow and haphazard response to the disaster.
Freezing temperatures have lengthened the odds, even as international teams arrive in Turkey with equipment and rescue dogs to detect the scent of humans beneath the wreckage. But in both Turkey and rebel-held areas of Syria, rescue workers continued to pull survivors, including young children, out of the rubble, in a race against time.
The death toll in Turkey rose Thursday to at least 17,674, with more than 72,000 injured, state media reported, citing Vice President Fuat Oktay. The full impact of the earthquakes — which registered magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 — was not yet clear, given the extent of the damage. Already, the quakes rank as the world’s deadliest earthquake disaster in more than a decade.
At least three U.S. citizens were among those killed in southern Turkey, according to the State Department.
In government-held parts of Syria, the death toll rose to 1,347, with 2,295 injured, state media reported. In Syria’s northwest, volunteer civil defense forces reported more than 2,030 killed and 2,950 injured, a tally they said they expect to rise.
On Thursday, six trucks carrying aid crossed into opposition-held Syria from Turkey, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Severe damage to the road normally used by aid convoys had delayed operations.
“On the Turkish side, we were able to identify two routes that we will be using from now on because the regular one was too damaged,” he said. “We consider this a test, that things can restart.”
Syria’s government has restricted access to the rebel-held region, where aid deliveries depend on votes by the U.N. Security Council. In 2020, Russia, a permanent member of the council, forced all but one aid border crossing to close.
The convoy on Thursday was carrying enough items — including blankets, tents and solar lamps — to meet the needs of “at least 5,000 people,” the U.N. International Organization for Migration said in a statement.
But the Syrian Civil Defense group, which is leading rescue efforts in northwest Syria, said the delivery was a resumption of normal aid, and did not include specialized assistance or excavation tools for its teams.
Syrians are “desperate for equipment that will help us save lives from under the rubble,” said the aid group, also known as the White Helmets, which operates in the region outside government control.
Before Monday’s quakes, humanitarian needs in northwest Syria were already at their highest levels since the civil war began, U.N. Secretary General António Guterres said Thursday. Millions of people displaced by the civil war had already been enduring a brutal winter without heating when the earthquake hit, and power outages are creating fuel shortages in hospitals. Snowfall has further impeded rescue efforts there, with temperatures dipping well below freezing overnight.
The United Nations is deploying disaster assessment experts, coordinating search-and-rescue teams, and sending emergency relief — “and we are committed to do much more,” Guterres told reporters.
Across the border in Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the city of Gaziantep on Thursday, where the quakes devastated residential blocks. He also visited the cities of Osmaniye and Kilis.
“With the scope and impact of the disaster we have experienced being this great, there may be some delays and shortcomings,” he said in Osmaniye.
Erdogan has urged citizens to be patient and pledged to rebuild shattered towns and cities. More than 6,400 buildings were destroyed, according to government estimates. He said the Turkish government would offer families 10,000 Turkish lire, or around $530.
Nearly 100 countries and hundreds of nongovernmental organizations have provided medical aid to Turkey, and more than 6,300 emergency personnel had arrived from 56 countries, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday. The World Bank also announced $1.78 billion in aid to Turkey for relief and recovery efforts.
A U.S. disaster response team in Turkey was helping with search-and-rescue operations in Adiyaman. And USAID administrator Samantha Power said the United States would provide $85 million in humanitarian assistance for people in Turkey and Syria.
In southern Turkey, survivors scuffled for tents and blankets distributed by aid agencies. Families with missing loved ones sifted through the debris without any assistance; in some places, heavy equipment has taken days to arrive.
“The situation is very bad,” said Mohammed Farhan Khalid, the leader of a team of Pakistani rescuers in the shattered city of Adiyaman. He compared the Turkish earthquakes to a 2005 quake in Kashmir that killed tens of thousands.
The disaster has also orphaned many children. Sixteen babies were flown from Kahramanmaras in the south to the capital, Ankara, to be cared for by state institutions, Turkey’s social services minister said Thursday.
Access to social media platforms Twitter and TikTok was restricted for some Turkish users on Wednesday. The Internet-monitoring group NetBlocks later stated that Twitter services were restored after Turkish policymakers met with Twitter officials.
Ankara has previously cracked down on social media companies in the wake of disasters or during periods of political scandal or unrest.
A three-month state of emergency started Thursday in 10 quake-affected provinces in Turkey, after a vote in the Turkish parliament. The declaration will allow authorities to prevent people from looting stores and take action against groups trying to profit from the tragedy, Turkey’s disaster management agency quoted Erdogan as saying.
(Kareem Fahim, Sarah Dadouch, Ellen Francis, Rachel Pannett&Claire Parker, WASHINGTON POST)
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The agency said 12,391 people had been confirmed killed in Turkey after Monday’s early morning earthquake and series of aftershocks, which brought down thousands of buildings in southeastern Turkey.
On the other side of the border in Syria, 2,902 people have been reported to have been killed.
Rescue workers continued to pull living people from the damaged homes but hope was starting to fade amid freezing temperatures more than three full days since the quake hit.
The president of Turkey on Wednesday acknowledged “shortcomings” in his country’s response to the world’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the especially hard-hit Hatay province, where thousands of people died and entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Residents there have criticized the government’s efforts, saying rescuers were slow to arrive.
Erdogan, who faces a tough battle for re-election in May, reacted to the mounting frustration by acknowledging problems with the emergency response to Monday’s 7.8-magnitude quake but said the winter weather had been a factor. The earthquake also destroyed the runway at Hatay’s airport, further disrupting the response.
“It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster,” Erdogan said. “We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for.” He also hit back at critics, saying “dishonorable people” were spreading “lies and slander” about the government’s actions.
Meanwhile, rescue teams in Turkey and Syria searched for signs of life in the rubble. Teams from more than two dozen countries have joined tens of thousands of local emergency personnel in the effort. But the scale of destruction from the quake and its powerful aftershocks was so immense and spread over such a wide area that many people were still awaiting help.
Experts said the survival window for those trapped under the rubble or otherwise unable to obtain basic necessities was closing rapidly. At the same time, they said it was too soon to abandon hope.
“The first 72 hours are considered to be critical,” said Steven Godby, a natural hazards expert at Nottingham Trent University in England. “The survival ratio on average within 24 hours is 74 percent, after 72 hours it is 22 percent and by the fifth day it is 6 percent.”
It was not clear how many people might still be trapped.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The last two days have brought dramatic rescues, including small children emerging from mounds of debris more than 30 hours after Monday’s pre-dawn quake. But there was also widespread despair and growing anger at the slow pace of rescue efforts in some areas.
“It’s like we woke up to hell,” said Osman Can Taninmis, whose family members were still beneath the rubble in Hatay, Turkey’s hardest-hit province. “We can’t respond to absolutely anything. Help isn’t coming, can’t come. We can’t reach anyone at all. Everywhere is destroyed.”
In Syria, residents found a crying newborn still connected by the umbilical cord to her mother, who was dead. The baby was the only member of her family to survive a building collapse in the small town of Jinderis, relatives told The Associated Press.
Search teams from nearly 30 countries and aid pledges poured in. But with the damage spread across cities and towns — some isolated by Syria’s ongoing conflict — voices crying for help from within mounds of rubble fell silent.
Monday’s magnitude 7.8 quake and powerful aftershocks cut a swath of destruction that stretched hundreds of miles across southeastern Turkey and neighboring Syria. The shaking toppled thousands of buildings and heaped more misery on a region wracked by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
Turkey is home to millions of refugees from the war. The affected area in Syria is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, where millions rely on humanitarian aid to survive.
Unstable piles of metal and concrete made the search efforts perilous, while freezing temperatures made them ever more urgent, as worries grew about how long trapped survivors could last in the cold. Snow swirled around rescuers in parts of Turkey.
The scale of the suffering — and the accompanying rescue effort — were staggering.
Adelheid Marschang, a senior emergencies officer with the World Health Organization, said up to 23 million people could be affected in the entire quake-hit area, calling it a “crisis on top of multiple crises.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 13 million of the country’s 85 million people were affected, and he declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces. More than 8,000 people have been pulled from the debris in Turkey, and some 380,000 have taken refuge in government shelters or hotels, authorities said.
But authorities faced criticism from residents of hard-hit Hatay, sandwiched between Syria and the Mediterranean Sea, who say rescue efforts have lagged. Erdogan’s handling of the crisis could weigh heavily on elections planned for May, and his office has already dismissed the criticism as disinformation.
Nurgul Atay told The Associated Press she could hear her mother’s voice beneath the rubble of a collapsed building in the Turkish city of Antakya, the capital of Hatay province. But rescuers did not have the heavy equipment needed to rescue her.
“If only we could lift the concrete slab, we’d be able to reach her,” she said. “My mother is 70 years old, she won’t be able to withstand this for long.”
Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said 1,647 people were killed in Hatay alone, the highest toll of any Turkish province. At least 1,846 people had been rescued there as of Tuesday evening, he said. Hatay’s airport was closed after the quake destroyed the runway, complicating rescue efforts.
In Syria, meanwhile, aid efforts have been hampered by the ongoing war and the isolation of the rebel-held region along the border, which is surrounded by Russia-backed government forces. Syria itself is an international pariah under Western sanctions linked to the war.
Volunteer first responders known as the White Helmets have years of experience rescuing people from buildings destroyed by Syrian and Russian airstrikes in the rebel-held enclave, but they say the earthquake has overwhelmed their capabilities.
Mounir al-Mostafa, the deputy head of the White Helmets, said they were able to respond efficiently to up to 30 locations at a time but now face calls for help from more than 700.
“Teams are present in those locations, but the available machinery and equipment are not enough,” he said, adding that the first 72 hours were crucial for any rescue effort.
The United Nations said it was “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to the rebel-held northwest.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the road leading to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing — the only terminal through which U.N. aid is allowed to enter the rebel-held area — was damaged by the quake, disrupting deliveries.
Dujarric said the U.N. was preparing a convoy to cross the conflict lines within Syria.
The U.N. already delivers aid across conflict lines to the rebel-held enclave. But it can’t move the quantities needed because of difficulties in arranging convoys with opposing parties, making aid deliveries from Turkey critical.
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government has pressed for years for all humanitarian aid to be sent from within Syria, including to the opposition-held enclave. The U.N. has increased cross-conflict line deliveries but not enough for the millions in need.
Turkey has large numbers of troops in the region and has tasked the military with aiding its rescue efforts, including setting up tents for survivors and a field hospital in Hatay province.
A navy ship docked Tuesday at the province’s port of Iskenderun, where a hospital collapsed, to transport people in need of medical care to a nearby city.
A fire at the port, caused by containers that toppled over during the earthquake, sent thick plumes of black smoke into the sky. The Defense Ministry said the blaze was extinguished with the help of military aircraft, but live footage broadcast by CNN Turk showed it was still burning.
Vice President Fuat Oktoy said at least 5,894 people have died from the earthquake in Turkey, with another 34,810 injured.
The death toll in government-held areas of Syria has climbed to 812, with some 1,400 injured, according to the Health Ministry. At least 1,020 people have died in the rebel-held northwest, according to the White Helmets, with more than 2,300 injured.
(Mehmet Guzel, Ghaith Alsayed & Suzan Fraser, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The central Sierra Nevada and areas north were hit the hardest, according to aerial surveys conducted by the U.S. Forest Service across federal, state and private lands.
Mortality was up significantly from 9.5 million dead trees in 2021, as a result of ongoing drought, disease and insects, such as pine and fir engraver beetles, officials said. Overcrowding of forests, as the result of a century of aggressive wildfire suppression, has exacerbated these impacts as trees competed for limited moisture.
Despite recent storms, tree mortality is predicted to remain elevated until the state experiences several consecutive years of normal precipitation, officials said. About 150 million trees died across the state over the last decade, including about 89 million in 2016 and 2017 during a period of severe drought.
Many researchers fear that a perfect storm of drought, overly dense forests and tree mortality has set the stage for highly destructive mega blazes, such as the 2020 Creek fire in Fresno and Madera counties.
President Joe Biden announced last year a 10-year plan to roughly quadruple the federal government’s efforts to thin out wildfire-prone landscapes across the West, using chainsaws, heavy equipment and prescribed fire.
“Forest health is a top priority for the Forest Service,” Jennifer Eberlien, regional forester for the Pacific Southwest Region, said in a statement. “The agency’s 10-year strategy to address the wildfire crisis includes removal of dead and dying trees in the places where it poses the most immediate threats to communities.”
The primary goal of thinning a forest is to prevent wildfires from jumping into treetops, where flames can spread rapidly and engulf entire stands. That’s how the 2003 Cedar fire wiped out roughly 95 percent of the trees in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park.
“Working together, we can mitigate the risks of tree mortality and high-intensity wildfire by reducing the overabundance of living trees on the landscape,” Eberlien said.
About $131 million was allocated last year to projects across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. This year, the federal government aims to dole out another nearly $930 million to treat fire-prone landscapes across those states, as well as in Utah and Nevada.
“The most widespread area of mortality occurred south of Palomar Mountain,” said Nathan Judy, spokesperson for the Cleveland National Forest. “We are working with federal, state, and local partners in our communities to plan and implement hazard tree mitigation projects.”
(Joshua Emerson Smith, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The quake left swaths of destruction around its epicenter in Turkey and in neighboring parts of Syria. But in rebel-controlled areas, it compounded conditions that were already unlivable: First responders, mostly volunteers, were already depleted, and millions of displaced people, hungry and huddled in the cold, were living in unfit buildings and shelters, without access to basic services.
Videos from Syria’s opposition-held pocket offer only a glimpse of the damage. The death toll in rebel-held northwestern Syria rose over the course of the day to at least 740, with hundreds of people stuck under rubble and more than 2,000 injured, according to the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, an aid group that works in areas outside government control. Those figures are set to rise.
After nearly 12 years of conflict, bombardments by government forces have weakened many buildings, a White Helmets representative said, speaking on the condition of anonymity under a policy set by the group.
The White Helmets said that rain, snow and roadblocks had impeded their efforts, and called on the international community to pressure the Syrian and Russian governments not to bombard affected areas. In a note sent on WhatsApp on Monday, the Syrian Civil Defense representative begged foreign countries and international organizations for help.
White Helmets volunteers and members “are not capable of responding; the size of the disaster is far larger than our abilities,” he said. “Every minute, we lose a life. We are now racing with time. We need heavy equipment. We need heavy machinery dedicated for rescue missions. We need rescue teams. We need fuel. We have been using up backup fuel for the past two months.”
“Tens of thousands of civilians are homeless,” he said. “The medical situation is abysmal. Tens of thousands of buildings are now cracked. There’s a snowstorm. There’s predictions of flooding in the area. The humanitarian situation is disastrous, with every meaning of the word.”
Syria’s northwest is home to roughly 4.5 million people — nearly all, 4.1 million, require humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations. Medical care is scant, as is solid infrastructure following years of bombardment by government forces and their Russian allies.
Half of the population has been dislocated from elsewhere, many several times. Large numbers live in tent camps or rickety settlements, often built among olive groves or on hard, barren earth. Many live in bombed-out buildings abandoned during the war.
In a statement, the International Rescue Committee, an aid organization, said the impact of the earthquake was harsh in areas already hosting high numbers of displaced and vulnerable families. Overstretched by a recent cholera outbreak and grappling with a snap of freezing weather, the area is experiencing a crisis within crises, according to the IRC.
“There are very real concerns about the ability of an already decimated health system to cope,” the IRC statement said.
(Sarah Dadouch & Leo Sands, WASHINGTON POST)
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Authorities feared the death toll from Monday’s pre-dawn earthquake and aftershocks would keep climbing as rescuers looked for survivors among tangles of metal and concrete spread across the region beset by Syria’s 12-year civil war and refugee crisis.
Survivors cried out for help from within mountains of debris as first responders contended with rain and snow. Seismic activity continued to rattle the region, including another jolt nearly as powerful as the initial quake. Workers carefully pulled away slabs of concrete and reached for bodies as desperate families waited for news of loved ones.
In some cases, desperate family members dug for survivors with shovels and their bare hands, while rescue crews used headlamps and floodlights in some places to dig through the night.
Tens of thousands who were left homeless in Turkey and Syria faced a night in the cold. In the Turkish city of Gaziantep, a provincial capital about 20 miles from the epicenter, people took refuge in shopping malls, stadiums, mosques and community centers. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared seven days of national mourning.
“I wish God’s mercy on our citizens who lost their lives in this great disaster, and a speedy recovery to our wounded,” Erdogan said in an address Monday. “I hope we will leave these disastrous days behind in unity and solidarity as a country and nation.”
U.S. President Joe Biden called Erdogan to express condolences and offer assistance to the NATO ally. The White House said it was sending search-and-rescue teams to support Turkey’s efforts.
The quake, which was centered in Turkey’s southeastern province of Kahramanmaras, sent residents of Damascus and Beirut rushing into the street and was felt as far away as Cairo.
It piled more misery on a region that has seen tremendous suffering over the past decade. On the Syrian side, the area is divided between government-controlled territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. Turkey, meanwhile, is home to millions of refugees from the civil war.
In the rebel-held enclave, hundreds of families remained trapped in rubble, the opposition emergency organization known as the White Helmets said in a statement. The area is packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of the country by the war. Many live in buildings that are already wrecked from military bombardments.
Strained medical centers quickly filled with injured people, rescue workers said. Some facilities had to be emptied, including a maternity hospital, according to the SAMS medical organization.
More than 7,800 people were rescued across 10 provinces, according to Orhan Tatar, an official with Turkey’s disaster management authority.
The region sits on top of major fault lines and is frequently shaken by earthquakes. Some 18,000 were killed in similarly powerful earthquakes that hit northwest Turkey in 1999.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured Monday’s quake at 7.8, with a depth of 11 miles. Hours later, a 7.5 magnitude temblor, likely triggered by the first, struck more than 60 miles away.
The second jolt caused a multistory apartment building in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa to topple onto the street in a cloud of dust as bystanders screamed, according to video of the scene.
Thousands of buildings were reported collapsed in a wide area extending from Syria’s cities of Aleppo and Hama to Turkey’s Diyarbakir, more than 200 miles to the northeast.
“This is a race against time and hypothermia,” said Mikdat Kadioglu, a professor of meteorology and disaster management at Istanbul Technical University. “People got caught in sleepwear and have been under the rubble for 17 hours,” he said.
The United Nations, the European Union, the United States, India, Britain, Israel, Russia and even war-torn Ukraine, among other countries, scrambled to send search-and-rescue squads, dogs, medical teams and humanitarian aid. But it was clear that assessing the full extent of the damage, counting the dead, and rebuilding the homes and lives of those affected had only just begun.
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense described the situation in northwest Syria as “disastrous.”
The opposition-held area, centered on the province of Idlib, has been under siege for years, with frequent Russian and government airstrikes. The territory depends on a flow of aid from Turkey for everything from food to medical supplies.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said 224 buildings in the area were destroyed and at least 325 were damaged, including aid warehouses. The U.N. had been assisting 2.7 million people each month via cross-border deliveries, which could now be disrupted.
At a hospital in Idlib, Osama Abdel Hamid said most of his neighbors died when their shared four-story building collapsed. As he fled with his wife and three children, a wooden door fell on them, shielding them from falling debris.
“God gave me a new lease on life,” he said.
Throughout the day, emergency workers themselves were overcome. One broke down in tears as he carried a young girl in pink leggings who had been pulled out alive from the rubble in Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicenter. Hugging her tightly, he collapsed in the snow just a few steps from the destroyed building, as medical personnel crowded around. Just behind him, a father was carrying out his young son, who did not appear to be injured. The father was also overcome with emotion.
In Diyarbakir, hundreds of rescue workers and civilians formed lines across a huge mound of wreckage, passing down broken concrete pieces and household belongings as they searched for trapped survivors.
At least 2,921 people were killed in 10 Turkish provinces, with nearly 16,000 injured, according to Turkish authorities. The death toll in government-held areas of Syria climbed to 656 people, with some 1,400 injured, according to the Health Ministry. In the country’s rebel-held northwest, groups that operate there said at least 450 people died, with many hundreds injured.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; ASSOCIATED PRESS, NEW YORK TIMES, WASHINGTON POST)
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“We are planning for worst-case scenario,” he said.
Making any plans has been difficult — and downright infuriating — for nearly 20,000 customers who still had no electricity Monday nearly a week after an ice storm crippled the capital and brought down power lines under the weight of fallen tree limbs. Schools finally reopened, but noisy generators rattled before dawn and outdoor extension cords running 100 feet or longer became lifelines between neighbors who had power and those who didn’t.
The boiling frustration over the slow pace of restoring power, and officials repeatedly saying they could not offer timetables for repairs, escalated Monday as the future of Austin’s top city executive plunged into jeopardy even as the number of outages continued falling.
Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, called a meeting for this week that will put City Manager Spencer Cronk’s job on the line. The move reflected the rising discontent in the city, where late Sunday night, Austin Energy issued a statement in the face of growing criticism that full power restoration may not happen until Feb. 12 — nearly two weeks after the outages began.
(SSOCIATED PRESS)
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Flames and black smoke billowed high into the sky from the derailment site late in the afternoon, about an hour after authorities said the controlled release would begin.
The slow release of vinyl chloride from five rail cars into a trough that was then ignited created a large plume above the village of East Palestine, but authorities said they were closely monitoring the air quality.
“Thus far, no concerning readings have been detected,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a brief evening news conference about three hours after the venting and burning procedure began.
However, he urged Pennsylvania residents within a 2-mile radius of the derailment site to shelter in place and keep their doors and windows closed through the evening as a precaution in case of wind shifts.
Shapiro also said he had spoken to President Joe Biden, who had offered “the full support of the federal government” to Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine earlier ordered evacuations in the area of the derailment that has been smoldering since Friday night.
Authorities believed most, if not all, residents in the danger zone had left, but they were knocking on doors one more time before releasing the vinyl chloride inside the cars, he said.
“You need to leave, you just need to leave. This is a matter of life and death,” DeWine said at news conference.
Officials warned the controlled burn would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air.
Phosgene is a highly toxic gas that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I.
About three hours into the procedure, Norfolk Southern Railway issued a statement saying that experts and first responders had breached the rail cars, chemicals were burning off and the cars were expected to drain for several more hours.
About 50 train cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday night, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board.
No injuries to crew, residents or first responders were reported.
Federal investigators say the cause of the derailment was a mechanical issue with a rail car axle.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Wilson Gutierrez, a civil defense official in the Mariano Nicolas Valcarcel municipality in Camana province, told local radio RPP that 36 bodies had been recovered in a remote sector called Miski.
Among the dead were five people who were riding in a van that was pushed into a river by a surge of mud.
Local officials appealed for heavy machinery to be sent in to clear debris blocking an important road.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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On both sides of the border, residents jolted out of sleep by the pre-dawn quake rushed outside on a cold, rainy and snowy winter night, as buildings were flattened and strong aftershocks continued.
Rescue workers and residents in multiple cities searched for survivors, working through tangles of metal and giant piles of concrete.
In the Turkish city of Adana, one resident said three buildings near his home collapsed. “I don’t have the strength anymore,” one survivor could be heard calling out from beneath the rubble as rescue workers tried to reach him, said the resident, journalism student Muhammet Fatih Yavus. Further east in Diyarbakir, cranes and rescue teams rushed people on stretchers out of a mountain of pancaked concrete floors that was once an apartment building.
On the Syrian side of the border, the quake smashed opposition-held regions that are packed with some 4 million people displaced from other parts of Syria by the country’s long civil war. Many of them live in decrepit conditions with little health care. Rescue workers said hospitals in the area were quickly filled with the injured.
“We fear that the deaths are in the hundreds,” Muheeb Qaddour, a doctor, said by phone from the town of Atmeh, referring to the entire rebel-held area. Raed Salah, the head of the White Helmets, the emergency organization in opposition areas, said whole neighborhoods were collapsed in some areas.
The quake, felt as far away as Cairo, struck a region that has been shaped by more than a decade of civil war in Syria. Millions of Syrian refugees live in Turkey. The swath of Syria affected by the quake is divided between government-held territory and the country’s last opposition-held enclave, which is surrounded by Russian-backed government forces. The quake was centered about 60 miles from the Syrian border outside the city of Gaziantep, a major Turkish provincial capital.
At least 20 aftershocks followed, some hours later during daylight, the strongest measuring 6.6, Turkish authorities said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Twitter that “search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched” to the areas hit by the quake.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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On Sunday a snow plow driver in East Tirol in Austria was recovered dead after being swept away. In Oetztal a 32-year-old Chinese skier died, while in Zillertal a 17-year old male from New Zealand was buried and in Kleinwalsertal a 55-year-old German man missing since Friday was found dead.
More than a dozen avalanches were reported in the Tirol region of Austria and authorities had set the warning level at four on a scale of five.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Atop 6,288-foot Mount Washington in New Hampshire, the temperature rose to a relatively balmy 18 degrees a day after the actual temperature nosedived to minus 47 and the wind chill was measured in excess of minus 108 degrees.
The warming weather extended to Texas, where thousands of Austin residents were still without power five days after an ice storm knocked out electricity to nearly a third of the city. By Sunday, more than 90 percent of the city had power, according to Austin Energy.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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If there was a bit of cold comfort for residents who had to be outside in the harsh conditions, it was this: At least they weren’t atop Mount Washington, in New Hampshire, the region’s highest peak, where the temperature was already minus 37 degrees Fahrenheit as of Friday afternoon and expected to drop to minus 46. High winds of 98 mph were making the temperature feel like minus 94.
Temperatures and wind speeds were expected to break records across the region. By late afternoon, it was 19 degrees in New York City, 13 in Hartford, Conn., and minus 1 in Concord, N.H., with the wind making it feel dramatically colder everywhere. The wind chill reading in Caribou, Maine, was minus 42.
Conditions across the region were expected to grow even colder and windier into today but quickly become more moderate by Sunday.
In northern New England, where residents pride themselves on cold-weather endurance, the combination of frigid cold and high winds forced some to make rare accommodations. Wildcat Mountain, a 4,000-foot peak in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, closed to skiers Friday, citing risks from the adverse conditions.
Sixty miles to the south, at Lake Waukewan in Meredith, N.H., organizers opted not to cancel the Pond Hockey Classic, a packed schedule of outdoor ice hockey games for die-hard adult players Friday and Saturday. Organizers warned players of the risk of frostbite and hypothermia and urged them to bring dry clothing, to leave immediately after their games and to keep an eye on teammates.
The core of the arctic air mass is over northern New England, but residents across the northern part of the country — from the Great Lakes to New York — were feeling the chill. New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that Code Blue was in effect, which means no one seeking shelter will be denied.
In Erie County — which includes Buffalo — officials opened several warming shelters before the most frigid weather. Mark Poloncarz, the Erie County executive, said temperatures would be in the single digits by sunrise Saturday.
In Maine, forecasters expected the wind chill in Portland to be minus 40 by Friday night. The last time the area experienced those temperatures was in 1981.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The deaths all took place in the Biobio region, south of the capital of Santiago. Four of the deaths occurred in two separate vehicles.
As of early afternoon Friday, there were 151 active wildfires throughout Chile, including 65 that were under control. The fires have blazed through more than 34,595 acres.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said state officials provided “substantial” information that grizzlies have recovered from the threat of extinction in the regions surrounding Yellowstone and Glacier national parks.
But federal officials rejected claims by Idaho that protections should be lifted beyond those areas, and they raised concerns about new laws from the Republican-led states that could potentially harm grizzly populations.
“We will fully evaluate these and other potential threats,” said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Williams told the head of Montana’s wildlife agency in a letter Wednesday that a law allowing grizzlies to be killed if they attack livestock was inconsistent with the state’s commitment to bear conservation. She said the 2023 legislative session offered a “good opportunity” to address such problems.
Friday’s move kicks off at least a year of further study before final decisions about the Yellowstone and Glacier regions.
The states want protections lifted so they can regain management of grizzlies and offer hunts to the public. As grizzly populations have expanded, more of the animals have moved into areas occupied by people, creating public safety issues and problems for farmers.
State officials have insisted future hunts would be limited and not endanger the overall population.
After grizzlies temporarily lost their protections in the Yellowstone region several years ago, Wyoming and Idaho scheduled hunts that would have allowed fewer than two dozen bears to be killed in the initial hunting season.
In Wyoming, almost 1,500 people applied for 12 grizzly bear licenses in 2018 before the hunt was blocked in federal court. About a third of the applicants came from out of state. Idaho issued just one grizzly license before the hunt was blocked.
Republican lawmakers in the region in recent years also adopted more aggressive policies against gray wolves, including loosened trapping rules that could lead to grizzlies being inadvertently killed.
As many as 50,000 grizzlies once roamed the western half of the U.S. They were exterminated in most of the country early last century by overhunting and trapping, and the last hunts in the northern Rockies occurred decades ago. There are now more than 2,000 bears in the Lower 48 states and much larger populations in Alaska, where hunting is allowed.
The species’ expansion in the Glacier and Yellowstone areas has led to conflicts between humans and bears, including periodic attacks on livestock and sometimes the fatal mauling of humans.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte welcomed the administration’s announcement and said it could lead to the state reclaiming management of a species placed under federal protection in 1975. He said the grizzly’s recovery “represents a conservation success.”
Montana held grizzly hunts until 1991 under an exemption to the federal protections that allowed 14 bears to be killed each fall.
The federal government in 2017 sought to remove protections for the Yellowstone ecosystem’s grizzlies under former President Donald Trump. The hunts in Wyoming and Idaho were set to begin when a judge restored protections, siding with environmental groups that said delisting wasn’t based on sound science.
Those groups want federal protections kept in place and no hunting allowed so bears can continue moving into new areas.
“We should not be ready to trust the states,” said attorney Andrea Zaccardi, of the Center for Biological Diversity. Derek Goldman with the Endangered Species Coalition said state management would be a disaster and was glad federal agencies were looking at the states’ laws.
Dave Evans, a hunting guide with Wood River Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyo., said the issue is complex, and he can understand why people fall on both sides of the debate.
“You have so many opinions and some of them are not based on science, but the biologists are the ones that know the facts about what the populations are and what should be considered a goal for each area,” Evans said. “If you’re going to manage grizzly bears, there’s a sustainable number that needs to be kept in balance. I’m not a biologist, but I would follow the science.”
U.S. government scientists have said the region’s grizzlies are biologically recovered but in 2021 decided that protections were still needed because of human-caused bear deaths and other pressures. Bears considered problematic are regularly killed by wildlife officials.
Demand for bear hunting licenses would likely be high if the protections are lifted, Evans said.
(Matthew Brown, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The freeze has been blamed for at least 10 traffic deaths on slick roads this week in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. And even as Texas finally began thawing Thursday, a new Arctic front from Canada was headed toward the northern Plains and Upper Midwest and threatening New England with potentially the coldest weather in decades. Wind chills could dive below minus 50 degrees today.
In Austin, city officials compared the damage from fallen trees and iced-over power lines to tornadoes as they came under mounting criticism for slow repairs and shifting timelines to restore power.
“We had hoped to make more progress today,” said Jackie Sargent, general manager of Austin Energy. “And that simply has not happened.”
Across Texas, more than 360,000 customers lacked power Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. The failures were most widespread in Austin, where impatience was rising among 150,000 customers nearly two days after the electricity first went out, which for many also means no heat.
By Thursday night, Austin officials backtracked on early estimates that power would be fully restored by Friday evening, saying the extent of the damage was worse than originally calculated and that they could no longer predict when all the lights may come back on.
School systems in the Dallas and Austin areas, plus many in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Memphis, Tenn., closed Thursday as snow, sleet and freezing rain continued to push through. In Austin, schools will not open until next week at the earliest.
Hundreds more flights were canceled again in Texas, although not as many as in previous days.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The airport averages 1.98 inches of rain in January, a figure it surpassed by 3.16 inches.
San Diego got drenched because “the jet stream dropped unusually far south and because many storms followed a trajectory that brought them in here from the Pacific,” said Dan Gregoria, a weather service forecaster.
On many occasions, the region was hit by back-to-back storms, and several of those systems gained extra strength by tapping moisture from the subtropics. That moisture arrived in the form of atmospheric rivers that produced downpours throughout San Diego County.
Two of those storms dumped roughly 2 inches of rain over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The deluge triggered flooding that led to 11 swift-water rescues across the county on Jan. 16.
Scientists say the heavy rain likely contributed to the major rock and dirt slide that occurred at Black’s Beach in La Jolla on Jan. 20.
Since the rainy season began on Oct. 1, the airport has recorded 7.88 inches of precipitation, which is 2.94 inches above average. February is historically the wettest month in San Diego. The airport averages about 2.3 inches. Gregoria says a low-pressure system is expected to develop in the Pacific over the weekend, but it is unclear whether it will bring rain to Southern California.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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In a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, California described how states could conserve between 1 million and nearly 2 million acre-feet of water through new cuts based on the elevation of Lake Mead, a key reservoir.
Its plan did not account for water lost to evaporation and during transportation — a move sought by the other states that would mean big cuts for California.
The 1,450-mile river serves 40 million people across the West and Mexico, generating hydroelectric power for regional markets and irrigating nearly 6 million acres of farmland.
A multi-decade drought in the West worsened by climate change, rising demand and overuse has sent water levels at key reservoirs along the river to unprecedented lows.
That has forced federal and state officials to take additional steps to protect the system.
California’s plan and the separate methods outlined by states Monday came in response to Reclamation asking them last year to detail how they would use between 15 percent and 30 percent less water. The federal agency operates the major dams in the river system.
All seven states missed an August deadline to submit those plans.
Six of them regrouped and came to an agreement.
California was the the lone holdout to that agreement, and responded Tuesday with its own plan.
Unlike the other states’ plan, California’s does not factor the roughly 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water lost to evaporation and transportation.
Instead, it proposes reducing water taken out of Lake Mead by 1 million acre-feet, with 400,000 acre-feet coming from its own users.
The state previously outlined that level of cuts in October. Arizona would bear the brunt of bigger cuts — 560,000 acre-feet — while Nevada would make up the rest.
Those numbers are based on discussions from prior negotiations, California’s letter said.
An acre-foot is enough water to supply two to three U.S. households for a year.
The Arizona Department of Water Resources said it was still reviewing California’s proposal and didn’t have an immediate comment.
But Tom Buschatzke, the department’s director, said earlier Tuesday that water managers across the basin couldn’t reach agreement with California on cuts, even at the broader state level.
“The big issues are what does the priority system mean, what does the junior priority mean and how does that attach to that outcome of who takes what cut?” he said.
“That was the issue over the summer, that was the issue over the fall, that’s still the issue,” Buschatzke continued.
California has the largest allocation of water among the seven U.S. states that tap the Colorado River.
It is also among the last to face water cuts in times of shortage because of its senior water rights.
That has given the state an advantage over others in talks that spanned months over how to cut water use.
California water officials have often repeated that any additional water cuts must be legally defensible and in line with western water law that honors its water rights.
JB Hamby, chairman of the Colorado River Board of California and a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District, indicated California may file a lawsuit if the federal government attempts to count for evaporative losses.
“The best way to avoid conflict and ensure that we can put water in the river right away is through a voluntary approach, not putting proposals that sidestep the Law of the River and ignore California’s senior right and give no respect to that,” he said.
Existing agreements only spell cuts when Lake Mead’s elevation is between 1,090 feet and 1,025 feet.
If it drops any lower than 1,025 feet, California’s plan proposes even further cuts based on the so-called Law of the River — likely meaning Arizona and Nevada would bear the brunt of them.
Those cuts are designed to keep Lake Mead from reaching “dead pool,” when it could no longer pump out water to farms and cities including Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix.
The reservoir’s current elevation is around 1,045 feet.
In total, California’s plan could save between 1 million and 2 million acre-feet of water based on the elevation levels at Lake Mead, from which Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico draw their share of the river.
Adel Hagekhalil, general manager for the Metropolitan Water District of California, the nation’s largest water supplier, said it was important to protect key reservoirs “without getting mired in lengthy legal battles.”
Hagekhalil and other water managers pointed to numerous efforts the state has made to drastically reduce its water usage by making agricultural and urban water use more efficient.
“California knows how to permanently reduce use of the river — we have done it over the past 20 years, through billions of dollars in investments and hard-earned partnerships,” he said in a statement. “We can help the entire Southwest do it again as we move forward.”
The new proposals do not change states’ water allocations immediately — or disrupt their existing water rights.
Instead, they will be folded into a larger proposal Reclamation is working on to revise how it operates Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams — behemoth power producers on the Colorado River.
Despite California’s inability to reach agreement with the other six states so far, the parties said they hope to keep talking.
“We’re not going to stop the discussions,” said Buschatzke of Arizona, “and maybe we come to an agreement and maybe we won’t.”
(Kathleen Ronayne & Suman Naishadham, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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As the ice storm advanced eastward on Tuesday, watches and warnings stretched from the western heel of Texas all the way to West Virginia. Several rounds of mixed precipitation — including freezing rain and sleet — were in store for many areas through today, meaning some regions could be hit multiple times, the federal Weather Prediction Center warned.
Emergency responders rushed to hundreds of auto collisions across Texas and Gov. Greg Abbott urged people to stay off the roads.
Authorities said one person in Austin was killed in a predawn pileup Tuesday. A 45-year-old man also died Monday night after his SUV slid into a highway guardrail near Dallas in slick conditions and rolled down an embankment, according to the Arlington Police Department.
More than 900 flights to or from major U.S. airport hub Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and more than 250 to or from Dallas Love Field were canceled or delayed Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware. At Dallas-Fort Worth, more than 50 percent of Tuesday’s scheduled flights had been canceled by Tuesday afternoon.
Dallas-based Southwest Airlines canceled more than 560 flights Tuesday and delayed more than 350 more, FlightAware reported.
About 7,000 power outages in Texas were reported as of late Tuesday morning, Abbott said following a briefing in Austin on the worsening conditions. He emphasized the outages were due to factors such as ice on power lines or downed trees, and not the performance of the Texas power grid, which buckled for days during a deadly winter storm in 2021.
Fleets of emergency vehicles were fanned out among 1,600 roads impacted by the freeze.
As the ice and sleet enveloped Memphis, Tenn., Memphis-Shelby County Schools announced that it will cancel classes today due to freezing rain and hazardous road conditions. The school system has about 100,000 students.
In Arkansas, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency Tuesday because of the ice storm. In her declaration, Sanders cited the “likelihood of numerous downed power lines” and said road conditions have created a backlog of deliveries by commercial drivers.
The storm began Monday as part of an expected “several rounds” of wintry precipitation through today, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard.
The weather service issued a winter storm warning for a large swath of Texas and parts of southeastern Oklahoma and an ice storm warning across the midsection of Arkansas into western Tennessee. A winter weather advisory was in place in much of the remainder of Arkansas and Tennessee and into much of Kentucky, West Virginia and southern parts of Indiana and Ohio.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The roughly half-mile wide comet, which was last visible from Earth during the Stone Age, can be found 30 degrees above the northern horizon, between the Big Dipper and Polaris. The period between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. is a good time to look.
To measure 30 degrees, make a fist and extend your arm. Then align the bottom of your fist with the horizon. An adult fist represents 10 degrees.
The comet will be making its closest approach to Earth, coming within roughly 26 million miles of the planet.
“You’ll need binoculars or a telescope to see it good,” Keating said. “It will look like a green blob or patch.”
The comet’s formal name is C/2022 E3 (ZTF). The last three letters refer to the Zwicky Transient Facility, which is part of Palomar Observatory. The discovery was made by researchers Bryce Bolin and Frank Masci.
Scientists determined that the comet last passed relatively close Earth about 50,000 years ago, during the time of the Neanderthals.
NB: The comet glows green when its diatomic carbon and cyanogen interacts with sunlight as it nears the perihelion (which is did January 12; it now has the closest approach to Earth). The nucleus is about 1 km in diameter and spins with a period of 8.7h. It was discovered at Palomar Observatory a year earlier on 2 March 2022.
Diatomic carbon is a gaseous inorganic chemical with chemical formula C=C (or C2). It is produced by photolysis of organic materials evaporated from the nucleus.
Cyanogen is (CN)2, a colorless and highly toxic gas.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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California — with the largest allocation of water from the river — is the lone holdout. Officials said the state would release its own plan.
The Colorado River and its tributaries pass through seven states and into Mexico, serving 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry. Some of the largest cities in the country, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver and Las Vegas, two Mexican states, Native American tribes and others depend on the river that’s been severely stressed by drought, demand and overuse.
States missed a mid-August deadline to heed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s call to propose ways to conserve 2 million to 4 million acre feet of water. They regrouped to reach consensus by the end of January to fold into a larger proposal Reclamation has in the works.
Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming sent a letter Monday to Reclamation, which operates the major dams in the river system, to outline an alternative that builds on existing guidelines, deepens water cuts and factors in water that’s lost through evaporation and transportation.
Those states propose raising the levels where water reductions would be triggered at Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which are barometers of the river’s health. The model creates more of a protective buffer for both reservoirs — the largest built in the U.S.
The modeling would result in about 2 million acre-feet of cuts in the Lower Basin, with smaller reductions in the Upper Basin. Mexico and California are factored into the equations, but neither signed on to Monday’s letter.
California released a proposal last October to cut 400,000 acre feet. An acre foot is enough water to supply two to three U.S. households for a year.
JB Hamby, chair of the Colorado River Board of California, said California will submit a model for water reductions in the basin that is practical, based on voluntary action, and aligns with law governing the river and the hierarchy of water rights.
“California remains focused on practical solutions that can be implemented now to protect volumes of water in storage without driving conflict and litigation,” he said in a statement Monday.
Nothing will happen immediately with the consensus reached among the six states. However, not reaching a consensus carried the risk of having the federal government alone determine how to eventually impose cuts.
The debates over how to cut water use by roughly one-third have been contentious. The Upper Basin states of Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah have said the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — must do the heavy lifting. That conversation in the Lower Basin has centered on what’s legal and what’s fair.
The six states that signed Monday’s proposal acknowledged ideas they put forth could be excluded from final plans to operate the river’s major dams. Negotiations are ongoing, they noted, adding that what they proposed does not override existing rights states and others have to the Colorado River.
Monday’s proposal included accounting for the water lost to evaporation and leaky infrastructure as the river flows through the region’s dams and waterways. Federal officials estimate more than 10 percent of the river’s flow evaporates, leaks or spills, yet Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico have never accounted for that water loss.
The six states argued that Lower Basin states should share those losses — essentially subtracting those amounts from their allocations — once the elevation at Lake Mead sinks below 1,145 feet. The reservoir was well below that Monday.
Reclamation will consider the six states’ agreement as part of a larger proposal to revise how it operates Glen Canyon and Hoover Dams — behemoth power producers on the Colorado River. The reservoirs behind the dams — Lake Powell and Lake Mead — have reached historic lows amid a more than two-decade-long drought and climate change.
Reclamation plans to put out a draft of that proposal by early March, with a goal of finalizing it by mid-August when the agency typically announces the amount of water available for the following year.
(Felicia Fonseca & Suman Naishadham, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The Interior Department had asked California and the other states to voluntarily come up with a plan by Jan. 31 to collectively cut the amount of water they draw from the Colorado. The demand for those cuts, on a scale without parallel in U.S. history, was prompted by precipitous declines in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which provide water and electricity for Southern California, Arizona and Nevada. Drought, climate change and population growth have caused water levels in the lakes to plummet.
“Think of the Colorado River Basin as a slow-motion disaster,” said Kevin Moran, who directs state and federal water policy advocacy at the Environmental Defense Fund. “We’re really at a moment of reckoning.”
Negotiators say the odds of a voluntary agreement are slim. It would be the second time in six months that the Colorado River states, which also include Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, have missed a deadline for consensus on cuts sought by the Biden administration to avoid a catastrophic failure of the river system.
Without a deal, the Interior Department, which manages flows on the river, must impose the cuts. That would break from the centurylong tradition of states determining how to share the river’s water. And it would all but ensure that the administration’s increasingly urgent efforts to save the Colorado get caught up in lengthy legal challenges.
The crisis over the Colorado River is the latest example of how climate change is overwhelming the foundations of American life — not only physical infrastructure, like dams and reservoirs, but also the legal underpinnings that have made those systems work.
A century’s worth of laws, which assign different priorities to Colorado River users based on how long they’ve used the water, is facing off against a competing philosophy that says, as the climate changes, water cuts should be apportioned based on what’s practical.
The outcome of that dispute will shape the future of the southwestern United States.
“We’re using more water than nature is going to provide,” said Eric Kuhn, who worked on previous water agreements as general manager for the Colorado River Water Conservation District. “Someone is going to have to cut back very significantly.”
The rules that determine who gets water from the Colorado River, and how much, were always based, to a degree, on magical thinking.
In 1922, states along the river negotiated the Colorado River Compact, which apportioned the water among two groups of states. The so-called upper basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) would get 7.5 million acre-feet a year. The lower basin (California, Arizona and Nevada) got a total of 8.5 million acre-feet. A later treaty guaranteed Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet.
But the premise that the river’s flow would average 17.5 million acre-feet each year turned out to be faulty. Over the past century, the river’s actual flow has averaged less than 15 million acre-feet each year.
For decades, that gap was obscured by the fact that some of the river’s users, including Arizona and some Native American tribes, lacked the canals and other infrastructure to employ their full allotment. But as that infrastructure increased, so did the demand on the river.
Then, the drought hit. From 2000 through 2022, the river’s annual flow averaged just over 12 million acre-feet. In each of the past three years, the total flow was less than 10 million.
The Bureau of Reclamation, an office within the Interior Department that manages the river system, has sought to offset that water loss by getting states to reduce their consumption. In 2003, it pushed California, which had been exceeding its annual allotment, the largest in the basin, to abide by that limit. In 2007, and again in 2019, the department negotiated still deeper reductions among the states.
It wasn’t enough. Last summer, the water level in Lake Mead sank to 1,040 feet above sea level, its lowest ever.
In June, the commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Camille Touton, gave the states 60 days to come up with a plan to reduce their use of Colorado River water by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet — about 20 percent to 40 percent of the river’s entire flow.
The 60-day deadline came and went. The states produced no plan for the cuts the bureau demanded. And the bureau didn’t present a plan of its own.
In November, the Biden administration tried again. The Bureau of Reclamation said it would analyze the environmental impact of large cuts in water use from the Colorado — the first step toward making those cuts, potentially this summer. To meet that timeline, the bureau asked states to submit a proposal by Jan. 31 that it could include in the study. If states fail to agree by then, the administration will be left impose its own plan for rationing water.
The department’s latest request and new deadline, set for Tuesday, has led to a new round of negotiations, and finger-pointing, among the states.
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming argue they are unable to significantly reduce their share of water. Those states get their water primarily from stream flow, rather than from giant reservoirs like in the lower basin states.
Nor can much of the solution come from Nevada, which is allotted just 300,000 acre-feet from the Colorado. Even if the state’s water deliveries were stopped entirely, the government would get barely closer to its goal.
That leaves California and Arizona, which have rights to 4.4 million and 2.8 million acre-feet from the Colorado — typically the largest and third-largest allotments among the seven states. Negotiators from both sides seem convinced of one thing: The other state ought to come up with more cuts.
In California, the largest user of Colorado River water is the Imperial Irrigation District, which has rights to 3.1 million acre-feet — as much as Arizona and Nevada put together. That water lets farmers grow alfalfa, lettuce and broccoli on about 800 square miles of the Imperial Valley.
California has senior water rights to Arizona, which means that Arizona’s supply should be cut before California is forced to take reductions, according to JB Hamby, vice president of the Imperial Irrigation District and chair of the Colorado River Board of California, which is negotiating for the state.
“We have sound legal footing,” Hamby said in an interview. He said that fast-growing Arizona should have been ready for the Colorado River drying up.
Tina Shields, Imperial’s water department manager, put the argument more bluntly. It would be hard to tell the California farmers who rely on the Colorado River to stop growing crops, she said, “so that other folks continue to build subdivisions.”
Still, Hamby conceded that significantly reducing the water supply for large urban populations in Arizona would be “a little tricky.” California has offered to cut its use of Colorado River water by as much as 400,000 acre-feet — up to one-fifth of the cuts that the Biden administration has sought.
If the administration wants to impose deeper cuts on California, he said, it’s welcome to try.
“Reclamation can do whatever Reclamation wants,” Hamby said. “The question is, will it withstand legal challenge?”
Arizona officials acknowledge that the laws governing the river may not work in their favor. But they have arguments of their own.
Arizona’s status as a junior rights holder was cemented in 1968, when Congress agreed to pay for the Central Arizona Project, an aqueduct that carries water from the Colorado to Phoenix and Tucson, and the farms that surround them.
But the money came with a catch. In return for their support, California’s legislators insisted on a provision that their state’s water rights take priority over the aqueduct.
If Arizona could have foreseen that climate change would permanently reduce the river’s flow, it might never have agreed to that deal, said Tom Buschatzke, director of the state’s Department of Water Resources.
Because of its junior rights, Arizona has taken the brunt of recent rounds of voluntary cuts. The state’s position now, Buschatzke said, is that everyone should make a meaningful contribution, and that nobody should lose everything. “That’s an equitable outcome, even if it doesn’t necessarily strictly follow the law.”
There are other arguments in Arizona’s favor. About half of the water delivered through the Central Arizona Project goes to Native American tribes.
The U.S. can’t cut off that water, said Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community. “That would be a rejection of the trust obligation that the federal government has for our water.”
In an interview this week, Tommy Beaudreau, deputy secretary of the Interior Department, said the federal government would consider “equity, and public health, and safety” as it weighs how to spread the reductions.
The department will compare California’s preference to base cuts on seniority of water rights with Arizona’s suggestion to cut allotments in ways meant to “meet the basic needs of communities in the lower basin,” Beaudreau said.
(Christopher Flavelle, NEW YORK TIMES)
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At least two people died as a result of the 10-inch deluge, police said, and two were missing early today.
Mayor Wayne Brown declared a state of emergency: “Infrastructure and emergency services alike have been overwhelmed by the impacts of the storm.”
Waist-deep water surged into homes, forcing some evacuations, Ricardo Menéndez, a member of the New Zealand Parliament, said on Twitter. Flooding and landslides closed numerous roads, authorities said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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“The winds are knocking down trees everywhere — on top of apartments, cars and people,” said Jose Ysea, a spokesperson for the city of San Diego. “It’s hard to keep up with.”
One of the 36 trees downed by winds in Balboa Park struck a 30-year-old woman. Her injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Falling trees contributed to the city’s mid-morning decision to close the Balboa Park Golf Course, Presidio Park and Chollas Lake, and to tell employees working in Balboa Park, as well as its museums and other cultural institutions to leave for the day.
The San Diego Zoo remained open, a spokesperson said.
In downtown San Diego, downed palm trees forced the closure of a ramp from north state Route 163 to north Interstate 5 about 11 a.m.,causing traffic to back up. The ramp was closed until about 4 p.m.
The Santa Ana windstorm — the strongest so far this winter — began generating powerful gusts shortly before sunrise Thursday. The gusts reached 93 mph in the Cuyamaca Mountains in East County, 88 mph near Mount Laguna, 86 mph at Buckman Springs and Crestwood, 83 mph at Palomar Mountain and 83 mph at Pine Valley, the National Weather Service said.
All of those gusts are equivalent to a category one hurricane.
Forecasters said the winds hit 40 mph at San Diego International Airport, buffeting commercial airline passengers, and hit 44 mph at North Island, one of the busiest Navy airfields in the western region. Jet fighters out of Miramar Marine Corps Air Station had to cope with 43 mph gusts.
The weather service said the winds will be followed on Sunday by the arrival of a cold storm from Canada.
Thursday’s windstorm caused damage, closures and anxiety from the dusty expanse of the desert to bluffs from San Diego to Oceanside.
Interstate 8 in East County — a natural wind tunnel — was hit hard, resulting in three big rigs flipping over near Crestwood. Two of the rigs were heading west and one was on the eastbound side of the interstate, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Latulippe.
The dangerous conditions prompted officers to take high-profile vehicles off I-8 at East Willows and to keep high-profile vehicles from traveling west on the freeway from the El Centro area. From mid-morning to mid-afternoon, all traffic in both directions of I-8 was diverted off the freeway to Old Highway 80.
“The winds out east are considerable,” Latulippe said. “We are getting... 74 mph on the roadways. That’s pretty crazy.”
Shortly before 8 a.m., an 80- to 90-foot eucalyptus tree fell onto a woman near the intersection of Balboa Drive and El Prado in Balboa Park, pinning her underneath it. She was conscious and complained of pain to her hand and head and was taken to a hospital, San Diego police said.
A short time later, another tree about 100 yards north fell onto a car, breaking the windshield, Ysea said.
“At that point it was just like dominoes throughout the park,” he said.
Crews were sent to remove branches that were blocking streets near Cabrillo Bridge and Morley Field, and the city took to Twitter to ask the public to avoid the area. Many of the eucalyptus trees that fell were up to 100-feet tall and 10 feet in diameter, Ysea said.
The trees have shallow roots and sit in ground saturated by recent heavy rains.
“The winds come and push them over,” he said.
Ysea said two large trees toppled in Pioneer Park in Mission Hills. “We are just asking people to literally have a heads up. Be careful of your surroundings,” he said.
Shortly after 11:30 a.m., a woman became trapped in her Scripps Ranch townhome when three large trees fell over, one of them blocking her door, San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Josh Slatinsky told OnScene TV. Firefighters helped her escape through a window. Two of the trees — each about 100 feet tall — fell simultaneously, crashing onto garages and seriously damaging two of them. A vehicle outside a garage was damaged.
Thousands of customers were without power Thursday shortly after noon, including about 4,200 in the East County communities of Blossom Valley and El Monte, San Diego Gas & Electric outage maps showed.
Hundreds lost power in the Granite Hills and east El Cajon areas and in the Buckman Springs area. More urban areas also lost power, including more than 1,300 customers in and around North Park.
In anticipation of the extreme weather, schools in the Mountain Empire Unified School District in East County closed Thursday, according to the county Office of Education. Students in the rural district rely heavily on buses for transportation.
The Santa Anas are expected to be followed this weekend by a modest storm that will drop 0.25 inches of rain at the coast, 0.50 inches across inland valleys and foothills and one inch in the mountains. The system will last from late Sunday into Tuesday morning, the weather service said.
The storm is composed of cold air from Canada that will prevent daytime high temperatures from rising above the mid-to-upper 50s Sunday through Tuesday at the coast and the low 50s across inland valleys. Temperatures could drop into the 30s at the coast on Tuesday night.
(Gery Robbins & Karen Kucher, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; David Hernandez, Teri Figueroa, Caleb Lunetta, CITY NEWS SERVICES)
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Cholera had killed 1,002 people as of Tuesday, while 1,115 people were hospitalized from the outbreak that started in March 2022, Minister of Health Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda said. It’s the country’s worst outbreak of the waterborne illness in two decades.
Frustration and suspicion over the rising cases resulted in weekend violence. Angry villagers beat up health workers and damaged a health care facility in the Southern Region’s Balaka district.
Cultural burial rites are also becoming a source of contention, Chiponda said.
“For example, people who are dying of or who have died from cholera may be washed by family members, who then prepare funeral feasts for family and friends held very soon after death. Outbreaks of cholera commonly follow these feasts,” the minister said.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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About 6 inches of snow was expected to fall on the Detroit area, while 4 inches was reported before noon in eastern Indiana, just southwest of Fort Wayne, said Maddi Johnson of the National Weather Service in northern Indiana.
The storm was expected to bring damaging winds to parts of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas, forecasters said. Winter weather advisories stretched from southern Missouri to Maine, with areas of New England expected to see 8 to 12 inches of snow, the National Weather Service said.
Fort Wayne, Ind., has seen numerous crashes due to the snowfall on the roads.
“People are sliding off exit ramps on the highways,” Johnson added. “They’re just driving too fast for the conditions.”
Just north of Indianapolis, some power outages were reported in Hamilton County as the wet snow accumulated on power lines, said meteorologist Gregory Melo with the weather service’s Indianapolis office.
Total snowfall amounts were projected to range from 5 to 8 inches to the north and northeast of Indianapolis.
“This is one of the first big snowfalls we’ve had,” said Scott Cabauatan, deputy director of public services in Wayne County, which includes Detroit. “This snowfall poses a concern from the aspect that it’s a wet, heavy snow versus a lighter snow.”
Cabauatan said crews will roughly clear on one regular pass just under 5,000 lane miles of roadway. “We will have right around 100 pieces of equipment and operators working” at any given time to salt and clear roadways of snow and ice, he added.
Schools and businesses remained closed Wednesday in parts of Oklahoma, which saw snowfall totals of between 1 and 6 inches across central and eastern parts of the state. More than 160,000 homes and businesses were without power Wednesday in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri after heavy snow fell.
On Tuesday, forecasters issued a rare tornado emergency for the Houston area as the storm system moved through the heavily populated area. Substantial damage was reported in cities east of Houston, but there were no reports of injuries.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The strong winds came amid warnings of tornadoes in Texas and across the South on Tuesday.
More than 15 million people living along the Gulf Coast, including in Houston, New Orleans and Mobile, AL, were at risk with the severe storms, which moved toward Louisiana after passing through Texas. More than 104,000 customers in Texas and 35,000 customers in Louisiana had lost power by Tuesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks power failures.
Emergency responders in Deer Park and nearby Pasadena were removing debris from roadways and responding to calls for assistance.
The storm tore through Deer Park just before 3 p.m. and destroyed the San Jacinto Manor, a senior assisted living facility, city officials said. No one was injured, but the city, which is about 19 miles south of Houston, had yet to find shelter for the 59 residents who needed to be relocated.
Emergency responders were assessing damage in Deer Park, which included fallen power lines and minor damage to homes, said Mayor Jerry Mouton.
No injuries or deaths were reported, though the Police Department had warned that “dozens of calls” were coming in and assistance might take longer than expected.
Conditions were similar in Pasadena, a city next to Deer Park and about 14 miles southeast of Houston, where a tornado touched down about 2:30 p.m. It caused severe damage to homes and businesses, but no reported severe injuries or fatalities, said Raul Granados, a spokesman for the Pasadena Police Department. The American Red Cross and Salvation Army were coordinating meal assistance and shelters for people who lost homes.
Flooded streets stranded a school bus from the Waller Independent School District, about 40 miles northwest of Houston, causing high school students to be transferred to another vehicle.
Forecasters with the Storm Prediction Center at the National Weather Service had warned people in the region on Tuesday to anticipate potentially damaging winds and strong tornadoes.
The risk for severe weather will move to the eastern Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast today into Thursday. Cities along the East Coast from Norfolk, VA, to Jacksonville, FL, could see tornadoes later this week.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Images from the scene at the exit of the tunnel connecting the city of Nyingchi in Tibet’s southwest with an outlying county showed about half a dozen backhoes digging through deep snow. Reports said around 1,000 rescuers had joined the effort.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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The total number of confirmed cases and deaths is not yet known. Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has initiated an emergency response to the outbreak and is monitoring the situation in four of the nation’s 36 states, Dr Ifedayo Adetifa, the agency’s head, said in a statement.
Diphtheria causes breathing difficulties, heart failure and paralysis.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Although scientists are still studying the size and severity of storms that killed 19 people and caused up to $1 billion in damage, initial assessments suggest the destruction had more to do with California’s historic drought-to-deluge cycles, mountainous topography and aging flood infrastructure than it did with climate-altering greenhouse gasses.
Although some officials were quick to link a series of powerful storms to climate change, researchers interviewed by the Los Angeles Times said they had yet to see evidence of that connection. Instead, the unexpected onslaught of rain and snow after three years of punishing drought appears akin to other major storms that have struck California every decade or more since experts began keeping records in the 1800s.
“We know from climate models that global warming will boost California storms of the future, but we haven’t made that connection with the latest storm systems,” said Alexander Gershunov, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Assuming that these storms were driven by global warming would be like assuming an athlete who breaks a record was on steroids.”
Mike Anderson, official state climatologist for California, suggested that the recent series of atmospheric rivers — long plumes of vapor that can pour over the West Coast — was a grim reminder that in a place so dry, sudden flooding can bring catastrophe.
“Each of the recent atmospheric rivers were within the historical distribution of sizes of atmospheric rivers,” Anderson said, “It will take further study to determine how warming temperatures influenced the sequence or the sudden transition from dry to wet and soon back to dry.”
News and social media images of the storms were harrowing. Massive ocean waves demolished seawalls and a pier. Hurricane-force winds uprooted trees that crushed and killed bystanders. Breached levees flooded the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta region, drowning motorists.
The parade of storms also dumped desperately needed snow on the Sierra Nevada range — nearly 250 percent of average for this time of year. It also recharged giant reservoirs that had dwindled to weedy channels. In one instance, Lake Cachuma, about 15 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, rose from 36 percent capacity to nearly 80 percent in just one day.
But in a region whose water supply has been severely depleted by more than two decades of drought stoked by climate change, researchers suggested that some observers were too quick to reach for superlatives.
“A group I call ‘mediaologists’ always hype the current situation to make it seem worse than the last one,” Gershunov said, using a play on the word meteorologists.
Although scientists still can’t say yet where recent storms rank among other epic downpours, they said they did not appear to be one of a kind.
“Overall, it was nothing as big as what we’ve gone through before,” said Jayme Laber, senior hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.
Indeed, this mid-winter’s precipitation was far behind the 1956 season, when California had received 85.3 percent of its average annual precipitation by Jan. 17, according to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. As of Wednesday, California had accumulated about 70 percent of its average annual total, the center said.
Within the last century, Southern California experienced a major flood in 1938, which killed more than 100 people; left thousands homeless and prompted officials to line the Los Angeles River with concrete as a means of flood control. Other intense storms have occurred in 1964, 1969, 1982, 1986, 1995 and 2005, when a school camp perched 3,600 feet above Pasadena in the Angeles National Forest recorded 107 inches of rain in one week.
More recently, a series of drought-busting atmospheric rivers that slammed into California in 2017 eroded the main and emergency spillways at Oroville Dam, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate.
That emergency, scientists say, was a taste of the kind of meteorological tumult Mother Nature has in store for the future: Climate models predict more frequent megastorms fueled by warming oceans and a thirstier atmosphere because of global warming.
“Most recent storm systems don’t hold a candle to the kinds of extreme prolonged storms of the last century,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. “They do, however, point in the direction of the episodes of hydro-climate we can expect to see more of due to global warming.”
It’s the prospect of these larger and more damaging storms that have fueled calls to upgrade the state’s flood infrastructure and spurred efforts to capture and store water.
“California’s environment is changing fast beneath our feet,” Swain said. “Future generations have huge problems ahead of them.”
While this month’s storms have provided much needed drought relief to California, they will do little to erase the larger drought conditions that have gripped the American West since 2000 — conditions that are fueled substantially by global warming and contributing to a growing crisis along the Colorado River.
“Rain that falls in California stays in California,” said A. Park Williams, a climate scientist at UCLA. “That’s because the moisture delivered by Pacific storms is wrung out by huge walls of mountains from the Sierra Nevadas in the north to the San Bernardinos in the south.”
Williams, who helped establish that 2000-2021 was the driest 22-year period in the southwest in 1,200 years, said the megadrought was likely to persist through 2023, matching the duration of another megadrought in the late-1500s.
“Although these big wet interruptions of surface water quickly refill reservoirs, which is a good thing, our underground aquifers don’t rebound nearly as easily because we’ve been mining their resources at a breakneck speed for decades,” he said.
Like other climate scientists interviewed, Williams said his research “does not show a connection” between recent storms and global warming.
“Global warming is real,” he said, “and because of it the heaviest storms around the world are getting heavier — except in California and the southwestern United States, where the weather typically swings from too dry to too wet.”
The intensity of such dry-to-wet swings in the future will be amplified by drought, rising temperatures, and continuing human exploitation of natural water resources, scientists say.
The intensity of those swings will not only test California’s ability to weather harsher storms, but it will forever alter the ecological cycles of plants and animals that have evolved here over millions of years.
Indeed, while millions of Californians were wringing their hands over weather reports generated by local and national media, biologists were trying to draw attention to the effects of two decades of drought, heat waves, wildfires and debris flows.
They say a growing list of living symbols of longevity, strength, and perseverance — desert tortoises, saguaro cactuses, bristlecone pines, cottonwood forests, giant sequoias, chinook salmon, Joshua trees — may be at an evolutionary crossroads.
“California’s species have a long history of adapting to episodic drought,” said Gary Bucciarelli, a conservation biologist at the University of California Davis. “But never before have they struggled to survive so many different threats at one time.”
(Louis Sahagún, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Sewage flowed out of manholes into streets and storm drains in downtown San Diego and the Midway District after Pump Station 2 near San Diego International Airport — which sends wastewater to the treatment plant in Point Loma — shut down for nearly a half-hour, officials said.
Three other sewage spills also were reported in the county on Monday.
“The malfunction caused the wastewater pumps to shut down. As a result, wastewater backed up in the system and there were spills in various locations in the Midway and Downtown areas that flow into San Diego Bay,” city spokesperson Arian Collins said in an email.
The pumps shut down around 2:50 p.m. They were manually restarted 27 minutes later, but by then, wastewater had backed up in the system.
Customers in 18 locations in downtown San Diego and the Midway District reported issues created by the spill, Collins said. When sewage backups occur, Collins said, “it comes out of the manholes and it goes into the storm drains.”
He said cleanup work began Monday.
The sewage spill fouled a section of San Diego Bay and prompted county officials to post closure signs near water access points from Chollas Creek near Barrio Logan north and west to Shelter Island, county officials said.
Heavy rains caused other smaller sewage spills Monday, as manhole covers overflowed. That included 29,000 gallons of sewage in Bonita that closed Morrison Pond, 21,000 gallons in Spring Valley that flowed into the Sweetwater Reservoir and a spill in San Marcos that closed beach access around Batiquitos Lagoon State Marine Conservation Area.
The closures will remain intact until daily testing shows the bacteria is within state-allowed thresholds.
Residential and commercial customers who were impacted by the sewage spill were told to call city officials at (619) 515-3525. Collins said city staff members are investigating what caused the sensor to fail.
Collins said officials initially estimated the sewage spill at 500,000 gallons, but he said that number could increase as they investigate further.
“By the end of the week, City crews will have a final estimate of the number of gallons spilled. Our initial estimate is that the spill accounts for roughly 6% of the total amount of wastewater treated Monday at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant,” Collins said in an email.
(Karen Kucher & Joshua Smith, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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“Contractors must revise their approach to installing several anchors at the south end of the project to ensure existing foundation piles are not impacted,” officials said in an update on the Orange County Transportation Authority’s website.
Passenger service has been suspended across the work area since track movement was detected in late September. Workers are installing two rows of ground anchors reaching deep into the bedrock along a 700-foot-long slope above the tracks, the site of a recurring landslide. Some of the homes atop the slope are secured by foundation piles.
“Once work got under way, it was determined that the existing plans for the homes were not precise in detailing the location of the piles,” OCTA spokesman Eric Carpenter said in an email Tuesday. “Because of this, it required some changes to how the work would proceed to ensure safety, prevent additional movement in the hillside, and avoid any damage to those existing piles and the homes above.”
The first row of anchors has been installed and no additional movement in the slope has been detected, Carpenter said.
Completion of the project has been extended to late March because of the weather and site conditions. Previously, it was to be finished by the end of last year.
“Discussions about when passenger service can safely resume are ongoing with our partners at Metrolink and the LOSSAN rail corridor agency,” Carpenter said.
North County Transit District continues to operate its Coaster commuter line between San Diego and Oceanside. Amtrak also makes runs between those two cities, and offers a “bus bridge” link between Oceanside and the Amtrak station at Irvine in Orange County.
In the meantime, the contractor hopes to begin excavations today for the second row of ground anchors, Carpenter said.
“The heavy rainfall over several days created very muddy and slippery conditions,” he said Tuesday. “Crews are working today moving what dirt they can to smooth out large areas of pooled water to help dry out the site.
“Like everyone who travels this critical link in the state’s rail network, we want to see this emergency work completed as quickly as possible, but at the same time we have to be certain that trains are running on stable tracks and passenger safety is never compromised.”
The seaside route is the only rail connection between San Diego and Los Angeles and the rest of the United States. Freight service has continued across the repair site, although at reduced speeds and frequency.
The segment is part of the LOSSAN corridor between San Diego, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo, which is the second-busiest passenger train route in the United States, surpassed only by the Northeast Corridor between Washington D.C., and Boston.
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The estimated cost is likely to change as teams of local, state and federal officials on Saturday began damage assessment that is expected to continue for weeks, according to Brian Ferguson, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
President Joe Biden on Saturday approved an Expedited Major Disaster Declaration, ordering federal aid to be provided to recovery efforts in areas of California that were affected by the storms. All 58 counties are able to access hazard mitigation assistance, meaning the federal aid can be given to state and local governments and specific nonprofits to reduce risk to life and property.
Federal assistance will reimburse local and state governments for 75 percent of the cost to repair infrastructure and other necessities. It will also provide assistance for individual programs based on need and how much insurance residents have, according to Ferguson. Local governments for the most damaged areas could pay as little as 8.5 percent of the cost.
In Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz counties, residents will have access to assistance to replace or repair damaged property and other services; nonprofit organizations in those counties will receive federal aid to perform emergency work and debris removal.
In addition to Merced, Sacramento and Santa Cruz counties, the storms brought “significant” damage to Monterey, Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Benito along the central coast, Ferguson said, adding that there will be extensive costs for 30 to 40 counties.
As of Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey had mapped out more than 500 landslides across the state since Dec. 30, piles of dirt and rocks blocking roads and power outages due to fallen trees.
In Monterey County, the Gonzales River Bridge was weakened by flooding and was too damaged to use Tuesday, according to officials. The bridge was blocked with cement rails; it will take two to three weeks before the next steps for repair can be determined.
Additionally, over the weekend, a rock slide covered portions of Highway 1 in Big Sur, and the roadway showed “significant instability” after the storms, according to Caltrans.
In Ventura County, piles of rock and mud on roadways reached as high as 40 feet, isolating residents and blocking travel, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said it could take up to three weeks to clear one single-lane access road and up to six months to make repairs.
If more counties are found to have significant damage from the storms, they could be added to the disaster declaration, Ferguson said.
“There are thresholds we need to meet with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be able to access that,” he added. “Our goal is (to) maximize the federal support we can bring to communities.”
In Monterey County alone, a preliminary damage assessment was at $80 million, according to spokesperson Nicholas Pasculli. That cost would include debris removal, emergency protective measures and equipment, plus repairs to utilities, roads, bridges, water control facilities, public buildings and parks and recreation facilities.
Pasculli said he expects that number to climb to at least $100 million Tuesday, once the county receives the latest information.
The Monterey County agriculture industry sustained losses of $40 million to $50 million, and 25,000 to 35,000 acres of agricultural land were “seriously impacted” by floods, Pasculli said. There were also losses to equipment, irrigation systems, well pumps and crops.
There was at least $30 million to $50 million in infrastructure damage throughout the county, including roads, bridges and other buildings.
In Sacramento County, it could cost more than $123.8 million to make repairs, but that figure is expected to “come down” after officials finish their inspections, according to spokesperson Samantha Mott. As of Tuesday, the storms had caused about $668,000 in damage to private property, including homes, businesses and outbuildings, Mott said.
In Santa Cruz County, the estimate as of Friday was $55 million, and spokesperson Jason Hoppin called that a “pretty dramatic understatement.”
“That number is going to (go) up exponentially,” he said. “It’s a fraction of what the final number will be.”
Hoppin said the figure does not include private property, Caltrans infrastructure or state roads. Damage assessment, he said, is ongoing.
“When you get rain every day, you can’t assess things,” Hoppin said, noting that Tuesday was the first sunny day in weeks. “We have roads that are still evolving in terms of degradation.”
In Ventura County, there was more than $30 million in damage to public property, according to Patrick Maynard, director of the Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services. More than 80 private properties were affected, including two destroyed structures, he said, adding that Ventura should have an updated damage assessment later this week.
Mike North, a spokesman for Merced County, didn’t have a damage estimate, as the assessment is ongoing, but said the agricultural sector was hit hardest financially.
“This has, however, impacted most sectors of our economy,” he added.
Another storm system is expected to drop from the Pacific Northwest into California this week but won’t result in significant rainfall, according to National Weather Service meteorologist David Sweet. The Bay Area is forecast to get up to half an inch of rain today, primarily in portions of Sonoma and Napa counties. The San Diego region could see drizzle or light showers early Thursday.
“The ground is saturated, so additional rainfall would lead to a very rapid response of water running in the rivers, and there would be some hydrological issues going on, because we are very close to saturation now,” he added.
As of Tuesday morning, San Diego International Airport had received the equivalent of 178 percent of rain that normally falls by this date.
“The storms that we had over the past couple of weeks had an atmospheric river for each one, and those storms are the ones that tend to supply the West Coast (with) most of its rainfall during the winter season,” Sweet said. “It was a little bit unusual to see so many atmospheric rivers lined up like this.”
He said the rainfall totals in Santa Barbara County were especially impressive.
“On average, one would expect that kind of rainfall once every 100 years,” Sweet said. “That doesn’t mean it takes another 100 years for another storm to occur, but typically with average statistics for that area, you would only expect something like that to occur once every 100 years.”
The storms improved California’s drought conditions, eradicating the two most severe categories, “extreme” and “exceptional,” for the majority of the state, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. On Dec. 27, about 7.16 percent of California was considered to be in “exceptional” drought; as of Jan. 10, none of the state was in that classification.
Despite the deluge, Sweet said, if the state were to be dry for the remainder of the water year, as it was last year, hillside vegetation could dry out, making for a potentially dangerous wildfire season this summer.
“Typically, if we don’t get our rainfall in January through March, we can be in for a busy fire season,” he noted. “By the time July and August rolls around, things have dried out.”
(Summer Lin, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The lower San Diego River in Mission Valley quickly reached flood stage, spilling water onto streets next to the Fashion Valley Mall while football-field-sized ponds formed along Escondido Creek near Encinitas. The rain also caused massive boulders to tumble onto State Route 94 east of Jamul.
The latest storm arrived late Sunday and lasted into Monday, packing fierce winds that appear to have contributed to significant power outages. About 14,000 San Diego Gas & Electric customers lost electricity in Coronado and other parts of the county.
The winds gusted to 44 mph at Naval Station North Island, 48 mph at Camp Pendleton and 74 mph at Palomar Mountain. The latter figure is the equivalent of a category one hurricane. The National Weather Service said the winds toppled a large pine tree on apartments on Marathon Drive in Mission Valley, making some units uninhabitable.
During a three-day period ending at 5:04 p.m. Monday, the two storms dropped an extraordinary 11.21 inches of rain on Palomar Mountain, 7.32 inches at Julian and 5.42 inches at Escondido. The totals were expected to rise by this morning.
The mayhem was caused by the polar jet stream, which has dropped unusually far south in recent weeks, allowing a series of storms to clobber California.
Until Monday, such areas as San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles had taken the toughest beatings. But the storms that occurred from late Saturday into Sunday and late Sunday into Monday took unusually straight paths into San Diego County, which was alternately soaked with light, misty rain and wild downpours.
The largest swift-water rescue on Monday involved seven people who became stuck on a small island in fast-moving water near 4700 Pacific Highway in San Diego just after 9 a.m. Some of the victims ended up in the water. Rescue crews quickly moved the people to safety.
About two hours earlier, an unidentified person got caught in swift waters flowing through the Otay Lakes area east of Chula Vista. Cal Fire said they found a vehicle in the water with the victim on top. The person was rescued, assessed and released by paramedic crews.
Later on Monday, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department aerial unit and Cal Fire San Diego crews worked to find and rescue two men who had climbed trees to escape flooding in a nearby area of the river, close to the 13000 block of Otay Lakes Road, that flows into the Lower Otay Lake, Cal Fire San Diego Fire Captain Michael Cornette said. The men were taken to the hospital and said to be in stable condition.
Earlier in the day, around 6 a.m., a swift-water rescue team rescued a woman whose car entered the San Diego River in Mission Valley near Camino Del Este and Station Village Lane. The driver’s car was in about 2 feet of water when the incident occurred.
That area has received 2 to 3 inches of water over a 24-hour period, and the river was at flood stage — 12.77 feet — at the time, the weather service said.
The storm also triggered a debris flow along State Route 78 east of Julian, blocking both lanes of traffic, the weather service said. A portion of the eastbound highway, from El Camino Real to College Boulevard, was also closed for a couple of hours Monday morning and into the early afternoon because of “extreme flooding,” the California Department of Transportation said. Lanes reopened around 12:50 p.m., the agency said.
Flooding also was a factor in the closure of a portion of Discovery Street in San Marcos, Harmony Grove Road in Escondido and Central Avenue near Bonita. Flooding closed part of a popular horse trail in Carmel Valley.
Portions of State Route 94 east of Jamul at Otay Lakes Road, Barrett Lakes Road and State Route 188 were closed for several hours on Monday morning after large boulders fell onto the highway overnight, Caltrans said. The stretch of highway was reopened by midday.
The winds also have had an impact.
The weather service said a downed tree slowed traffic at the intersection of Valley Center Road and Mac Tan Road in Valley Center. The area was hit by nearly 2 inches of rain over a 24-hour period and winds gusting nearly 30 mph.
In Scripps Ranch, a tree fell on a car near Pomerado Road and Avenue of Nations at around 10:12 a.m., partially blocking the roadway, police said. The driver, who was not injured, was helped out by a passerby, and the tree was relocated to the south side of Pomerado.
About 14,000 San Diego Gas & Electric customers in Coronado and other communities in San Diego County lost power Monday, the utility reported.
In Coronado, a minor fire at an area substation resulted in 8,835 customers in the northern part of the city losing power for about an hour, SDG&E spokesperson Alex Welling said. Power was restored to all customers in the area by 11:56 a.m., he said.
Other communities experiencing power outages included Bonita, Carlsbad, Encinitas, Fallbrook, La Mesa, Mission Beach, Oceanside, Ramona and Sorrento Valley, according to the SDG&E outage map.
Rainfall figures are equally eye-catching.
During the three-day period, the two storms dropped 8.47 inches of rain at Lake Cuyamaca, 8.02 inches at Pine Hills, 7.11 inches at Otay Mountain, 6.02 inches at Lake Wohlford and Mount Woodson, 5.65 inches at Mount Laguna, 5.29 inches at Valley Center, 5.08 inches at Alpine, 4.74 inches at Ramona, 4.65 inches at Bonsall, 4.60 inches at Campo, 4.59 inches at Cameron, 4.55 inches at Valley Center, and 4.51 inches at Fallbrook.
The storms also dropped 4.44 inches at Barona, 4.40 inches at La Mesa, 4.34 inches at San Diego Country Estates, 4.18 inches at National City, 4.04 inches at Santee, 3.96 inches at Carlsbad, 3.83 inches at Encinitas, 3.80 inches at San Marcos, 3.64 inches at Oceanside, 3.60 inches at Rancho Bernardo, 3.52 inches at Fashion Valley, 2.68 inches at San Diego International Airport, 2.63 inches at Chula Vista, 2.53 inches at Point Loma, and 0.59 inch at Borrego Springs.
A high surf advisory will be in effect at the coast through 10 p.m. today. The waves have been slamming local beaches for days.
“The surf will gradually lower Tuesday night and Wednesday, with no high surf expected the rest of the week,” the weather service said.
Monday, the San Diego County Office of Education announced that schools in five East County districts — Julian Union Elementary School District, Julian Union High School District, Mountain Empire Unified School District, Spencer Valley School District and Warner Unified School District — will be closed today because of the extreme weather and hazardous road conditions.
(Gary Robbins & Jennifer van Grove, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; CITY NEWS SERVICE)
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River levels are receding in some areas, top climate officials reported in a briefing Monday, and the worst of the rain appears to be over.
One more storm system is forecast to roll through California on Wednesday, but it won’t pack as much of a punch as the previous ones, and rain isn’t expected to hit farther south than Santa Barbara.
But officials caution that the public should remain vigilant. Landslides, sinkholes and other hazards could still strike because the ground has received such a soaking, and tree branches — dried up from years of drought and whiplashed by high winds — remain a deadly hazard. On Saturday, a woman was killed by a falling branch in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, bringing the total number of storm-related deaths statewide to at least 20.
Flood watches remain in effect for some parts of the Bay Area and Central Coast, and a number of rivers are forecast to reach close-to-flood levels later this week, as excess water makes its way down the watershed.
The twice-annual “king tide,” an exceptionally high tide that occurs when the sun, moon and Earth are in gravitational alignment, is also expected to bring high water levels to the California coast this weekend.
Across the state, some roads remain so damaged that it will take weeks to clean up and months to repair them.
Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Monday to bolster staffing for emergency responses and President Joe Biden is expected to visit the central coast later this week. The White House said in a statement Monday that the president would visit with first responders and state and local officials, survey recovery efforts and assess what additional federal support is needed.
“Local flood managers across the state still have some work to do as the water recedes,” said Jeremy Arrich, who manages the flood department at the California Department of Water Resources.
Arrich noted that in the past two weeks, the state’s Flood Operations Center has delivered almost 1 million sandbags and deployed staff to 50 incidents to help with broken levees, erosion and sinkholes.
Heavy snow continued to fall across the Sierra Nevada on Monday and the National Weather Service discouraged travel. Interstate 80, a key highway from the Bay Area to Lake Tahoe ski resorts, reopened with chain requirements after periodic weekend closures because of whiteout conditions.
“If you must travel, be prepared for dangerous travel conditions, significant travel delays and road closures,” the weather service office in Sacramento said on Twitter.
The University of California Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted Monday morning that it had recorded 49.6 inches of new snow since Friday.
A backcountry avalanche warning was issued for the central Sierra, including the greater Tahoe area.
Monday’s system was relatively weak compared with earlier storms, but flooding and mudslide risks remained because the state was so saturated, forecasters said.
The sun came out Monday in San Francisco, where 20.3 inches of rain has fallen at the city’s airport since Oct. 1, when California typically begins recording rainfall for the year. The average for the “water year” is 19.6 inches, “so we’ve surpassed the yearly total with 8 more months to go,” the San Francisco weather service office tweeted.
Across the bay in Berkeley, 10 homes were evacuated Monday when a sodden hillside collapsed, sending mud onto properties. No injuries were reported.
In Monterey County, the swollen Salinas River swamped farmland over the weekend and officials said Monday it was still rising.
Forecasters were keeping their eyes on a storm forming in the Pacific to see if it gains enough strength to become the state’s 10th atmospheric river of the season. Either way it is likely to only bring light rain and will be confined mostly to Northern California when it makes landfall Wednesday, state climatologist Mike Anderson said Monday during a state weather briefing.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center issues seasonal forecasts of precipitation and temperature for one to 13 months in the future. The CPC’s initial outlook for this winter, issued on Oct. 20, favored below-normal precipitation in Southern California and did not lean toward either drier- or wetter-than-normal conditions in Northern California.
However, after moisture-laden storms known as atmospheric rivers, most of California has seen rainfall totals 200 to 600 percent above normal over the past month, with 24 trillion gallons of water having fallen on California since late December.
The contrast between the amount of precipitation in recent weeks and the CPC’s seasonal precipitation outlook issued before the winter, which leaned toward below-normal precipitation for at least half of California, has water managers lamenting the reliability of seasonal forecasts.
“You have no idea come Dec. 1 what your winter is going to look like because our seasonal forecasts are so bad,” said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center. “They are just not reliable enough to make definitive water supply decisions.”
CPC’s seasonal and monthly outlooks do not provide specific forecasts of precipitation amounts, but rather the probability that precipitation will be above or below average. Such information is intended to “help communities prepare for what is likely to come in the months ahead and minimize weather’s impacts on lives and livelihoods,” NOAA stated in its winter outlook.
The precipitation forecast for California remained virtually unchanged in CPC’s Nov. 17 update to the winter outlook. That forecast called for a 33 to 50 percent chance of below-normal precipitation in the southern half of California, and equal chances of precipitation being above or below normal in the northern half of the state.
CPC director David DeWitt said the outlook was influenced by the expected continuation of La Niña conditions. El Niño and La Niña — the cyclical warming and cooling of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean — often have an outsize effect on prevailing seasonal conditions in many parts of the world.
“Forecasting on a seasonal time scale is dominated by the El Niño/La Niña cycle,” DeWitt said in an interview. “La Niña conditions are generally characterized or associated with below-normal precipitation for Central and Southern California. Northern California is kind of a dice roll.”
Back in mid-November, chances were seen as high that La Niña would continue for a third winter in a row, which it has thus far, although it appears to be weakening. In both of the two previous “three-peat” La Niña winters since 1950, much of California recorded below-normal precipitation.
Despite their strong influence on seasonal conditions, El Niño and La Niña aren’t the only game in town. They can be counteracted by other large-scale atmospheric phenomena that evolve on shorter time scales.
While such factors “can leave a big imprint on average winter conditions … they’re very difficult to predict more than a few weeks in advance,” wrote Nat Johnson, a researcher with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Princeton, in a blog post about NOAA’s winter outlook.
As these factors started to come into focus in mid-December, the CPC began to shift its forecast for California. For example, its monthly precipitation outlook for January, issued on Dec. 15, reduced the amount of the state expected to see below-normal precipitation.
The first signs of above-normal precipitation for California did not appear until Dec. 19, when CPC issued its precipitation outlook for the next eight to 14 days. That outlook, which covered the period from Dec. 27 to Jan. 2, called for a 33 to 70 percent chance of above-normal precipitation across all of California, with the highest chances in the northern part of the state.
On Dec. 31, with what would become a weeks-long drenching under way, CPC issued a monthly precipitation outlook suggesting the wet weather could continue through January.
(WASHINGTON POST)
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Bands of thunderstorms with gusty winds started Saturday in the north and spread south, with yet another atmospheric river storm following close behind Sunday, the National Weather Service said.
Up to 2 inches of rain was predicted for the saturated Sacramento Valley, where residents of semi-rural Wilton, home to about 5,000 people, were ordered to evacuate as the Cosumnes River continued to rise.
Gusty winds and up to 3 feet of snow were expected in the Sierra Nevada, where the weather service warned of hazardous driving conditions. Interstate 80, a key highway from the San Francisco Bay Area to Lake Tahoe ski resorts, reopened after being closed most of Saturday because of slick roads and snow.
The University of California Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted Sunday morning that it received 21.5 inches of snow in 24 hours. Its snowpack of about 10 feet was expected to grow several more feet by today.
A backcountry avalanche warning was issued for the central Sierra, including the greater Lake Tahoe area, through today.
The California Highway Patrol rescued three people whose car slid off a rain-slicked road and ended up teetering at the edge of a cliff in the Santa Cruz Mountains on Friday. The occupants of the car “were scared for their lives and were in disbelief” when they were pulled safely from the car as the vehicle’s front end hung precariously over the cliff’s edge, the highway patrol said in a statement.
“We cannot stress this enough. Please ONLY drive if it’s necessary,” the statement said.
Just to the south in Santa Cruz County, the tiny community of Felton Grove along the San Lorenzo River was under an evacuation warning.
The swollen Salinas River swamped farmland in Monterey County. To the east, flood warnings were in effect for Merced County in the agricultural Central Valley, where Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Saturday to take stock of problems and warn of still more possible danger.
“We’re not done,” Newsom said. He urged people to be vigilant about safety for a few more days, when the last of a parade of nine atmospheric rivers was expected to move through.
Several roads, including state Route 99, were closed because of flooding Sunday in San Joaquin County.
In Southern California, winter storm warnings and advisories were in place for mountain areas, where many roads remained impassable because of mud and rock slides. Two northbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Castaic in northern Los Angeles County were closed indefinitely after a hillside collapsed.
Downtown Los Angeles set a rainfall record Saturday with 1.82 inches, the weather service said.
In San Diego County, Saturday’s storm turned out to be stronger than forecast with some areas getting about a half-inch more rain than expected. Escondido received 2.53 inches; Santee received 1.77 inches; and San Diego International Airport received 0.76 inch.
The series of storms has dumped rain and snow on California since late December, cutting power to thousands, swamping roads, unleashing debris flows, and triggering landslides.
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the state and ordered federal aid to supplement local recovery efforts in affected areas.
At least 19 storm-related deaths have occurred, and a 5-year-old boy remained missing after being swept out of his mother’s car by floodwaters in San Luis Obispo County.
Dry days are in this week’s forecast for California.
San Diego County early Sunday evening and drop about an inch of rain on most areas by Monday morning when the system will weaken and produce scattered showers into Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
The last in a long series of storms darted ashore in San Diego County on Sunday night and is expected to drop about an inch of rain on most areas by this morning, when the system will weaken and produce scattered showers into Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.
A high surf advisory will be in effect at the coast through 10 p.m. Tuesday. The waves have been slamming local beaches for days.
“A slight decrease in surf is possible on Monday before another west swell (though with a slightly shorter period) produces more elevated to high surf Monday night through Tuesday, mostly remaining below 10 feet,” the weather service said.
“The surf will gradually lower Tuesday night and Wednesday, with no high surf expected the rest of the week.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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“It was just that quick, come and gone,” Lambert said.
His home still stood. It was one of the few mobile homes on County Road 140 in the unincorporated community of Marbury that was intact after the storm Thursday. When he walked over to check on a neighbor’s house, he found his body on the ground by his truck.
A day later, Lambert remained shaken. “I hate to see it,” he said.
At least nine people were killed after powerful storms unleashed tornadoes and shredding winds across the South, and many others were only beginning to grapple with the devastation Friday.
In Autauga County, which includes Marbury, rescuers went door to door in some places, searching for the dead and wounded. In Spalding County, Ga., middle school principals wielded chain saws to clear driveways to help reunite students trapped on campus with their parents. And in nearby Butts County, authorities said, a tree fell on a vehicle, killing a 5-year-old boy and critically injuring one of his parents.
“I tell you, you really can understand the destructive power of a tornado,” Doug Jordan, a construction worker, said as he helped to clean up a Dollar Tree store in Griffin, Ga., where an awning had been torn off and doors smashed.
In communities scattered across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, people were trying to assess all that had been lost. Meteorologists tracked 45 reports of tornadoes, most of which were in Alabama.
Autauga County, which is near Montgomery, the state capital, sustained some of the worst of it; authorities said that at least seven people were killed there. In nearby Selma, a city indelibly linked to the civil rights movement, some expressed a measure of relief Friday:There had not been any fatalities reported there. Still, the storm caused considerable damage in much of the city, raking through homes and businesses.
Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama declared a state of emergency for six counties Thursday. “We are far too familiar with devastating weather, but our people are resilient,” Ivey said on Twitter.
In Georgia, both of the fatalities reported were caused by falling debris, including the 5-year-old in Butts County and a worker with the State Department of Transportation, officials said.
Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia also declared a state of emergency, and said in a statement that he had “ordered all relevant agencies to respond with an all-hands-on-deck approach.”
“It’s dangerous work and there’s a lot of it to do,” Kemp said Friday at the news conference.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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The Salinas River near Chualar already breached some levees, and by Friday morning many low-lying fields and farmland were filled with murky floodwaters. Forecasters predicted the area could see the worst of the flooding late Friday, when the river was expected to crest almost 2 feet above flood stage.
Local officials are concerned the water could rise over some crucial roadways, possibly stranding the Monterey Peninsula.
“These storms continue to be dangerous and dynamic, and post a threat to communities throughout the state of California,” Nancy Ward, director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said Friday. “We are not out of the woods yet. The threat to communities remains, and waters will continue to rise even after these storms have passed.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, and other state and federal officials pleaded with state residents to stay alert to the possibility of more flooding and damage.
The series of storms that has walloped the state since late December has left at least 19 people dead. On Friday, 6,000 people were under evacuation orders and another 20,000 households were without power, said Ward.
“People will become complacent, but the ground is saturated. It is extremely, extremely dangerous,” Ward said. “And that water can continue to rise well after the storms have passed.”
After a statewide average of 9 inches of rain over the last 18 days, National Weather Service meteorologist David Lawrence said that most of California is beyond saturated, ripe for more or new flooding, mud and landslides, coastal erosion and downed trees. While Friday’s system brought some bands of rain, Lawrence warned heavier rains, strong winds and more snow for the mountains are expected today.
On Friday, Newsom visited the upscale community of Montecito in Santa Barbara County — which had been evacuated earlier in the week — on the fifth year anniversary of the mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave.
He thanked members of the California National Guard for clearing debris out of a catch basin that was constructed after the mudslide in order to divert rain. He asked residents to exercise caution, and to heed warnings from public safety and law enforcement.
“I know how fatigued you all are,” Newsom said. “Just maintain a little more vigilance over the course of the next weekend.”
On Monday, President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen counties, but Newsom is still waiting on the White House to make a major disaster declaration that would provide more resources.
Flood warnings remained in effect for the Salinas River. County officials and forecasters began warning Thursday that severe flooding from the river could overrun Highways 1 and 68, which would effectively cut off the Monterey Peninsula from the rest of the Bay Area.
But updated forecasts Friday morning predicted that flooding should remain less severe — making that possibility less likely. Flooding was no longer expected to reach the National Weather Service’s moderate stage, as had been predicted Thursday.
“It doesn’t look like (the flow from upstream) was quite as strong as anticipated,” said Colby Goatley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. The river level forecasts incorporate expected rainfall and upstream flow, the latter of which appeared weaker early Friday, he said.
The Salinas River at the town of Spreckels rose above flood stage — beginning at 23 feet — Thursday evening, reaching 24.5 feet by 8 a.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The river was expected to peak just under 25 feet by late Friday, remaining in flood stage through Sunday, according to the latest projections from the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
“It’s a lot of unknowns,” said Nicholas Pasculli, spokesperson for Monterey County. “I hate to have to say that, but it requires constant monitoring.”
Despite flooding impacting some roadways, both Highways 1 and 68 were open as of Friday afternoon, Pasculli said. The flooding could also be compounded this weekend by the heavy rain and high winds, he said, or tides from the Pacific Ocean could also impact the behavior of the river.
“We just all need to have situational awareness regarding the river,” Pasculli said. “The water’s gonna do what the water’s gonna do.”
Friday’s storm marked the eighth atmospheric-river-fueled event in the state since Christmas, dumping heavy rains across the state in a relentless series of storms.
“The full weight of the federal and state government has been rapidly deployed to try to protect our impacted communities,” Ward said, joined at the Friday news conference by Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Ward said officials had pre-positioned resources and crews across the state for continued storm response and recovery, including the California National Guard in Santa Barbara.
Flood watches remain in effect along the Navarro and Russian rivers in Mendocino County, with most of those areas expected to reach flood stage over the weekend.
A flood advisory was in effect through Friday for parts of Sonoma County, where urban and small stream flooding was expected among tributaries feeding into the Russian River.
In addition to the Salinas, Russian and Navarro rivers, the state is monitoring at least three other locations expected to exceed flood stage over the next few days, according to Department of Water Resources officials, including the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River area.
A high surf warning is in effect for much of the Bay Area coast, with waves up to 25 feet expected and warnings of localized beach erosion and “farther than normal wave run-up.” The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office on Friday issued an evacuation warning for the coastal areas of Moss Landing and Monterey Dunes. Residents along Monterey Bay in areas south of Sandholdt Road, north of the southernmost point of Monterey Dunes Way and west of Highway 1 to the Pacific Ocean, were told to “prepare to leave.”
Carmel-by-the-Sea and areas near the Big Sur River are also under an evacuation warning.
San Diego County is expected to be hit today by the first of back-to-back storms and powerful surf that could cause mudslides and widespread beach erosion.
The first system will move ashore this afternoon and is expected to deliver about a half-inch of rain at the coast and an inch across some inland areas by early Sunday, when it will clear off to the east, the National Weather Service said.
The second storm is expected to arrive on Monday and could produce as much as 1 inch of rain at the coast, 1.5 inches across inland valleys and foothills, and perhaps more in the mountains.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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Sweden’s iron-ore miner LKAB said Thursday it has identified “significant deposits” in Lapland of rare earth elements that are essential for the manufacture of smartphones, electric vehicles and wind turbines.
But the company warned that it could take at least a decade before mining starts.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES)
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Malawi’s Health Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda on Thursday ordered the closure of many businesses that lack safe water, toilets and hygienic refuse disposal facilities, and announced restrictions on the sale of pre-cooked food.
“We continue to record rising number of cases across the country, despite signs of reduced transmission and deaths in a few areas,” Chiponda said in a statement, and urged adherence to sanitation and hygiene measures.
On Wednesday, Chiponda said 17 people had died from 589 new cases of the waterborne disease “in the past 24 hours.” She said the country has recorded 22,759 cases since the onset of the outbreak in March.
Figures show that about 15 people have been dying daily in recent days, with 155 deaths recorded in the past 10 days. Nearly 1,000 people were hospitalized as of Wednesday.
This week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 31 countries have reported cholera outbreaks since December, a 50 percent increase over previous years.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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In Alabama’s Autauga County, northeast of Selma, at least six deaths were confirmed and an estimated 40 homes were damaged or destroyed by a tornado that cut a 20-mile path across two rural communities, said Ernie Baggett, the county’s emergency management director.
Several mobile homes were launched into the air and at least 12 people were injured severely enough to be taken to hospitals by emergency responders, Baggett said. He said crews were focused Thursday night on cutting through downed trees to look for people who may need help.
“It really did a good bit of damage. This is the worst that I’ve seen here in this county,” Baggett said.
In Georgia, a passenger died when a tree fell on a vehicle in Jackson during the storm, Butts County Coroner Lacey Prue said. In the same county southeast of Atlanta, the storm appeared to have knocked a freight train off its tracks, officials said.
Nationwide, there were 33 separate tornado reports Thursday from the National Weather Service as of Thursday evening, with a handful of tornado warnings still in effect in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. However, the reports were not yet confirmed and some of them could later be classified as wind damage after assessments are done in coming days.
In Selma, a city etched in the history of the civil rights movement, a tornado cut a wide path through the downtown area, where brick buildings collapsed, oak trees were uprooted, cars were on their side and power lines were left dangling. Plumes of thick, black smoke rose over the city from a fire burning. It wasn’t immediately known whether the storm caused the blaze.
Selma Mayor James Perkins said no fatalities have been reported, but several people were seriously injured. Emergency crews were continuing to assess the damage and officials hoped to get an aerial view of the city this morning.
“We have a lot of downed power lines,” he said. “There is a lot of danger on the streets.”
With widespread power outages, the Selma City Council held a meeting on the sidewalk, using lights from cellphones, to declare a state of emergency. A high school was opened as a shelter, officials said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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On Thursday, 0 percent of the state was in exceptional drought, and only a tiny portion of far Northern California — 0.32 percent — was in extreme drought.
It’s the first time that’s happened since April 4, 2020, when none of the state was classified in those categories, according to Richard Tinker, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one of the authors of the drought monitor.
The development is the result of powerful atmospheric river storms that have dumped trillions of gallons of precipitation onto the state in recent weeks.
Though the storms have created havoc, they have made a significant dent in drought conditions. Much of California has seen precipitation totals exceeding 4 inches, while several areas around the Sierra Nevada, Cascades and coastal ranges have recorded more than a foot in the storms.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for a state that only weeks ago was mired in its third year of drought. Just one month ago, 7 percent of California was in exceptional drought and 36 percent in extreme drought, the monitor shows.
Tinker said change was significant — especially for how quickly it happened.
“Typically, drought moves pretty slowly in California,” he said.
But officials cautioned that it’s still too soon to celebrate. California’s wet season typically runs until April, and there is a chance that the coming months could dry up. Last year, a soggy December gave way to the state’s driest ever January, February and March on record.
The latest seasonal outlooks from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center show an equal chance of wetness or dryness in most of Northern California through March, making it hard to predict what the coming months will bring.
However, there are at least two more atmospheric rivers slated to arrive in the coming days, and a chance of yet another one to close out January, state climatologist Mike Anderson at the Department of Water Resources said in a news conference Wednesday.
“We’re definitely looking to be in a better situation than we were last year, where everything shut off for a good three months, and there will be that opportunity to continue to make some additions to that snowpack before we get to April 1,” Anderson said, referring to the end-of-season date when snowpack in California is typically at its deepest.
The statewide snow water equivalent on Thursday was 227 percent of normal for the date and 104 percent of its average for April 1, state data show.
Many of California’s reservoirs have also seen boosts from the storms, including a few smaller ones that have recovered fully from drought-driven deficits, according to Molly White, the Department of Water Resources’ water operations manager.
But the state’s larger reservoirs still have a ways to go, and White said it will take more storms to truly reverse years of dryness. On Thursday, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville were at 44 percent and 49 percent of their total capacity, respectively.
What’s more, Southern California’s other major water source, the Colorado River, hasn’t benefited much from the atmospheric rivers, and its largest reservoir, Lake Mead, is still perilously low.
“Most of the benefit has come to California, the reservoirs there,” Tinker said of the storms. He noted that Lake Mead is about the size of California’s six largest reservoirs combined, “so it’s something that takes an even longer time to deplete and an even longer time to recharge.”
“This system has been pretty much a drop in the bucket,” for Lake Mead, he said. “You’d rather have it than not have it, but it continues to be on a pretty good slide that’s been going on for a number of years now.”
But there’s no denying all that water has made a difference. Since the start of December, downtown Sacramento has reported 14.25 inches — about 10 inches above normal for the area for this time of year. The 16.10 inches received by Oakland is more than 11 inches above normal for this time of year.
The last 17 days in San Francisco were its “wettest span of 17 days since the Civil War” in 1862, Tinker said.
Yet it has also come at a cost. The storms have claimed at least 19 lives, caused significant flood damage and debris flows and strained the state’s aging infrastructure.
“We’re glad that it’s come this far, except for the problems it’s caused people with the flooding and the winds and such,” Tinker said. “Things are much better ... but we’re certainly not out of the woods.”
California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said there is also a difference between hydrologic drought and a state of drought emergency, which remains in place in California despite all the rain.
The emergency declaration, issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2021, reflects the effects of drought on communities, the environment and the economy, as well as local and regional water agencies’ need for state assistance, he told the Los Angeles Times recently.
Officials likely wouldn’t consider modifying the emergency until the rest of the rainy season plays out.
“We’re really in the first half of the game and we’re encouraged by the so-called points on the board, but there’s a lot more season left,” Crowfoot said. “While these big atmospheric rivers are helpful, really what we need for an average water year is sustained precipitation.”
(Haley Smith, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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The latest system — the seventh atmospheric river storm to train its eye on the state since Christmas — threatens to further swamp a state already reeling from widespread flooding, mudslides, washed-out roads, and downed trees and power lines.
“I guess it’s about time we had this kind of notoriety,” said Alan Vidunas, as he walked in the devastated seaside town of Capitola with his 10-year-old dog, Seabass. “I always call my friends in Florida after they’ve been hit by hurricanes. They’re now calling me.”
Capitola, in Santa Cruz County, is but one of many California communities trying to get its arms around the damage wrought by recent storms — which showered sheets of rain across the state, causing roadways to flood, hillsides to crumble, and rivers and creeks to crest their banks. A tornado also briefly touched down in Calaveras County on Tuesday morning, causing extensive tree damage, according to the National Weather Service.
The death toll from the sudden and powerful storms rose Wednesday after Sonoma County sheriff’s officials announced a person had been found dead in a car submerged in 8 to 10 feet of water. The El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed Wednesday that a 33-year-old man was found dead in the American River on Jan. 3, bringing the total of confirmed storm-related fatalities to 19.
And a 5-year-old boy who was swept away by floodwaters in San Luis Obispo County on Monday was still missing Wednesday night as more than 100 members of the California National Guard joined the search effort.
Widespread flooding forced the evacuation of the community of Planada, a town of about 4,000 people just east of Merced. Though water levels have started to recede, the Merced County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday morning that it was “unsafe to go back into flooded areas” and the evacuation order was still in place.
County Supervisor Rodrigo Espinosa said more than half the town, which is home to many farmworkers, flooded. Officials were hoping to marshal government and nonprofit resources to get aid to people, he added, and were also working furiously to shore up the sewage plant in Planada so it doesn’t send raw sewage into the already decimated community.
“It’s very sad,” he said. “We’re just trying to get help to residents.”
Planada resident Juana Garcia, 38, has been staying at a Holiday Inn in Chowchilla since she and her family were forced to evacuate on Tuesday.
The storm flooded Garcia’s backyard and broke her fence and doghouse. Because her home is slightly more elevated than others nearby, the inside didn’t get wet. But when she left for her mother’s house around 2 a.m. Tuesday, the water in the driveway was knee-deep.
“I’ve never experienced something like this,” she said. “We just bought this home a month ago and they told us it’s required to get flood insurance because we’re in a flood zone area. That’s the first I ever heard about it.”
In Monterey County, the sheriff’s office issued evacuation orders late Wednesday for “the low-lying areas” along the Salinas River due to flooding.
About 33,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. customers in Northern and Central California remained without power because of storm-related outages Wednesday evening. The utility has called this “the single largest winter storm response” in its history.
“The weather looks favorable for restoration over the next few days, although issues with flooding and access remain in some locations,” officials said.
Recovery efforts are under way under the looming threat of even more storms, which could further douse some already inundated areas through the weekend.
Over the last 16 days, “large portions of Central California received over half their annual normal precipitation,” according to the National Weather Service. That was true in Oakland at 69 percent; Santa Barbara, 64 percent; Stockton, 60 percent; downtown San Francisco, 59 percent; and downtown Sacramento, 50 percent.
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend characterized recent storms as “a once-in-a-generational challenging event” that has affected the whole county.
“We know this is going to be a long rebuild. We know we’re going to need a lot of resources,” he said during a news conference Tuesday. “But what we also need is a sense of resilience from all of us to be able to rebuild this area — because we’ve seen the tears, we’ve seen the anger, but we’re moving into a resilience phase where we’re just trying to rebuild, bring that hope back.”
Michael Anderson, state climatologist with the California Department of Water Resources, said the forecast indicates a reprieve after Jan. 20.
“High pressure will build in, and we’ll see a little chance to recover from these series of storms,” he said.
But with so much water already in the system, many rivers will continue to run high even after the rain ends.
“That’s something to pay attention to is the hydrologic conditions will continue to evolve, particularly in our larger rivers, even as the storms abate,” he said.
Although it’s too early to estimate, the cost to repair the damage from these storms could exceed $1 billion, said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist and disaster expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“We’re here for the long haul, not just here for this moment,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a news conference Tuesday.
Jeremy Arrich, manager of the Division of Flood Management with the Department of Water Resources, said five river locations in the state are forecast to exceed the flood stage in the coming days, including the Salinas River in Monterey County.
The next storm is set to hit Northern California on Friday.
Another could strike on Sunday and persist through Martin Luther King Jr. Day into Tuesday.
Clear and mild conditions are expected in San Diego County through Friday. But another storm system is headed for Southern California this weekend.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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And the worst of it might not be over.
The weather will be mostly clear and mild today through Friday. But the National Weather Service said it appears that a stronger system could make a beeline for Southern California this weekend.
“This looks significant because it involves an atmospheric river,” said Dan Gregoria, a weather service forecaster. “It could produce one-half to 1 inch of rain at the coast and in the valleys and an inch or two in the mountains.
“With each successive storm the ground gets more saturated and more prone to flooding.”
Tuesday’s storm caused rock and mudslides and a large sinkhole in greater Los Angeles. Then it slid down the coast and focused a lot of its energy on northern San Diego County, where the wind hit 71 mph on Palomar Mountain.
Through 5 p.m., Palomar recorded 3.6 inches of rain while San Onofre, Fallbrook, Valley Center, Julian, Lake Cuyamaca, Pine Hills, Skyline Ranch and Rainbow received an inch or more — some of it falling in brief but furious downpours.
The system greatly weakened as it slumped south. Encinitas recorded 0.40 inches, San Diego International Airport received 0.20 inches and Chula Vista tapped out at 0.15 inches.
But the city of San Diego — which saw huge waves race across the boardwalk at Mission Beach over the weekend — snapped to attention. It put road crews on alert and stationed lifeguards at three stations to keep an eye out for flash flooding and the potential need for ocean rescues.
“We’re on standby and ready to go,” said Jose Ysea, a spokesperson for the city.
There was a reason to be on edge. Recent storms have taken big chunks out of the sand in places such as La Jolla and Ocean Beach. And for the second time in about a week, powerful winds whipped ashore, gusting to about 40 mph on Point Loma, 30 mph at Imperial Beach and 25 mph at San Diego International Airport.
The winds also spread across parts of Interstates 5 and 8.
The system largely moved off to the east by 5 p.m. But the ocean swell was expected to continue eating at local beaches through at least today. And preparations were being made for the weekend storm.
“We’ll be fixing potholes and checking creeks and storm drains to make sure they’re clear,” Ysea said.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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The back-to-back atmospheric rivers that have battered the Golden State have led to at least 17 deaths, including those of two motorists who died early Tuesday in a crash on Highway 99 in Tulare County when a tree that had been struck by lightning fell onto the road, authorities said.
“These conditions are serious and they’re deadly,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a news conference in Capitola on Tuesday, adding that the number of deaths “tragically is likely to grow.”
“We’ve had less people die in the last two years of major wildfires in California than have died since New Year’s Day related to this weather,“ Newsom said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 31 of California’s 58 counties had been declared disasters [sic], he added. More than 30,000 people across the state have been evacuated from their homes.
About 155,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers were without power after efforts to restore service were stymied by wind gusts exceeding 70 mph in some areas and more than 100 lightning strikes, according to the utility.
Though it’s too early to estimate, the cost to repair the damage from these storms could exceed $1 billion, said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist and disaster expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The U.S. had 18 weather and climate disasters last year whose costs reached $1 billion, tying 2017 and 2011 for the third-highest number of such incidents, according to a NOAA report.
Strolling along the Esplanade in downtown Capitola on Tuesday afternoon, Newsom ducked into three restaurants that had been pummeled last week by the storm surge, with its 20-foot waves that carried trees and broken lumber from the city’s wrecked wharf.
Lamenting the unrelenting rain, the governor said, “We are soaked. This place is soaked.” Any new precipitation, even if mild, could have “huge implications on the ground,” he said.
Newsom then spoke about the “weather whiplash” Californians have faced in the last several years between extreme drought, heat waves, wildfires and rain and flooding.
“The hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting a lot drier,” he said. “And the wets are getting a lot wetter.”
Patrick Lynn, owner of the Bay Bar and Grill near Capitola Beach, figured last week’s storm would be run-of-the-mill and put some sandbags out front. Then he got a call from a nearby business owner that his bar was being destroyed.
The waves were so strong that they lifted up the floor of the bar and cracked it down the middle, said Lynn, 53. His back windows were also blown out.
“I had seawater splash on top of my television that’s about 8 feet high,” he said. “It was almost hitting my ceiling and coming through the drapes and front of the bar; it just blew everything apart. It was unbelievable.”
This week’s storms have continued to break apart portions of the bar.
“That bar was my life,” said Lynn, who has yet to find out whether he will receive state and federal assistance or an insurance payout.
Storms have dumped 12.37 inches of rain on San Francisco since Dec. 26. The only two wetter 15-day periods have been in December 1866, when 13.54 inches fell, and during the Great Flood of 1862, which saw more than 19 inches of rain.
Pea-sized hail was reported in San Francisco and Oakland, and in Walnut Creek a mile-long stretch of Ygnacio Valley Road, a major thoroughfare, was closed after a tree fell on a power line.
On Tuesday, a tree toppled onto a Muni bus in San Francisco, officials said. No one was injured.
In South San Francisco, aggressive winds pulled back a section of the decking on an apartment building’s roof around 2 a.m. Tuesday, sending rainwater into two units. The entire four-unit building was evacuated and no one was injured, said Matt Samson, the city’s deputy fire chief.
“The amount of rain that’s just been continuous has been something we haven’t experienced in quite some time,” Samson said. “We’re not getting much reprieve.”
In the Sacramento area, forecasters observed rotation on radar indicating favorable conditions for tornado formation and issued a tornado warning, though no twisters materialized, said Cory Mueller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
The strong winds wreaked havoc in the area, knocking over a tractor-trailer and leaving it dangling on an overpass, and toppling trees across El Dorado, Amador and Sacramento counties.
In Merced County, sheriff’s deputies evacuated 4,000 residents in the town of Planada, just east of Merced, after Bear Creek began to flood amid heavy rain.
Bear Creek, which bisects Merced, reached major flood stage early Tuesday, pushing muddy water into neighborhoods that sent cars drifting near half-submerged stop signs.
County Supervisor Rodrigo Espinosa, who represents the area, said he spent Monday evening laying sandbags in Planada in a fruitless attempt to hold back the water. After several hours, it became clear the whole community would have to be evacuated.
“We didn’t think it was going to be that bad,” he said of the flood risk. “And there are two more storms coming.”
In Monterey County, sheriff’s officials issued an evacuation order for residents near the Salinas River early Tuesday. A stretch of the Carmel Valley and areas along the Big Sur River were also under evacuation orders.
Officials anticipate the Salinas River could reach flood stage by today, according to the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
Some closely watched waterways were receding Tuesday, including the Pajaro River in Monterey and Santa Cruz counties and Bear Creek in Merced, said Jeremy Arrich, manager of the Division of Flood Management with the Department of Water Resources.
But at least seven sites, including the Russian River in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, were forecast to exceed the flood stage in the coming days, he said at a news conference.
As the tail end of the atmospheric river moves through the region, officials said Tuesday’s storm was the sixth in a series that could climb up to nine.
It was too soon to say whether the worst was over, state climatologist Mike Anderson said. High pressure systems were starting to interact with the atmospheric rivers, he said, which could mean less-destructive storms going forward — but the cumulative effects remained a major concern.
“It’s not that any individual storm is a big, scary one; it’s what are the cumulative impacts, because it’s really rare for us to get into storms seven, eight and nine,” he said. “We just don’t have that many in the historical record.”
To the south, gusts as high as 88 mph were recorded in the mountains north of Los Angeles, and rainfall was expected to reach up to half an inch per hour. Tornadoes that had been forecast never materialized.
Amtrak suspended its Pacific Surfliner trains between Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo because of weather, and waters flooded the main concourse at Los Angeles’ historic Union Station.
A sinkhole swallowed two cars on a Los Angeles street, trapping two motorists who had to be rescued by a team of firefighters.
Another sinkhole damaged 15 homes in the rural Santa Barbara County community of Orcutt.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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In a United Nations-sponsored assessment, the scientists said that emissions of CFC-11, a banned chemical that has been used as a refrigerant and in insulating foams, had declined since 2018 after increasing for several years. CFC-11 and similar chemicals, collectively called chlorofluorocarbons, destroy ozone, which blocks ultraviolet radiation from the sun that can cause skin cancer.
The scientists said that if current policies remained in place, ozone levels between the polar regions should reach pre-1980 levels by 2040. Ozone holes, or regions of greater depletion that appear regularly near the South Pole and, less frequently, near the North Pole, should recover, by 2045 in the Arctic and about 2066 in Antarctica.
“Things continue to trend in the right direction,” said Stephen A. Montzka, a research chemist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one of the report’s authors. Montzka led a 2018 study that alerted the world that CFC-11 emissions had been increasing since 2012 and that they appeared to come from East Asia.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Tens of thousands of people remained without power, and some schools closed for the day. Streets and highways transformed into gushing rivers, trees toppled, mud slid and motorists grew frustrated as they hit roadblocks caused by fallen debris. The death toll from the relentless string of storms climbed from 12 to 14 on Monday, after two people were killed by falling trees, state officials said.
A roughly seven-hour search for the missing boy turned up only his shoe before officials called it off when the rising waters and rapid current made it too dangerous, officials said. The boy has not been declared dead, said spokesperson Tony Cipolla of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
The boy’s mother was driving a truck when it became stranded in floodwaters just before 8 a.m. near Paso Robles, just inland from the state’s central coast, according to Tom Swanson, assistant chief of the Cal Fire/San Luis Obispo County Fire Department.
Bystanders were able to pull the mother out of the truck, but the boy was swept out of the vehicle and downstream, likely into a river, Swanson said. There was no evacuation order in the area at the time.
Rivers and creeks in the area were gushing like they hadn’t in decades, said Scott Jalbert, the county’s emergency services manager. “They’re pretty monstrous,” he said.
California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo shut down for the day. The university reported that students, faculty and animals were being evacuated from agricultural facilities with a reservoir about to breach.
About 130 miles to the south, the community of Montecito and surrounding canyons scarred by recent wildfires were under an evacuation order that came on the fifth anniversary of a mudslide that killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes in the coastal enclave. The area is home to Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Rob Lowe and other celebrities.
The National Weather Service reported rainfall rates of 1 inch per hour, with heavy downpours expected throughout the night in the upscale area where roads wind along wooded hillsides studded with large houses. Montecito is squeezed between mountains and the Pacific Ocean.
Ellen DeGeneres shared an Instagram video of herself standing in front of a raging creek near the Montecito home where she lives with her wife, actor Portia de Rossi. She said in the post that they were told to shelter in place because they are on high ground.
“This is crazy!” the talk show host, wearing a hoodie and raincoat, says in the video. “This creek next to our house never flows, ever. It’s probably about nine feet up and is going to go another two feet up.“
Jamie McLeod’s property was under the Montecito evacuation order, but she said there is no way for her to “get off the mountain” with a rushing creek on one side and a mudslide on the other. The 60-year-old owner of the Santa Barbara Bird Sanctuary said one of her employees came to make a weekly food delivery and is stuck, too.
McLeod said she feels fortunate because her home sits on high ground and the power is still on. But she said she tires of the frequent evacuation orders since the massive wildfire followed by the deadly landslide five years ago.
“It is not easy to relocate,” said McLeod. “I totally love it — except in catastrophe.”
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said the decision to evacuate nearly 10,000 people was “based on the continuing high rate of rainfall with no indication that that is going to change before nightfall.” Creeks were overflowing, and many roads were flooded.
Maria Cucchiara, who lives in tiny, flooded Felton, went for a walk to count her blessings after “a huge branch harpooned” the roof of her small studio, she said.
“I have two kitties, and we could’ve been killed. It was over a ton,“ she said. “So needless to say, it was very disturbing.”
Nicole Martin, owner of the Fern River Resort in Felton, described a more laid-back scene Monday. Her clients sipped coffee amid towering redwood trees and were “enjoying the show,” she said, as picnic tables and other debris floated down the swollen San Lorenzo.
The river is usually about 60 feet below the cabins, Martin said, but it crept up to 12 feet from the cabins.
In Northern California, several districts closed schools and more than 35,000 customers remained without power in Sacramento — down from more than 350,000 a day earlier after gusts of 60 mph knocked majestic trees into power lines, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. A homeless person killed by a falling tree in the region was among the new deaths announced Monday.
The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific that can drop staggering amounts of rain and snow. The precipitation expected over the next couple of days comes after storms last week knocked out power, flooded streets and battered the coastline.
President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration Monday to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen counties.
“This (storm) will be quite strong, very energetic, delivering a lot of rain plus strong, gusty winds,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
The weather service issued a flood watch for a large portion of Northern and Central California, with 6 to 12 inches of rain expected through Wednesday in the already saturated Sacramento-area foothills.
In the Los Angeles area, there was potential for as much as 8 inches of rain in foothill areas through today. High surf was also expected.
Much of San Diego County was expected to get a half-inch to an inch of rain from late Monday night until this afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
The heaviest precipitation is expected to occur in North County, where Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos could get 1 inch of rain.
Areas farther south — such as downtown San Diego, La Jolla, and Del Mar — are forecast to get about a half-inch to three-quarters of an inch while significantly smaller amounts are expected in and around Chula Vista, San Ysidro and Imperial Beach.
The outlier is Palomar Mountain, which could receive up to 2.5 inches of rain.
The system also will produce winds gusting upwards of 30 mph at the coast, potentially making driving more challenging on Interstate 5 and Interstate 8 and causing turbulence for commercial airliners using San Diego International Airport.
Forecasters added that it is possible that a significantly larger storm will strike Southern California on Saturday and Sunday.
(U-T NEWS SERVICES; S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; ASSOCIATED PRESS; LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Installation and testing of 220 ground anchors is now expected to be completed in March, said Jim Beil, executive director of capital programs at the Orange County Transportation Authority, at the agency’s Monday morning board meeting.
“We are losing some time right now due to equipment getting stuck in the mud,” Beil said. “With more significant rain predicted, it may require some dry-out time.”
Limited passenger service could be restored in late February at the earliest, most likely on weekends only, if other agencies agree that is safe, he said. Initially, in October, transit officials said the stabilization work would take 30 to 45 days. Later, they said it would be finished by the end of the year.
Freight service has continued at reduced frequency and slow speeds across the site just north of the San Diego County border. Freight trains travel at night and until recently proceeded at 10 mph through the repair area only after an engineer and a flagger have walked ahead, Beil said.
In recent weeks, freight trains have increased their speed after the installation and testing of some of the ground anchors, Beil said. The first row of 104 anchors have been completed and are undergoing testing, which is expected to continue through the middle of this month.
Work on the second and final row of anchors is expected to begin next week, if weather allows.
In addition to installing the anchors, work crews have added more boulders to the rock revetment on the beach at the base of the slope.
The recurring landslide has pushed the tracks more than 28 inches toward the ocean since new movement in the slope was discovered in September 2021. Since then, more than 18,000 tons of boulders have been brought in by BNSF freight trains and placed on the coastal side of the railroad as riprap for stabilization.
Stabilization work in the past few months has cost about $11.5 million, just below the estimate of $12 million. A revised estimate will be presented at the board’s next meeting, Beil said. The total so far excludes the acquisition of additional right of way and some of the other expenses involved.
Two people representing the San Clemente group Save Our Beaches criticized the agency Monday for building the wall of anchors and the rock revetment. Studies show such devices reduce the size of the beach and may contribute to erosion.
The coastal railroad tracks have been used since they were built in the 1880s. Until about 10 years ago, the beach was relatively wide and stable, with enough room for volleyball courts and fire pits. But erosion has proceeded rapidly since then.
“Suddenly these tracks are threatened,” said Gary Walsh of Save Our Beaches. “It’s our lack of sand.”
Focusing on armoring the coast with revetments and ground anchors is the wrong solution, Walsh said.
“What we can do is place sand in areas we know are going to be threatened,” he said. “Stand down from the dogmatic riprap approach and return to what was successful for many years.”
Replacing sand with rock is the wrong idea, said another member of the group, Suzie Whitelaw.
“We need more sand,” she said. “The rock is not going to do it.”
The coastal railroad is the only route for passenger and freight trains between San Diego and the rest of the United States. The 350-mile LOSSAN corridor between San Diego, Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo is one of the nation’s busiest rail routes.
Passenger service on the North County Transit District’s Coaster commuter trains and Amtrak passenger trains remains available on a normal schedule between San Diego and Oceanside. Amtrak also offers a connection on buses, called a “bus bridge,” between its trains at Oceanside and Irvine. Metrolink provides service north of San Clemente, and Amtrak to its rail stations north of Irvine.
Annual ridership is nearly 3 million on Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner trains and 5 million on Coaster and Metrolink commuter trains that use the corridor, according to the Orange County agency.
Metrolink’s Orange County line, which normally runs between Los Angeles and Oceanside, averaged 2,182 passengers daily on weekdays in the first quarter of 2020-21, according to the agency, though only a small fraction of those passengers were on the segment between Oceanside and San Clemente. The line has 15 stations and covers 86.9 miles.
Freight trains carry $1 billion in goods annually on the LOSSAN corridor, according to a 2021 report by David S. Kim, then the state’s secretary of transportation.
(Phil Diehl, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Wind gusts topped 60 mph in some parts of the Sacramento region, according to the National Weather Service, causing a massive loss of power overnight Saturday and into Sunday. Utility officials have been working to restore power but said it will take time.
Pacific Gas & Electric deployed 4,000 crew members dedicated to storm restoration, which includes their own personnel, contractors and mutual aid from Southern California and as far away as Wyoming and Canada.
“We are just getting repeatedly pounded by storm after storm,” said Tracy Correa Lopez, a spokesperson with PG&E. “Flooding is an issue. The number one issue right now is access to a lot of these areas.”
Flooding, downed trees and unstable soil contributing to falling rock and debris flows are all likely to pose hazards for crews seeking access to turn the power back on, Correa Lopez said.
Californians should brace themselves for another series of storms this week that will likely bring flooding and destructive winds to a drenched and damaged region.
On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the Biden administration to declare a federal emergency in preparation for the storms.
“We expect to see the worst of it still in front of us,” Newsom said. “We’re anticipating very intense weather coming in tomorrow and Tuesday morning.”
Forecasters warned of a “relentless parade of cyclones” barreling out of the Pacific toward California, which was expected to intensify the risk of flooding in parts of the state this week. A flood watch remains in effect for the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and nearby foothills until 4 p.m. Wednesday.
The first of five approaching atmospheric rivers — a stream of storms that will continue until about Jan. 19 — arrived this weekend. Heavy rain and mountain snow began late Friday night in Northern California and spread to Central California on Saturday, with some parts of the state expecting more than a foot of snow through early Sunday.
Forecasters expect the storm that moved in Sunday night to be more powerful than the last one, which walloped much of Northern California. Aside from some periodic breaks, much of the week is expected to bring heavy rain with more storms on the horizon, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
Damaging winds with gusts between 45 and 60 mph are expected Sunday night through today in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, Chandler-Cooley said. Southern Sacramento is expected to be hit hardest.
In Sacramento, officials are preparing for 2 to 4 inches of rain today. The city will extend emergency shelter services through Thursday as it prepares for more storms to hit the region.
This storm system brought significant wind and rain and toppled trees all over the city, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in a statement.
“We are gearing up for the next wave of storms and urging all of those still outdoors to please go to a respite center or at least get to higher ground away from trees and bodies of water,” he said.
Yana Garcia, the secretary for the California Environmental Protection Agency, advised people to avoid floodwaters, which may be untreated and contain harmful chemicals.
“Although this storm has been dangerous, it will help by providing California’s reserves with more water. But we can’t say yet that the drought is over,” Garcia said at a news conference.
Saturday evening, a woman was killed when a tree fell on her tent. The Sacramento Fire Department said it responded to a call about 6:45 p.m. for a traumatic injury as rain and dangerous winds began in the capital. The department said the woman had not survived the injuries.
City officials said she was living along one of the many wooded river levees that have been the focus of outreach efforts in recent days, as advocates and social workers have attempted to warn people of the dangerous storms approaching and offer options for shelter. Those levees routinely flood during large storms.
“The fact that a human being lost her life in last night’s storm is heartbreaking,” Steinberg said. “Our outreach teams have been working along the levee and elsewhere in the city to urge people to go to one of our respite centers or at least get to high ground away from large trees.”
As of Sunday afternoon, the coroner had not released the woman’s identity.
Falling trees have been an unexpected hazard for Sacramento. Although the City of Trees often sees them fall during rains, the number that have been uprooted is in the hundreds.
Late Saturday night, winds howled through with a force that left giant redwoods, oaks and eucalyptuses with their roots torn from the ground, their trunks blocking streets, crushing homes and downing power lines.
Sacramento officials said they received nearly 700 reports of debris and fallen or uprooted trees blocking the roads since the New Year’s Eve downpour.
More than 200 of the reported incidents were cleared as of Friday, with officials citing the need for urban forestry professionals and more cranes to clear the backlog.
“Our city crews were well prepared for the challenge and have cleared hundreds of trees and thousands of storm drains,” Steinberg said. “We have stood up respite centers for unhoused residents and arranged shuttles to transport them.”
Trees continued to fall in the San Francisco Bay Area on Saturday. In Castro Valley, a large eucalyptus tree fell on a home, trapping a person inside. The person was taken to a hospital for treatment, firefighters said. Two adults and four children were displaced.
In San Mateo County’s Menlo Park, whose southern border with Palo Alto is San Francisquito Creek, city officials roped off creek banks because of reports of unstable soil.
“Remember, as soils become saturated, it’s easier for trees to fall,” officials said.
San Jose officials were gearing up for what could be the worst flooding to hit the Bay Area’s most populous city since the surprise flooding in 2017 of Coyote Creek, which runs through the heart of San Jose and forced more than 14,000 residents out of their homes and flooded hundreds of homes.
The National Weather Service warned that moderate flooding could hit San Jose starting today.
At the same time, the Guadalupe River in San Jose, at Almaden Expressway, was expected to exceed minor flooding levels at 9.5 feet and, by the afternoon, hit a moderate flooding level of 11.5 feet. At 9.5 feet, river water is expected to “overtop upstream of Alma Avenue Bridge into the Elks Lodge,” just south of the Tamien station of the Caltrain commuter rail system.
At 11.5 feet, waters would spill north along Lelong Street, flood the viaduct at Highway 87 and Alma Avenue, and risk flooding properties in San Jose’s Northern Cross neighborhood.
San Jose officials on Sunday planned to send workers to communicate evacuation orders to homeless people living along the Guadalupe River and Coyote and Penitencia creeks.
In San Diego County, the atmospheric river is expected to drop an inch to 1.5 inches of rain on most of the region from late tonight until late Tuesday afternoon, the National Weather Service said.
The system also will produce winds gusting upwards of 30 mph at the coast, potentially making driving more challenging on Interstate 5 and Interstate 8 and causing turbulence for commercial airliners using San Diego International Airport. And the storm is unstable enough to generate thunder and lightning throughout the county.
Forecasters added that it is possible that a significantly larger storm will strike Southern California on Saturday and Sunday.
The newest system will begin producing scattered showers late tonight and intensify early Tuesday, generating varying amounts of rain across the region. The heaviest precipitation is expected to occur in North County, where Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista and San Marcos could get 1.5 inches of rain.
Areas farther south — such as downtown San Diego, La Jolla and Del Mar — are forecast to get about an inch of rain while significantly smaller amounts are expected in and around Chula Vista, San Ysidro and Imperial Beach.
The county badly needs more rain. But recent storms have made the soil saturated in many areas, which makes street flooding and erosion more likely, the weather service said.
Since the rainy season began on Oct. 1, San Diego International Airport has recorded 4.37 inches of precipitation, which is 0.92 inches above average. Ramona has recorded 7.0 inches, which is 2.39 inches above normal.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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A proposal released Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency would set maximum levels of 9 to 10 micrograms of fine particle pollution per cubic meter of air, down from 12 micrograms set a decade ago under the Obama administration. The standard for particle pollution, more commonly known as soot, was left unchanged by then-President Donald Trump, who overrode a scientific recommendation for a lower standard in his final days in office.
Environmental and public health groups that have been pushing for a stronger standard were disappointed, saying the EPA proposal does not go far enough to limit emissions of what is broadly called “fine particulate matter,” the tiny bits of soot we breathe in unseen from tailpipes, wildfires, factory and power plant smokestacks and other sources.
In a development that could lead to an even stricter standard, the EPA said Friday it also would take comments on a range of ideas submitted by a scientific advisory committee, including a proposal that would lower the maximum standard for soot to 8 micrograms. A microgram is one-millionth of a gram.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the proposal to strengthen the national ambient air quality standards for fine particle pollution would help prevent serious health problems, including asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death that disproportionately affect vulnerable populations. Those populations include children, older adults and those with heart and lung conditions as well as low-income and minority communities throughout the United States.
“This administration is committed to working to ensure that all people, regardless of the color of their skin, the community they live in or the money in their pocket, have clean air to breathe, clean water to drink and the opportunity to lead a healthy life,” Regan said at a news conference. “At EPA, we are working every single day to create cleaner and healthier communities for all and have been doing so for over 50 years.”
Harold Wimmer, the president of the American Lung Association, called the EPA’s proposal disappointing, saying it is “inadequate to protect public health from this deadly pollutant.”
“Current science shows that stronger limits are urgently needed to protect vulnerable populations,” Wimmer said, calling for the EPA to strengthen the standard to 8 micrograms or lower.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups called for the current standards to be maintained, saying the proposed rule could “stifle manufacturing and industrial investment and exacerbate permitting challenges.”
EPA scientists have estimated exposure at current limits causes the early deaths of thousands of Americans annually from heart disease and lung cancer as well as causing other health problems.
The EPA proposal would require states, counties and tribal governments to meet a stricter air quality standard for fine particulate matter up to 2.5 microns in diameter — far smaller than the diameter of a human hair. A micron, also called a micrometer, is equal to one-millionth of a meter.
The standard would not force polluters to shut down, but the EPA and state regulators could use it as the basis for other rules that target pollution from specific sources such as diesel-fueled trucks, refineries and power plants.
The EPA will accept comments on the proposed rule through mid-March. A final rule is expected this summer.
(Matthew Daly, ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The biggest surf was reported at and near La Jolla Cove, where the swell peaked at 20 feet before dawn then dropped to about 18 feet. The waves also hit 18 feet at Mission Beach. The swell will weaken throughout the weekend.
Lifeguards say that one surfer had to be rescued off Windansea Beach and another required assistance near La Jolla’s Children Pool.
The west-northwest swell was generated by a “bomb cyclone” off the California coast that sent drenching rains ashore across the state. The North Pacific storm gained additional strength by drawing moisture from the subtropics. It was the fourth time this season that a storm generated a so-called atmospheric river [sic].
Forecasters say the next atmospheric river-infused system could hit Northern California on Monday, then drop into Southern California on Tuesday. It appears that San Diego County’s coastal cities could get about a half-inch of rain while some inland areas may receive twice that.
NB: a storm does not generate an atmospheric river. Rather, the jet stream can direct direct additional moisture into an existing storm, thereby increasing its severity. The phenomenon of channeled moisture is called atmospheric river. The water content can reach a multiple of water flowing in the Mississippi River.
(Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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Storms over the last week have killed at least five people, including two who drowned when a levee broke near Sacramento and a toddler killed when a tree crashed into a residence in Sonoma County.
While many parts of Northern California escaped major damage, some coastal areas were swamped by high surf and flooding that left beaches in shambles. People living near the Russian River remain on edge, given the chance that waters could rise to dangerous levels over the next few days.
But the biggest concern remains the effect more stormy weather will have across the already inundated region.
“It’s going to remain wet and unsettled for the coming days,” said Scott Rowe, a lead meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento. “Through the weekend and next week we’re expecting at least two, three, possibly even more storms to be impacting Northern California, so it’s something we’re keeping a close eye on.”
After a short reprieve today, a moderate storm will blow back into the Bay Area over the weekend, renewing the risk of flooding. Forecasters are more worried about a “much stronger” storm that will hit Monday and Tuesday. During that event, “widespread and potentially significant flooding” is expected, as are gusty winds, according to the weather service. And more storms are possible, with additional chances of rain late next week.
That one-two punch will only add to what’s been a soaking start to the year. Downtown San Francisco has already recorded its wettest 10-day period since 1871.
Thursday’s storm dumped 2 to 3 inches of rain across the San Francisco Bay Area, and isolated showers were expected to add to that total through the evening. Roughly an inch of rain fell over a 24-hour period across much of the Sacramento area as of early Thursday, less than forecasters initially expected.
But, for some, the effects were no less profound. As of Thursday evening, about 10 of 30 beds were occupied at an evacuation shelter set up in Elk Grove.
Terry Sanford, the shelter’s acting manager, said the clients were a mix of unsheltered people and those who saw their homes flooded.
“A lot of them are just worried about finding a safe spot, because when there’s flooding, even if you’re homeless, you lose your home,” she said. “We had one couple who lost their tent, their bikes, everything. They have nothing.”
Sanford said that the electricity at the shelter briefly went out Wednesday night and that she’s concerned about the upcoming storms over the weekend and next week.
“We can’t take any more water,” she said. “Everything’s saturated. It has to run somewhere.”
One of the areas hardest hit by this latest storm was the Santa Cruz County coast, where high tides and giant waves destroyed sections of the pier in the seaside town of Capitola and another in Seacliff. The Santa Cruz Wharf was evacuated Thursday morning as waves reaching up to 20 feet buffeted the structure and officials warned spectators to seek shelter.
When Emma Simpkins, 23, an employee at the Picnic Basket near the wharf, arrived at the restaurant with her co-worker around 6:30 a.m., waves were breaking all the way up to the sidewalk.
In her five years in Santa Cruz, Simpkins said she’s never seen waves as large as the ones that pummeled the shore Thursday.
“I was here for the tsunami a few months ago, and even then it wasn’t this bad,” she said.
Down at the Boardwalk, logs and debris were pushed up to the fence line, just below the amusement park platform — making the beach seem more Olympic Peninsula in Washington state than California surf haven.
At the base of the San Lorenzo River, huge swells carried surfers upriver, below the railroad trestle and toward downtown.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Andrea Prost, who lives in Scotts Valley but drove to the coast with her dog, Shelby, to check out the scene.
In Capitola, high tides and massive waves inundated businesses with water, prompting officials to evacuate thousands of residents. Police Chief Andy Dally said during a news conference that the flooding was triggered by a 5.6-foot high tide combined with a swell and rain runoff from the storm.
“Businesses sustained significant damage down in the Village,” he said. The beach-adjacent Capitola Village includes shops and restaurants.
Videos of the scene show torrents of water surging into seaside homes and businesses that had been boarded up in advance of the storm.
Onlookers along Cliff Drive gasped and pointed at the wreckage below: The pier, broken in two, and the damaged restaurants along the beach.
To the north, roads across Sonoma County were blocked by downed trees, while de-energized power lines knocked loose by tumbling branches swung above darkened homes and businesses.
“Jiminy Christmas, I’ve never seen the winds so strong,” said Richard Cappell, 68, who lives on a ridge above the town of Occidental.
He stood on his front porch Thursday, the hum of a generator almost drowning out the sound of the rain.
Down the hill in Occidental, the Altamont General Store was filled with people who had come in to get warm and use the available electricity to charge their phones and other electronics.
Resident Susan Gray said she heard some people are expected to be out for up to two weeks.
“I expect to lose power every year,” she said. “It’s been a while since we’ve (lost it) for this long.”
Sonoma County issued an evacuation warning for residents living near the Russian River, including those in Guerneville, Monte Rio, Rio Nido and downstream of Healdsburg.
As the rain stopped Thursday, nearly a dozen people came to the bridge over the river in Monte Rio to marvel at the rushing water, which whisked large trees and an overturned boat past onlookers.
Forecasters no longer project that the river in Guerneville will flood today, as it is now expected to peak in the morning at 26.2 feet, below the flood stage level of 32 feet. But the danger has not completely passed as water levels could rise further with the arrival of weekend rains and as runoff continues to pour into rivers, creeks and streams.
The Hopland area of the Russian River had exceeded flood stage as of Thursday morning, said Brett Whitin, a hydrologist at the California Nevada River Forecast Center.
“It’s not as high as it was in the New Year’s Eve flood,” Whitin said. “It’s a lower-level type of flooding going on there.”
He said the forecast center is anticipating more severe flooding during the upcoming storms through the weekend and next week.
In Southern California, the heavy rains seemed to break in most areas by noon, even offering a glimpse of sunshine after a wet and at times dangerous morning.
The cold front and heaviest rainfall moved through faster and earlier than expected and produced less rain, dropping about 1 to 2 inches at lower elevations and 2 to 5 inches at higher elevations, meteorologists with the National Weather Service in Oxnard said.
Though the storm was still significant in Southern California, the region was spared the worst.
Southern California has been “more on ... the southern periphery of the system,” said Ariel Cohen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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A UC San Diego researcher said Thursday that four atmospheric river-style systems might hit the state by mid-January.
But hold the applause. California isn’t close to emerging from the drought.
“The drought is deep and the big reservoirs will take a lot more than this to recover,” said Marty Ralph, director of UCSD’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes.
History also has to be considered. The state’s seasonal rains can come to an abrupt halt, like a faucet being shut off.
San Diego got about 3.5 inches of precipitation from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2021. Then it got almost no rain in January and February — traditionally the wettest month of the year. The city finished the season with 6.75 inches of rain, far below average. The story was similar across the state.
And while weather forecasting has improved, it still gets things wrong. Thursday’s storm in San Diego was weaker than expected, even though it closed the aging Ocean Beach pier. Some of the systems envisioned for the next couple of weeks might not materialize.
It’s easy to believe that scientists can predict exactly what will happen next. They produce eye-catching photos and graphics of atmospheric rivers, the plumes of moisture from the subtropics that have been enriching the North Pacific storms hitting California.
Atmospheric rivers are hard to miss. UCSD says that the vapor in some of these plumes carry 25 times as much water as can be found in the Mississippi River.
But researchers only have a basic understanding of the forces at work. California is getting drenched because the jet stream dropped unusually far south and is cycling storms through the state. Meteorologists cannot definitively determine long in advance when a shift like that will occur, or how long it will last.
Scientists also struggle with short-term threats. A so-called “bomb cyclone” exploded off California, generating the storm that whacked the state on Wednesday and Thursday. The term refers to a midlatitude storm that intensifies rapidly. Such monsters are widely known in the Midwest and Northeast, where they happen with some regularity. A bomb cyclone was at the heart of the storm that hit those parts of the U.S. just before Christmas.
But these kinds of storms rarely occur off California.
“The systems that come our way are usually getting weaker by the time they get down here,” said Alex Tardy, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Rancho Bernardo.
“And bomb cyclone is an old term in the scientific literature. It’s not well known in California.”
Scientists also have a limited understanding of atmospheric rivers, sometimes called ARs, partly because there are comparatively few weather stations in the ocean, where the systems arise. The opposite is true on land.
The weather service correctly predicted that an AR-infused system would slam the Bay Area, where there was widespread flooding and winds gusting more than 90 mph. But forecasters overstated the storm’s timing and impact on San Diego County.
Through 4 p.m. on Thursday, San Onofre received 0.54 inches of rain while Oceanside got 0.46 inches and Fallbrook got 0.45 inches. San Diego International Airport got 0.22 inches. Roughly twice as much rain had been expected.
Scientists are hustling to get better data.
Ralph of UCSD directs a program that sends research aircraft into atmospheric rivers. On Thursday, a plane out of Sacramento flew directly into the plume. It’s scheduled to do the same today while another research plane lifts off from Honolulu.
“These storms are a very complex phenomenon, and very fluid,” Ralph said. “We’re trying to find better ways to predict which watersheds will be hit, and how hard.”
In addition to causing flooding and erosion, such systems can generate robust growth in chaparral, which eventually dries out and becomes fodder for wildfires.
Ralph says it appears that two of the atmospheric rivers that might reach California by mid-January could be strong, and two could be notably weaker.
Public safety officials are hungry for the latest forecasts.
Much of the soil is saturated across San Diego County, making the area more prone to flooding. The runoff raises the risk of coastal erosion in such places as Del Mar, where collapsing cliffs have affected commuter rail service.
(Gary Robbins, Karen Kucher; S.D. UNION TRIBUNE)
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But if the world can limit future warming to just a few more tenths of a degree and fulfill international goals — technically possible but unlikely according to many scientists — then slightly less than half the globe’s glaciers will disappear, said the same study. Mostly small but well-known glaciers are marching to extinction, study authors said.
The study in Thursday’s journal Science examined all of the globe’s 215,000 land-based glaciers — not counting those on ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica — in a more comprehensive way than past studies. Scientists then used computer simulations to calculate, using different levels of warming, how many glaciers would disappear, how many trillions of tons of ice would melt, and how much it would contribute to sea level rise.
The world is now on track for a 2.7-degree Celsius (4.9 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature rise since pre-industrial times, which by the year 2100 means losing 32 percent of the world’s glacier mass, or 48.5 trillion metric tons of ice as well as 68 percent of the glaciers disappearing.
That would increase sea level rise by 4.5 inches in addition to seas already getting larger from melting ice sheets and warmer water, said study lead author David Rounce.
That 4.5 inches of sea level rise from glaciers would mean more than 10 million additional people around the world would be living below the high tide line, said sea level rise researcher Ben Strauss, CEO of Climate Central.
The loss of glaciers also means shrinking water supplies for a big chunk of the world’s population, more risk from flood events from melting glaciers and losing historic ice-covered spots, scientists said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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It was a chilling vision of just how vulnerable California’s network of rural levees has become in an age of climate extremes. By Wednesday, nearly a dozen earthen embankments along the Cosumnes River near Sacramento had been breached, and three people had been found dead inside or next to submerged vehicles.
Experts say such failures are all but inevitable as California’s aging levee system whipsaws between desiccating drought and intense downpours. Stormwater has a nasty way of finding errors in infrastructure planning and design, said Jeffrey Mount, a geomorphologist and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
“There are two kinds of levees: those that have failed, and those that will fail,” said Mount.
As California was hit by yet another powerful storm system Wednesday, Mount and others warned that lack of maintenance and changing hydrology would increase flood risk in the coming years. At the same time, Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth warned that rural levees would be the “most vulnerable places in California,” largely because they are not required to meet the same standards as levees that protect urban communities.
For those tasked with maintaining levees, upkeep is an exercise in frustration.
Many reclamation districts in the state are charged with meeting requirements for 100-year or 200-year levels of flood protection, referring to a 1 percent or 2 percent probability of flooding in a given year. But some small rural districts with limited budgets can maintain the levees to only a 10-year flood standard.
“That is practically nothing, but at a budget of $500,000 a year, and 34 miles of levee, that’s about all we can do,” said Mark Hite, a board member of Reclamation District 800, which oversees a stretch of Cosumnes River levees between Wilton and Rancho Murieta.
On Wednesday, Nemeth told reporters that the state and federal government are partway through construction of a $1.85 billion flood protection project that will help shore up some of the levees along the Sacramento and American rivers.
“We’re making good progress, but when we have these kinds of systems, it’s very easy for smaller communities to get overwhelmed,” she said.
Concern over the viability of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s 1,100-mile maze of earthen levees has been percolating for years. In 2005, Mount published a paper that predicted a 2-in-3 chance that a major quake or storm would cause widespread levee failures in the delta over the next 50 years.
That forecast, combined with images of the destruction caused by failed levees during Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans earlier that year, prompted federal legislation and local tax increases to generate funds needed to make critical improvements in certain areas.
But those upgrades, which far exceeded federal safety requirements at the time, Mount said, were not enough to keep pace with weather conditions changing at a rate that only a decade ago was unimaginable.
On Wednesday, officials were increasingly anxious about the incoming storm and the possibility that more will follow.
With much of the state on flood alert, water managers have been consulting with one another daily and juggling what is flowing in and out of reservoirs as part of an effort to absorb runoff from incoming storms.
(LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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Surfline.com said the waves will arise from one of the largest west-southwest swells the county has received in the past 15 years — a hit that could cause coastal flooding Friday morning in parts of Imperial Beach, Mission Beach and Torrey Pines State Beach.
The onslaught represents the tail of the “bomb cyclone” storm that exploded off the California coast and moved into the Bay Area late Wednesday with power described as “nothing short of ominous.” Such storms occur when midlatitude cyclones rapidly intensify. This one is drawing strength by tapping moisture from the subtropics.
The weather service says California could get four more of these subtropical “atmospheric river” storms by Jan. 17-18.
The storm unleashed heavy rain and strong winds across Northern California on Wednesday, triggering evacuations and power outages, and heightening fears of widespread flooding and debris flows.
Pounding rain and winds battered the Bay Area and surrounding regions into Wednesday evening, prompting scattered evacuations along rivers where flooding was expected.
The moisture-rich atmospheric river is expected to bring wind gusts up to 60 mph and more than 6 inches of rain in some parts of the Bay Area through today. The Sacramento Valley can expect up to 4 inches of rain and some areas in the Sacramento foothills could see up to 6 inches.
Wednesday’s storm is the third atmospheric river that’s hit California in the last two weeks. The successive storms have brought a deluge of water to the drought-stricken state, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency to “support response and recovery efforts.”
“We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, director of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “If the storm materializes as we anticipate, we could see widespread flooding, mudslides, and power outages in many communities.”
The weather service is warning of rapid rises in creeks, streams and rivers in various parts of the state, as well as gusty winds that will likely bring trees and branches down, causing “localized damming of waterways.”
Among the towns ordered to evacuate was Montecito, where five years ago huge boulders, mud and debris swept down mountains through the town to the shoreline, killing 23 people and destroying more than 100 homes.
Flash flood watches have also been issued in several burn areas, including the area of the August Complex fire, the River Complex fire, the Mosquito fire and the western region of the Dixie fire. A flood warning is in place for the Russian River near Guerneville in Sonoma County, which officials say could see moderate flooding today.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city was “preparing for a war” as officials passed out sandbags and residents braced for another several days of rain. The San Francisco Bay Ferry suspended service Wednesday on lines serving South San Francisco and Harbor Bay in Alameda, citing strong winds in the forecast.
While the most profound impacts of the storm were expected in Northern California, officials warned of the risk for flash flooding across the entire southwestern corner of the state through today.
“The heaviest rain may be focused on Northern California, but as far as the Southland is concerned, this will be the strongest storm this season so far, hands down,” said David Sweet, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. “It could be very hazardous.”
The new storm was expected to flow into Southern California before dawn today and begin generating significant rain in northwestern San Diego County by about 6 a.m., the weather service said. Camp Pendleton — and possibly Oceanside — could receive an inch or more of rain.
Coastal areas farther south will get 0.50 to 0.75 of an inch. Inland valleys will receive 0.75 to 1.50 inches, and Palomar Mountain will get up to 2.5 inches.
The soil is already saturated throughout much of the county.
“We’ve gotten to the point where this is not just a burn scar problem,” said Alex Tardy, a weather service forecaster. “Low-lying, flood-prone areas will be affected with this type of rainfall.”
A swell out of the west-northwest will begin rolling ashore during the day today and could produce waves 12 feet to 15 feet high by early evening in such places as Blacks Beach, Imperial Beach, Mission Beach and Horseshoe reef, the fabled big wave break north of Windansea in La Jolla.
The swell will peak early Friday when waves reach the 16-foot to 20-foot range. Surfline.com says it is possible that Horseshoe reef could produce waves rising to 25 feet.
“There’s going to be extreme amounts of runup and extreme amounts of beach erosion,” said Falk Feddersen, a researcher at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
“There are going to be areas where it is relatively dry and, minutes later, it will be all wet and rushing fast. It can definitely be dangerous if you’re in areas like that.”
The weather service said the swell represents the most serious coastal surf hazard event the county has experienced since 2017.
The incoming storm will give another lift to the county’s seasonal precipitation. Since the rainy season began Oct. 1, San Diego International Airport has recorded 4.12 inches of precipitation, nearly an inch above average.
“There’s another storm in the pipeline for Monday and Tuesday, but we don’t know yet how big it will get,” said Samantha Connolly, a weather service forecaster.
The series of atmospheric rivers that started toward the end of December has been somewhat surprising after one of California’s driest years on record, which left reservoirs drained and soil parched.
“California is an extraordinary state and we experience extraordinary weather,” Wade Crowfoot, the secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, said during a news conference Wednesday. “At the same time, we know that climate change is supercharging this extreme weather.”
Crowfoot noted that despite the heavy snowfall and rain, the state remains in the third year of an intense drought. It has marked the driest three-year period in the state’s history, he said.
“We’re still in the first half of the game. We’ve got major points on the board in terms of precipitation, snow and rain,” he said. “That will be helpful in coming dry months, but we’re a long way from understanding how this wet season impacts our overall drought.”
Experts say while the system is expected to bring heavy rain, it’s not simply the strength of this storm on its own that has prompted damage concerns, but instead the culmination of all the recent storms.
(Gary Robbins, U-T NEWS SERVICES; LOS ANGELES TIMES; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The Sierra Nevada snowpack measures 174 percent of average for this time of year, but there are still three months left in the snow season, and the snow that has fallen to date remains just 64 percent of the April 1 average.
“It’s definitely a very exciting start to the year and a very promising start to the year. But we just need the storm train to keep coming through,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory.
Storms swept in from the Pacific last week, bringing torrential rains and triggering major flooding in the Central Valley and other areas.
“The significant Sierra snowpack is good news, but unfortunately these same storms are bringing flooding to parts of California,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the state Department of Water Resources. “This is a prime example of the threat of extreme flooding during a prolonged drought as California experiences more swings between wet and dry periods brought on by our changing climate.”
The next storm is set to arrive today and continue Thursday, bringing more flooding and snow in the mountains.
“While we see a terrific snowpack, and that in and of itself is maybe an opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, we are by no means out of the woods when it comes to drought,” said Nemeth, who urged Californians to continue to conserve water.
State water officials held their first manual snow survey of the year Tuesday at the Phillips Station snow course, one of more than 260 sites across the Sierra Nevada where the state tracks the snowpack.
“No single storm event will end the drought. We’ll need consecutive storms, month after month after month of above-average rain, snow and runoff to help really refill our reservoirs so that we can really start digging ourselves out of extreme drought,” said Sean de Guzman, manager of snow surveys for the Department of Water Resources.
California’s largest reservoirs remain very low after the state’s driest three years on record. Shasta Lake is at 34 percent of capacity, while Lake Oroville is 38 percent full.
Yet the start of this wet season has brought California some much-needed relief. State officials said the snowpack for this time of year is the third largest in the last 40 years, ranking behind 1983 and 2011.
If the rest of the wet season turns out to be very wet, experts say there is a chance that California’s reservoirs could refill in the summer.
“It could be a drought-buster of a year if things continue on a wet track,” said Dan McEvoy, regional climatologist at Western Regional Climate Center in Reno.
But he and other scientists say that recovering water supplies to a manageable level in the Colorado River’s badly depleted reservoirs would take much longer, and that reversing the long-term declines in groundwater in California would also take many years, if aquifers are allowed to recover.
Southern California relies heavily on imported water from Northern California and the Colorado River. Recent storms have boosted the snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, bringing a modest increase to the Colorado River. The snowpack in the Upper Colorado River Basin now stands at 142 percent of the median over the last three decades.
That snow can only go so far, however, in helping reservoirs that have been drained by years of overuse and a 23-year megadrought amplified by climate change. The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, can hold years of runoff from snowmelt, but their levels have dropped to about three-fourths empty.
“Lake Mead is not going to fill up if we have a 200 percent of normal precipitation year,” McEvoy said. “It would take a string of those years to really make a dent in the water levels of those massive reservoirs in the Colorado system.”
After three extremely dry years in California, the wet start to winter might signal a shift to wetter conditions. But water officials cautioned that a year ago, December 2021 brought heavy snow, and then the storms stopped and the state saw a record-dry January through March.
“We’re cautiously optimistic at this point. But we all know what could happen if the pattern turns dry,” De Guzman said. “This year’s snowpack is actually better than where we were last year. But at this point, we have over half of an average year’s snowpack, and with roughly three more months to build upon it. It’s still early in the season.”
The biggest of last week’s storms, on Friday and Saturday, was a large and warm atmospheric river, called a Pineapple Express, which dumped rain and snow across the mountains.
Nearly 6 feet of snow had piled up as of Tuesday at the snow laboratory at Donner Pass. But because the latest storm was warm, Schwartz said it brought more rain than snow. The next storm is expected to be colder and bring 2 to 3 feet more snow at the lab today and Thursday.
“Realistically, we’re looking at needing several above-average years to come out of the drought,” Schwartz said.
“We’re so far into drought that we’re really going to need those multiple years to help pull us out at this point,” he said. “We still need to keep up with our water restrictions and just keep our fingers crossed that the storm cycle continues.”
Water management officials said the abrupt shift from dry to wet over the last month shows both the dramatic fluctuations that happen naturally in California and the need for the state to adapt to more such extremes with climate change.
“Climate change is bringing never-before-seen extremes — from record dry periods with temperatures reaching new heights, to intense storms that produce rivers of water in short periods of time. We must learn how to manage through these extremes,” said Deven Upadhyay, executive officer and assistant general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
He said that requires investments in water storage, conveyance infrastructure and the development of more local water supplies.
The storms that have been rolling in fit with patterns that California has seen historically, said state climatologist Michael Anderson.
“It’s just a good winter storm. The thing is, we’ve been missing them the past three years,” Anderson said.
Schwartz said pinpointing the effects of climate change on the latest storms would require attribution studies.
“But the changes that we see with climate change definitely make it more likely to see these types of wild events that we’ve had over the last couple of weeks,” Schwartz said.
As for how long it might take for California to emerge from drought, that depends on recovering from water deficits that have accumulated over the dry years, said Jeanine Jones, drought manager for the Department of Water Resources. She said that would include regaining soil moisture, refilling reservoirs and also recovering from years of declines in groundwater levels.
In one recent study, scientists found that the pace of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated dramatically during the drought as heavy agricultural pumping has drawn down aquifer levels to new lows. More than 1,400 dry household wells were reported to the state last year, many in farming areas in the Central Valley.
Jones pointed out that groundwater levels in many areas are now much lower than they were 10 years ago.
“We had dramatically reduced groundwater levels throughout much of the state,” Jones said. “And that’s really key because especially for drinking water, because … the majority of water systems, especially smaller ones, are really highly reliant on groundwater as a source.”
Even if the whole year turns out to be wet, she said, “that will not recover our storage fully.”
(Ian James, LOS ANGELES TIMES)
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As it moved farther east, the so-called multihazard storm was expected to dump a mixture of snow and freezing rain in northern New England by Thursday, forecasters said, chipping away at travel plans for people returning from the holiday break.
The storms formed from the same “atmospheric river” system that swamped California over the weekend.
About 35 million people could be affected by severe thunderstorms through Tuesday, said Bill Bunting, chief of forecast operations for the Storm Prediction Center of the weather service. Heavy rain in the South could also cause flash flooding.
In Bourbon County, KY, just outside Lexington, three water rescues took place Tuesday morning, the county sheriff’s office said. One occurred around 7 a.m., as a school bus carrying eight children was stranded by floodwaters that rose swiftly, said Brent Wilson, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office. Wilson said the flooding had since receded.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation encouraged people to avoid travel on Tuesday afternoon in more than a dozen counties because of “heavy snowfall and zero visibility.”
Rapid snowfall also hit other parts of the northern Plains, particularly in Nebraska and South Dakota. It was accompanied by wind gusts of about 30 mph, resulting in “blowing and drifting snow” that created “difficult-to-impossible travel,” the weather service said.
The weather service in Birmingham, AL, identified five areas in the state of likely tornado damage. It said it would not be able to carry out damage assessments until today because of ongoing weather threats and warnings.
(NEW YORK TIMES)
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Patches of grass, rock and dirt were visible Monday in some of Europe’s skiing meccas — like Innsbruck in Austria, Villars-sur-Ollon and Crans-Montana in Switzerland, and Germany’s Lenggries and far beyond. The dearth of snow has revived concerns about temperature upheaval linked to climate change.
On a swath stretching from France to Poland, but with the Alps at the center, many parts of Europe were enjoying short-sleeve weather. A weather map showed Poland racking up daily highs in the double digits Celsius — or more than 50 Fahrenheit — in recent days.
Swiss state forecaster MeteoSuisse pointed to some of the hottest temperatures ever this time of year. A weather station in Delemont, in the Jura range on the French border, already hit a record average daily temperature of 65 degrees on the first day of the year. Other cities and towns followed suit with records.
MeteoSuisse quipped on its blog: “This turn of the new year could almost make you forget that it’s the height of winter.”
Forecaster Anick Haldimann of MeteoSuisse said a persistent weather system that brought in warmer air from the west and southwest has lingered, locking in warmer temperatures expected to last through the week. While slopes above 6,500 feet have gotten snow, lower down, “the order of the day is patience” for skiing buffs, she said.
The shortage has been particularly burdensome around Switzerland’s Adelboden, which is set to host World Cup skiing on Saturday, and generally draws 25,000 fans for a single day of racing. Resorts like these look for such races to offer up bucolic wintertime images to draw amateur skiers, but grassy, brown sides to the course can mar the landscape — and dampen the appeal.
Course director Toni Hadi acknowledged that the race will be run on 100 percent artificial snow this year.
“The climate is a bit changing but what should we do here? Shall we stop with life?” he said by phone, noting that other challenges such as the coronavirus pandemic and war show “life is not easy” these days.
“Everything is difficult — not only to prepare a ski slope,” Hadi said.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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The heavy wind and downpour left tens of thousands of homes without power for much of the day Sunday, while record high waters on the Cosumnes River wrought havoc after they breached three levees and inundated the area.
Flash flooding along state Route 99 and other roads south of Sacramento submerged dozens of cars near Wilton, where the water poured over the levees. Search and rescue crews in boats and helicopters scrambled to pick up trapped motorists.
“I don’t want to use the term apocalyptic, but it’s ugly,” Sacramento County spokesperson Matt Robinson said by phone from a stretch of state Route 99 that he described as a vast lake. “We have a lot of stuck cars.”
Downed power lines and trees crashing into homes created further trouble, said Capt. Parker Wilbourn of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District.
“It was an extremely busy night,” he said.
Electricity remained cut off midday Sunday for more than 32,000 customers, down from more than 100,000 who lost power overnight around Sacramento. The county warned Sunday afternoon that the floodwaters were rising around Interstate 5 near the southern edge of Sacramento’s suburbs.
By late afternoon, as waters rose in the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers, authorities issued a mandatory evacuation order for the community of Point Pleasant, south of Elk Grove.
“Please be out of the area and off the roads while there is still light to reasonably see any danger,” Sacramento officials wrote in a message on Twitter. “Take the ‘5 P’s’ with you: People, Pets, Prescriptions, Paperwork and Photos.”
An evacuation center was set up at Wackford Center on Bruceville Road in Elk Grove. “Flooding in the area is imminent,” officials warned. “Floodwaters become incredibly dangerous after sunset.”
Some sunny skies offered much of the state a respite Sunday from the downpours, but another atmospheric river was barreling across the western Pacific and was set to drench California in the days ahead.
The system over the weekend was warmer and wetter, while the storms this week will be colder, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
The Sacramento region could receive a total of 4 to 5 inches of rain over the week, Chandler-Cooley said.
Northern California took the brunt of the weekend pounding. Oakland had its wettest day since 1970 on Saturday with 4.75 inches of rain. A mudslide east of Oakland blocked part of Interstate 580.
In San Francisco, 5.46 inches of rain fell, making Saturday the city’s second wettest day in more than 170 years, the National Weather Service reported.
U.S. 101 in South San Francisco was shut down for flooding just as New Year’s Eve revelers were heading out to celebrate, but reopened a few hours before midnight.
In Davis, many residents remained without power after howling winds uprooted trees the night before. Residents awoke to blue, wind-swept skies, streets blocked by downed branches, and holiday reindeer and inflatable Santa Clauses strewn about like toys thrown by a giant.
In much of the area, the power remained off, with no indication from Pacific Gas & Electric of when it might return. Some residents flooded into the city’s small downtown, looking for a hot cup of coffee, a warm meal or a place to charge their phones.
Most businesses, however, were closed due to a lack of power.
The few that were lucky enough to have power were full of people talking about when the power might return, and what to do until it did.
“We’re here because we can’t open the fridge,” explained Nancy Gibbs, 67, who was with her family at Burgers and Brew, a restaurant next to the town’s Central Park.
She said that she and her family had just finished dinner the night before when the power went out.
While California’s drought remains far from over, the wet weather that closed 2022 has enabled at least a few of the state’s major reservoirs to exceed their historical average water supply.
Water releases from the Folsom and Nimbus dams led state parks officials to warn of safety hazards on Lake Natoma as rapidly rising water levels create dangerously strong currents.
The weekend storm was a boon to ski resorts. Mammoth Mountain and Lake Tahoe ski areas reported up to 42 inches of new snow.
In Southern California, several people were rescued after floodwaters inundated cars in San Bernardino and Orange counties. No major injuries were reported.
In San Diego County, heavy rain fell on New Year’s Eve and before dawn on New Year’s Day: Palomar Observatory received 2.97 inches; Escondido 1.71 inches; Poway 1.34 inches; and La Mesa 1.20 inches.
The region will experience on-and-off showers through Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
In the 48 hours before the rain stopped Sunday before dawn, 1.1 inches fell in downtown Los Angeles and 5.7 inches in the San Gabriel Mountains.
(Michale Finnegan& Jessica Garrison, LOS ANGELES TIMES; Gary Robbins, S.D. UNION TRIBUNE; ASSOCIATED PRESS)
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