Posts

Double Whammy: Heat, Toxic Algae Bedevil Water Sector

/in , /by /E&E Newsby Hannah Northey

One of the two rivers flowing into the heart of Iowa that provide 500,000 residents with drinking water is slowly being infiltrated by toxic algae as temperatures climb.

The other river is drying up and dipping to dangerously low levels as a historic drought grips the United States.

The Hawkeye State’s plight underscores why climate change is seen as a threat multiplier for the drinking water sector — from cratering water levels and drought to floods and extreme weather. And then there are toxic algal blooms that can kill fish, foul water, and threaten human and ecosystem health.

Full Story

Opinion: The Energy Sector Must Prepare for More Extreme Weather

/in , , /by /Wiredby Robert Rapier

Texas has always seen its share of extreme weather events, but over the past two decades they have intensified. A few years ago, after the fifth “ 500-year flood” in five years, I remarked to a friend, “We’re going to have to stop calling them that.”

Full Story

Climate Crisis: Record Ocean Heat in 2020 Supercharged Extreme Weather

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Damian Carrington

The world’s oceans reached their hottest level in recorded history in 2020, supercharging the extreme weather impacts of the climate emergency, scientists have reported.

More than 90% of the heat trapped by carbon emissions is absorbed by the oceans, making their warmth an undeniable signal of the accelerating crisis. The researchers found the five hottest years in the oceans had occurred since 2015, and that the rate of heating since 1986 was eight times higher than that from 1960-85.

Full Story

Climate Change Causing One-Third of Flood Damage in United States, Stanford Study Finds

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Increasingly strong storms are responsible for more than a third of the nation’s flood costs, swelling the tab by billions of dollars a year as climate change continues to fuel more extreme weather, according to new research at Stanford University.

Full Story

It’s Close but 2020 Likely to End Up Hottest Year On Record

/in , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

Just how warm Earth stays this December will determine if 2020 goes down as the hottest year on record. And it’s looking a lot like it will.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculated Monday that last month globally was the second hottest November on record, behind only 2015. Yet NASA and a European climate monitoring group said it was the hottest November on record. NASA has coverage over the poles that NOAA does not — and both the Arctic and Antarctic were very warm in November, NOAA climate scientist Ahira Sanchez-Lugo said to explain the difference.

Full Story

As Fires Rage, California Center Aims to Better Understand Their Remedy: Atmospheric Rivers

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Mike Branom

At the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, researchers feel the urgency as they examine connections between West Coast precipitation and a devastating wildfire season, which has yet to conclude.

The center, part of Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., has unlocked many secrets of atmospheric rivers — airborne jets of tropical moisture that can break droughts and quell fires but also unleash raging floodwaters.
Full Story

Changing Patterns of Ocean Salt Levels Give Scientists Clues to Extreme Weather on Land

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Bob Berwyn

New mapping of salt concentrations in the world’s oceans confirms what physics and climate models have long suggested: Global warming is intensifying Earth’s water cycle, speeding up the rate at which water evaporates in one area and falls as rain or snow somewhere else.

Full Story

Opinion: It’s Time to Re-Envision the California Water System

/in , , /by /AgAlertby Justin Fredrickson (California Farm Bureau Federation)

Recent years have brought a taste of extreme weather and the destructive power in nature that’s always just around the corner here in California. At the same time, numerous crises have highlighted our many vulnerabilities: drought, new groundwater restrictions, endless stumbling blocks in the way of system repairs and upgrades, regulatory restrictions to protect declining fish, and elusive voluntary agreements in lieu of  “unimpaired flow” standards for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from the state water board that would be ineffective and would cripple regional economies.

Full Story

‘We’re Drying the Fuels’: How Climate Change is Making Wildfires Worse in the West

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Ian James

As flames tore through California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, Craig Clements drove toward the fire in a specialized radar-equipped Ford pickup, watching the plume of smoke billowing from the forest.

Clements is a professor who leads San Jose State University’s Fire Weather Research Laboratory, and he chases wildfires to study their behavior.

Full Story

West Coast Wildfires, Gulf Coast Hurricanes: How Climate Change Connects These Extreme Events

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kellie Hwang

In Northern California, crews labored Thursday to control megafires sparked by a rare barrage of lightning strikes.

Across the country, a Category 4 hurricane made landfall overnight in Louisiana, destroying buildings and toppling powerlines with unrelenting winds and rain.

Full Story