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Earth Breaks Heat And CO₂ Records Once Again: ‘Our Planet Is Trying To Tell Us Something’

/in , /by /Los Angeles Times by Hayley Smith

Humanity is ignoring major planetary vital signs as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels soar to all-time highs and Earth records its 12th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, international climate officials warned this week.

At 60.63 degrees, the global mean temperature in May was a record 2.73 degrees hotter than the preindustrial average against which warming is measured — marking an astonishing yearlong streak of heat that shows little sign of slowing down, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

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Pure Water Southern California Facility Could Help Keep More Water In Lake Mead

/in , /by /Las Vegas Weekly by Shannon Miller

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto D-Nev., and Rep. Susie Lee, D-Nev., have announced new funding for a large-scale water recycling facility designed to reduce Southern California’s reliance on Colorado River water and keep more water in Lake Mead.

The Department of the Interior has awarded $99 million to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to fund the first phase of the Pure Water Southern California facility, which will produce an estimated 129,000 acre-feet of water per year, according to the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). That’s enough to serve approximately 386,000 households in Southern California and Southern Nevada.

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A Key Atlanta Water Main Break Is Now Fixed, But A Boil Advisory Is Still In Place For Many, City Says

/in , /by /CNN by Elizabeth Wolfe, Rebekah Riess and Amy Simonson

Crews in Atlanta have completed repairs to a key water main whose break, among others, contributed to a huge swath of the city spending days without safe drinking water – though a boil advisory remains in effect for many homes and businesses “out of an abundance of caution,” officials said Wednesday morning.

Water service is “slowly being brought back online to allow system pressures to rebuild,” they said in a news release, following a vast, sometimes intermittent breakdown that began Friday and highlighted the decaying infrastructure criss-crossing a major Southern hub and many other major American cities.

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Atlanta Officials Say Water Repairs Are Done After 5 Days of Outages and Service is Being Restored

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Jeff Amy and Sharon Johnson

City of Atlanta officials say workers finished repairs on a ruptured water main on Tuesday and that water problems in the city are coming to an end after five days.

The city said Tuesday night that workers had placed new pipes after a leak that sent a gushing river into the streets of the city’s Midtown neighborhood. Officials said water had been restored to a bar and a hotel immediately adjoining the leak and that they were gradually increasing pressure in the system.

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UCD: A Drying Salton Sea Pollutes Neighboring Communities

/in , /by /Davis Enterpriseby Emily C. Dooley

When desert winds stir up dust from the Salton Sea’s exposed lakebed, nearby communities suffer from increased air pollution. The deterioration coincides with reduced flows into California’s largest lake, a new research paper in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics finds.

Disadvantaged communities have been affected more than others in the areas near the Salton Sea, which has been shrinking for years, said the paper’s co-leading author Eric Edwards. He is an assistant professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis, who did the research while at North Carolina State University.

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Newsom Praises Court Ruling Dismissing Environmental Groups’ Challenge of Sites Reservoir

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

California’s plan to build the state’s first new major reservoir in decades is advancing after a court rejected a challenge by environmental groups.

In the ruling last week, a Yolo County Superior Court judge sided against environmental advocates who had argued Sites Reservoir would harm the Sacramento River’s ecosystem and threaten imperiled fish species.

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Abnormally Hot Summer Even More Likely In Latest NOAA Forecast: Here’s Where

/in , /by /KTLA by Alix Martichoux

New predictions for the summer season, released by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center this week, show weather is likely to heat up in almost every corner of the United States.

The forecast, which covers June, July and August, indicates nearly every U.S. state with leaning toward a hotter-than-normal summer season. The highest chances are found out West, where Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Colorado have a 60% to 70% chance of above-average temperatures over the next three months.

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The U.S. Drought Monitor Is A Critical Tool For The Arid West. Can It Keep Up With Climate Change?

/in , /by /Aol.by Hayley Smith

Known for its glowing swaths of yellow, orange and red, the U.S. Drought Monitor has warned farmers, residents and officials throughout the nation of impending water scarcity every week since 1999.

Backed by data on soil moisture, temperature, snow cover, meltwater runoff, reservoir levels and more, the map has become an essential instrument for determining the outlook of water supplies, declaring drought emergencies and deciding where and when government aid should be distributed, among other things.

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Atlanta Remains Under State Of Emergency Amid Ongoing Water Troubles

/in , /by /CNNby Dakin Andone, Amy Simonson, Maxime Tamsett, Raja Razek and Christina Maxouris

Atlanta remains under a state of emergency Monday as it battles disruptions to its water service that began last week, leaving a swath of a major city under boil-water advisories and highlighting the pervasiveness of problems caused by America’s aging infrastructure.

“We are currently coordinating with the US Army Corps of Engineers. We have sought their assistance because they have the most experience in handling a crisis like this,” Mayor Andre Dickens announced in a statement Monday. “They will help us develop a plan to assess and evaluate our aging infrastructure.”

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First Heat Wave To Scorch The West Because Of A ‘Heat Dome.’ Who Will See Extreme Temps?

/in , /by /USA Todayby Doyle Rice

The USA’s first major heat wave of the summer will overspread the West over the next few days, forecasters said, pushing temperatures to dangerous and even “life-threatening” levels across several states, including California, Nevada and Arizona.

By the middle of the week, temperatures in both Phoenix and Las Vegas could reach 111 degrees, the National Weather Service said. Many record highs are possible.

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