Frank Reichenbacher worries it will soon be over for his Tumamoc globeberry — a rare Sonoran desert vine that features a fruit that looks like a tiny watermelon and tastes like dirt.
For 41 years, Reichenbacher, an associate researcher at the University of Arizona’s Tumamoc Desert Lab, has followed the same three patches of the rare plants in southern Arizona — including one on Tucson’s Tumamoc Hill.
Human-caused global warming made July hotter for four out of five people on Earth, with more than 2 billion people feeling climate change-boosted warmth daily, according to a flash study.
For nearly a month, millions of people across the American Southwest have sizzled, sweated and sweltered under a heat wave that refuses to let up.
Day after day, residents from Fresno to Phoenix have endured triple-digit temperatures and hot, restless nights that have offered little relief.
The water temperature around the tip of Florida has 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.
A winter of record snowfall in California, coupled with a triple-digit heat wave, is continuing to inundate Sierra trails and fill valley reservoirs with snowmelt run-off.
In a video posted on social media by a KCRA 3 viewer, ankle-deep water could be seen rushing over the rail to Wapama Falls in Yosemite National Park last week.
An extreme heat wave in the Southwest could pose a risk to Lake Powell’s water levels, which have been steadily increasing all summer.
After an extended drought period, Lake Powell, which is in Utah and Arizona, reached drastically low levels last summer, but levels began rising in earnest in April after California experienced a wet winter. The above-average snowfall in the mountains led to an increased snowpack melt that has continued to supplement Lake Powell, as well as Lake Mead in Arizona and Nevada, this summer.
After weeks of uncertainty, forecasters say an incoming California heat wave will trigger rapid snowmelt on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada and cause more flooding in portions of the San Joaquin and Owens valleys this week.
Temperatures in Central California are forecast to climb into the high 80s and mid-90s beginning Wednesday and into the weekend, with the potential for some areas to approach daily records.
Mount Shasta, the widely recognizable face of California’s far north, has lost almost all its defining snow cover for a second straight year.
Another summer of scorching temperatures, punctuated by the recent heat wave, has melted most of the mountain’s lofty white crown, typically a year-round symbol of the north state’s enduring wilds.
It was just before 9 a.m. and already nearing 100 degrees as I stared out at the menacing steel pillars of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, in California’s far southeastern corner. My long-sleeve shirt stuck to my skin. Sweat dripped down my back.
The operator of the state’s power grid warned residents Tuesday to prepare for possible rolling blackouts, as a drawn-out heat wave reaches its peak and drives electricity demand to an anticipated record level.
VIDEO: The heat wave is stretching into the seventh day and relief is not expected anytime soon which means the demand for energy is straining the grid. The California Independent System Operator has issued a Flex Alert asking residents to conserve energy during peak use but as KPBS reporter Alexander Nguyen shows us it is also tapping other sources for energy.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
