Climate Impact Report – 8/2

August 2, 2024

Key Facts Of The Day 8/2

A state of emergency has been declared in parts of Florida in anticipation of a potential named storm that could unleash multiple days of heavy, flooding rainfall on the state and the southeast United States starting this weekend.
On Thursday night, a severe thunderstorm moved through central Ohio, knocking out power for thousands with wind gusts up to 60 mph.
- At its peak, 12,000 people were without power overnight in southeast Columbus. That number dropped to around 3,000 Friday morning.
Overnight storms flooded streets, highways, and basements in several parts of Metro Detroit.

As of Friday, 94 large active wildfires have burned 2,101,281 acres across AZ, CA, CO, FL, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, TX, UT, WA, and WY. This year to date, 28,649 wildfires have burned 4,512,854 acres across the country.
In Arizona, 3 fires have burned 36,029 acres as of Friday.
In California, 13 fires have burned 522,575 acres as of Friday.
- As of Friday, the Park Fire has burned 397,629 acres and is 24% contained.
- The Park Fire is now California’s fourth-largest wildfire in state history.
In Colorado, 4 fires have burned 10,437 acres as of Friday.
In Nevada, 2 fires have burned 16,353 acres as of Friday.
In New Mexico, 1 fire has burned 6,500 acres as of Friday.
In Oregon, 32 fires have burned 953,845 acres as of Friday.
In Texas, 1 fire has burned 1,760 acres as of Friday.
The U.S. wildfire season has already burned more than 4.4 million acres, up 278% from last year.

Heat-induced infrastructure problems can arise not only in places such as Arizona, where temperatures can be brutal but also in traditionally cooler locations such as the Pacific Northwest, which are seeing warmer temperatures than ever before.
- It’s not the absolute temperature that matters so much as how far the temperature is outside of engineers’ expectations when infrastructure is built.
Heat deaths of people without air conditioning, often in mobile homes, underscore energy inequity.
Maryland is set to finalize its heat standard later this summer, making it the first state on the East Coast to do so.