Tag Archives: Wildfires

Climate Solutions

What’s an Atmospheric River and Why is California Lovin’ It?

Drought that looked invincible has met extreme opposite weather: stalemate?

Atmospheric river storms can actually be welcome in California during a historic drought, like the one this year. In some cases, nearly 50% of California’s precipitation each year can be the result of atmospheric rivers, and they can bring enough water to stop even a historic drought in its tracks.

Atmospheric river storms, also known as “pineapple express” storms, have sometimes been known to bring much-needed rain and snow to drought-stricken areas, including California.

Extreme weather, wildfires, and more have been on the increase worldwide as a result of global warming and climate change.

Atmospheric river storms are characterized by a narrow corridor of strong winds and heavy precipitation that can extend for thousands of miles. They are often associated with the transport of moist air from tropical regions, and they can be a significant source of water for many areas.

In California, atmospheric river storms can provide a much-needed source of water for agriculture, hydroelectric power generation, and other important water-dependent activities.

They can also help to replenish reservoirs and groundwater aquifers, which can help to mitigate the impacts of drought.

The monumental drought of 2022 in the rearview?

Just as it was looking as if there was zero chance for enough moisture to reverse the long, intense drought conditions that California has suffered this year, the “Pineapple Express” became a holiday storm front. There is a sense of relief, although it is too early to tell if the drought will end as a result of this rain.

It is also important to note that these storms can also bring heavy rainfall and strong winds, which can lead to flooding and other hazards. As a result, it is important for people in affected areas to be prepared and take necessary precautions.

An atmospheric river is a narrow band of moisture-rich air that extends from the tropics or subtropics to higher latitudes. These rivers of air are typically about a thousand miles wide and several thousand miles long, and they can transport enormous amounts of water vapor from the tropics to other parts of the world.

Atmospheric rivers are important because they play a crucial role in the global water cycle.

Water evaporates from the surface of the ocean, rises into the atmosphere, and then condenses to form clouds. As the clouds move over land, they release their moisture in the form of rain or snow.

Atmospheric rivers are responsible for a large portion of the moisture that falls as precipitation in many parts of the world, particularly along the western coasts of the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Atmospheric rivers can be either warm or cold, depending on the temperature of the air that they are carrying.

Warm atmospheric rivers are typically associated with heavy rainfall and floods, while cold atmospheric rivers can bring snow and ice to colder regions.

One of the most well-known atmospheric rivers is the “Pineapple Express,” which is a warm atmospheric river that brings moist air from the tropics to the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

The Pineapple Express is named after the tropical fruit because it brings warm, tropical air to the region. This atmospheric river is responsible for a large portion of the precipitation that falls in the Pacific Northwest, and it can cause heavy rainfall and floods in the region.

Another well-known atmospheric river is the “North Atlantic Oscillation,” which is a cold atmospheric river that brings moist air from the subtropics to the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.

This atmospheric river is responsible for a large portion of the snowfall that falls in these regions, and it can cause heavy snow and ice storms.

Atmospheric rivers can have a significant impact on the weather and climate of the regions that they affect.

They can bring much-needed moisture to dry regions, which can help to alleviate drought conditions. However, they can also cause heavy rainfall and floods, which can lead to damage to infrastructure and loss of life.

In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of atmospheric rivers and their potential impact on the global water cycle.

Scientists are working to better understand atmospheric rivers and to develop better tools for predicting and managing their effects.

This research is important because atmospheric rivers are likely to become more intense and more frequent in the future due to climate change.

Generally speaking, an atmospheric river is a narrow band of moisture-rich air that extends from the tropics or subtropics to higher latitudes.

These rivers of air play a crucial role in the global water cycle and can bring much-needed moisture to dry regions or cause heavy rainfall and floods.

There is an increasing awareness of the importance of atmospheric rivers and their potential impact on the global water cycle, and scientists are working to better understand and predict their effects.

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Climate Solutions, Observation, Politics

These Extreme Weather Events are a preview of the Coming Climate Disasters

Above: Photo Collage – Lyxotic

New Orleans, Lake Tahoe, NYC – that’s just this week and just in the US… and a drought in the west that is a serious growing threat

The warnings are coming hard and heavy after multiple previous and eerily similar catastrophes, only they just keep getting more severe. Each one is a unique event and each has a litany and list of records that smash all prior statistics since record keeping began.

“Hottest month ever”, “most rainfall in an hour ever recorded”, “worst flood in NY history”, these hyperbolic sounding statements are not hyperbole at all, just facts, but since they are becoming a nearly constant refrain, the entire situation appears surreal.

Journalists use words like “dystopian” and twitter users compare photos and general panic to the climate disaster movie “The Day After Tomorrow” and note that the current reality is already scarier than what the movie was able to convey.

Underneath the shock is a layer of manufactured apathy

Even as the signs of an expanding and accelerating worldwide disaster are more obvious, season by season, month by month and even day by day, there is, nevertheless, a kind of paralysis surrounding the fear.

Fossil fuel subsidies continue to be handed out, so many half-measures and excuses are bandied about, and personal, individual responsibility is used as a bludgeon to guilt the populous into a state of inaction.

It’s called a climate emergency because it is an emergency, so act like it, to paraphrase Greta Thunberg. Unfortunately, dire emergencies are not scarce at the moment, and the situation is likely to get worse, meanwhile it is a valid question; what would be done if the climate crisis were actually treated like an emergency?

New York Floods, Ida aftermath, September 2021

Above: Photo: Lyxotic / Adobe Stock

The remnants of Hurricane Ida resulted in extreme dumping of historic levels of rainfall, with Central Park in N.Y.C. receiving 3.15 inches of rain in just one hour. Newark Airport was shut down and many flooded streets in the five boroughs and surrounding areas of New Jersey and Pennsylvania were transformed into virtual rivers. Subway entrances and basement dwellings quickly filled until they overflowed.  

The national Weather Service issued its first ever “flash flood emergency” for the area as well as both NY and NJ leaders issuing states of emergency.

The death toll quickly rose to at least 50 people. Reports of those that were killed mostly died as a result of being flooded in basement living spaces or overtaken by water both inside and outside their vehicles. 

The Climate Crisis is not a movie and a majority has to demand action of Government and Industry: the individual is not to blame

In a way the problem inherently contains the seeds to its own resolution. The current state of climate emergency could have been partially averted, or at least slowed down, had government and, in particular, the fossil fuel industrial complex done more than talk and come up with tricks like greenwashing and propaganda to distract and delay the obvious need to stop carbon (CO2) pollution. The signs were evident for many decades, and some alternative solutions were known for over a century, while the fossil fuel behemoth just kept expanding.

Now, with the crisis getting more extreme and deadly, seemingly by the hour, it will take an equally extreme change in the response – a literal washing away of the status quo that created the problem. That may look like a system wide collapse, bringing down the structure that props up the suicidal stupidity of the current system, or something equally extreme, if real solutions are to have time to have any chance of having an impact.

New Orleans Storm

Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 Sunday morning (August 30, 2021) also marking the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  Ida had maximum sustained winds of 150 mph,  just shy of making it a Category 5 (winds greater than 155 mph). Radar approximates that up to about 17 inches of rainfall were recorded just west of New Orleans. 

Over a million customers lost power in Louisiana, making it the 2nd largest power outage in the state since 2000. The outage could leave residents without power for up to six weeks, rendering them helpless for electricity during increasingly hot late summer weather. Numerous streets need power lines raised that were brought down or snapped by Ida’s winds. 

Cantrell, the New Orleans major spoke of voluntary evacuations, particularly for residents that have special needs, seniors or those vulnerable to the heat. 

Extreme weather, ocean temps, rising sea levels with melting ice caps, all connected and all increasingly menacing

It has appeared, unfortunately, for nearly decades as if the predictions of ocean temperature increase and sea level rise would have to continue until multiple major cities are fully submerged before any real steps would begin to combat the causes.

Is that still the case after the four “disaster stories” this week? Was the tragedy and destruction enough to have people begin to actually realize that there are no decades left to “wait and see”?

Caldor / Lake Tahoe Fire

The Caldor Fire has burned around 213,270 acres covering 2 California counties (El Dorado and Amador) and currently only 32% contained (as of September 3rd).  The fires have been active for 19 days according to Cal Fire.   Thousands of  people have been forced to evacuate.  The looming threat of the fires reaching the popular tourist location of South Lake Tahoe are safe for now, however, and flames have been averted. 

The fire created widespread haze and smoke, resulting in extremely hazardous air quality. 

The total number of structures destroyed by the fire is 857 as of Sept 3rd, marking it as the 20th most destructive fire in recorded history for California. 

Monumental Drought in the Western US

All of California is under a drought conditions. 

Water levels from the largest reservoir on the Colorado River and Lake Mead,  which supply drinking and irrigation water to Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, California and Mexico  have reached record low levels.

Regulators now have to make crucial steps to protect another crucial water source, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the water system that helps to provide 2/3 of CA population, irrigation for agricultural industry as well as state’s norther border with Oregon. 

California residents could be facing future water restriction, however according to Gov. Gavin Newsom it is not likely to be in force until the end of September (the delay could be his attempt to avoid any unpopular mandates before the  Sept 14. Recall Election).

Some drastic measures have been taken so far at National State parks in order to help conserve water including closing bathrooms and showers and shutting off water faucets/fountains.

Four stories just from this week: is this a turning point and a wake up call that we desperately need?

Does New York City, or Miami, or Mumbai have to be permanently flooded or fully submerged before we “notice” and demand action? Or, is now the time to mark the date – September 2021 as the moment that the climate emergency was finally “real”? Will it be seen, understood as imminent, and acted on as an emergency of the magnitude that it already is?

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Climate Solutions, News, Politics

Breaking: Firefighters battle the Caldor Fire as it races into Lake Tahoe

Video

Above: Photo Credit / Fabian Jones / Unsplash

The Caldor Fire had burned 204,390 acres and 20%-contained 

The raging Caldor Fire that has already forced thousands of people to evacuate, is now becoming a critical threat to the popular tourist location, South Lake Tahoe. Reports of more than 34,000 structures are at risk.

There are approximately 4,000 firefighters and 1,000 California National Guard members that are helping to fight off the growing fires.

A spokesperson for California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services told CNN that over 53,000 people have been placed under evacuation orders.

The fire has already burned more than 300 square miles and destroyed hundred of residential structures. The city is facing wind gusts blowing at 35 miles per hour and stronger which continues to help the fire spread further down into the Tahoe basin.

Devastating Wildfires – continued reminders of the Climate Crisis

Greta Thunberg, the vocal climate crisis activist retweeted the below the video of the fires in California. There is so much confusion over the question of exactly which of the many, many “extreme weather events”
as they are now called, are directly attributable to climate change, global warming and Co2 in the atmosphere.

This is, for Greta Thunberg and anyone reading this with an ounce of sense, a moot point. The larger overarching point is that the threat of total world destruction as a result of buying fossil fuel and other human impacts on the environment has been long settled as a very dangerous and rapidly worsening reality.

Splitting hairs by constantly questioning alternative origins for extreme events, that clearly are increasing in their number and severity, is a kind of “climate denial-lite” that is as ridiculous as it is dangerous. Ultimately it is the perspective of those like Greta, that must be adopted and understood by the millions (billions), before it is too late. Only then, when the threat is faced head on, is there a chance we might prevent a rapid slide into oblivion.

Thunberg tweeted this week “Wildfires, floods, droughts, heatwaves and other (un)natural disasters rage all over the world. Many now ask “What will it take for people in power to act?”. Well, it will many things, but above all it will take: massive pressure from media and massive pressure from the public.”

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Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology

Sicily Reports Highest Temp Ever Recorded in Europe as Wildfires Scorch Mediterranean

Above:collage Lynxotic / adobe stock

As wildfires swept through the Italian island of Sicily, fueled by an extreme heatwave, officials in one city recorded a Wednesday recorded what is believed to be the highest temperature ever recorded in Europe.

Local meteorologists in Siracusa reported that temperatures reached 48.8ºC or 119.8ºF, breaking the continent’s previous record of 118.4ºF, which was set in 1977 in Athens. 

The World Meteorological Organization still needs to independently confirm the high temperature. Local reports of the new all-time record are in line with the weather extremes that have been seen in the Mediterranean region. 

“The climate crisis—I’d like to use this term, and not climate change—the climate crisis is here, and it shows us everything needs to change.”

—Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek prime minister

Firefighters in Sicily and Calabria have carried out more than 3,000 operations in the last 12 hours. Thousands of acres of land have burned, and at least one death was reported in Calabria when a 76-year-old man’s home collapsed in flames.

“We are losing our history, our identity is turning to ashes, our soul is burning,” Giuseppe Falcomata, the mayor of the historic city of Reggio Calabria, said in a statement on social media. 

Francesco Italia, the mayor of Siracusa, told La Repubblica that the area is “in full emergency.”

“We are devastated by the fires and our ecosystem—one of the richest and most precious in Europe—is at risk,” Italia said.

As Common Dreams reported Wednesday, wildfires driven by extreme heat have devastated other parts of the Mediterranean. 

In Algeria, at least 65 people have been killed in wildfires in recent days, including 28 soldiers who had been deployed to battle the flames. Twelve firefighters were also in critical condition in hospitals on Wednesday. 

Tunisia recorded its highest temperature ever on Tuesday, registering 49ºC (120ºF). 

In Greece, most of the wildfires that have burned through the country this week were under control on Thursday. Surveying the damage, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the fires “the greatest ecological catastrophe of the last few decades.”

“We managed to save lives, but we lost forests and property,” Mitsotakis said at a Thursday press conference in Athens.

The wildfires started amid an intense heatwave that lasted several days and forced officials to call on firefighters from 24 other countries across Europe and the Middle East to help fight 100 active fires per day. 

Mitsotakis did not express confidence that the situation will remain under control in the coming weeks, as the country’s wildfire season continues. 

“We are in the middle of August and it’s clear we will have difficult days ahead of us,” the prime minister told reporters. 

“The climate crisis—I’d like to use this term, and not climate change—the climate crisis is here, and it shows us everything needs to change,”

—Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greek prime minister

Published on Common Dreams By JULIA CONLEY via Creative Commons.

Articles around the Web:

Greek wildfires a major ecological catastrophe, PM says

At least 65 killed in Algerian wildfires, Greece and Italy burn

‘Unimaginably Catastrophic’: Researchers Fear Gulf Stream System Could Collapse

From California to Greece to Siberia, Wildfires Rage Worldwide—and More Expected

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Breaking News, Climate Solutions, Earth and Ecology, Lifestyle, News

Climate Change fuels California Wildfires as Photochemical Smog evolves into Smoke in LA

Photo / Adobe stock

Pollution in DTLA from the 60s to Now: Smoke is the New Smog

Throughout the nineteen sixties, seventies, and eighties, a dark layer of photochemical smog clouded downtown Los Angeles. Produced by carbon emissions, this toxic smog came to define the city in many unflattering ways. Today, the smog is not as noticeable, however, a new kind of cloud has arrived to mask the face of La-La-Land yet again.

This time around, the cloud is composed of smoke from wildfires, and while this leftover smolder from burning forests may not be as immediately caustic as yester-decades’ smog, it could be more dangerous all the same, for it is a sign of California’s increasing vulnerability in the presence of the climate crisis.

Seasonal Wildfires in California Exacerbated and Turned Catastrophic by Climate Crisis

Wildfires in California, like hurricanes in the Deep South or blizzards up north, are somewhat seasonal. After a long, hot, and dry summer, the fires are only now starting to pick up, with an inordinate number of them taking place in the mountains around L.A. since the beginning of autumn. The region’s exceptionally arid landscape this time of year only helps the fires grow and travel at faster rates.

The reasons for these wildfires can vary, from natural causes to someone dropping a cigarette in the wrong place at the wrong time. Many of them are sparked by something immediate and unfortunate. However, their range, frequency, and ferocity can be linked to global warming—especially over the past few years, as the fires have become more intense and the effects of the climate crisis have been increasingly perceptible.

Indeed, a simple wayward cigarette could ignite a wildfire, but how much damage that fire does is determined in part by something far more elemental. As the climate crisis heats up the earth, things naturally become more flammable. The ecosystem is meant to respond to temperature spikes with additional moisture. Unfortunately, we have not experienced such compensation yet, and with the climate crisis being an unnatural phenomenon, it is unwise for us to expect the planet to respond in natural ways.

Wildfire Prevention is More than Putting Out a Spark, it’s Environmental, and California’s is Highly Flammable

Thus, a small spark can easily kindle a fire that quickly spreads over dry foliage with the wind. Although Los Angeles itself is celebrated as a land of perfect weather, its surrounding canyons produce gusts of wind up to 80 miles per hour. Because climate change has been significantly limiting nature’s innate defense mechanisms, the average area affected by wildfires has increased almost four-fold over the past few decades. 

Likewise, longer droughts are also making California’s fire season lengthier. The season is an estimated two months longer than it was in the 1970s, and the longer the season, the more destructive it can be. California’s six most intense seasons on record have all occurred in the past decade, and fifteen of the twenty most extreme individual fires have all taken place since the year 2000.

Official Red Flag Warnings, Evacuations, and Power Outages? Only a Precursor to Future Extremes

Just last week, the fires caused the National Weather Service to issue its first extreme red flag warning ever. A testament to how bad California’s fires are, this unprecedented warning shows that the recent wildfires are on par with some of the worst storms and tornadoes in our country’s history. In fact, they may be even more treacherous.

Californians and Angelinos in particular have already faced evacuations and power outages as results of the fires—and that is just over the past few weeks. President Trump, rarely a champion of progressive environmental policies, has hardly addressed the issue as California’s state government scrambles to combat the blazing infernos on its own. Despite the situation’s intensity, though, it is but a bleak microcosm of what the future may look like if the climate crisis continues to go unchecked by politicians.

From Smog to Smoke, the Only Difference is the Extent of our Unnecessarily-Long Relationship with Pollution

The fires are at their worst in the canyons and hills surrounding Los Angeles, but from downtown, residents can notice the smoke blocking the mountains on the horizon. The air is filled with the pungent smell of burning wood and the skyline becomes hazier each day, returning the city to its smog-infested image of former decades. 

Given that the smog was the result of fossil fuel burning and the fires are fueled by the climate crisis today, we can see that their resemblance is familial, and that the smoke from the California’s wildfires are the deformed son, the resurrected corpse, the Frankenstein’s monster of the undead smog and carbon emissions that we continue to carelessly release into our planet’s atmosphere. 

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