Climate Impact Report – 11/7

November 7, 2024

Key Facts Of The Day 11/7

As of Thursday morning, Rafael was a category 2 hurricane located about 195 miles west of Key West, Florida, and 180 miles west-northwest of Havana, Cuba. Its maximum sustained winds were 105 mph.
- On Thursday morning, a tropical storm warning for the lower and middle Florida keys and a hurricane warning for Cuba had been canceled.
- The storm was forecasted to turn west on Thursday and begin slowing down, moving across the southern Gulf of Mexico for the remainder of the week.
- Rafael was expected to bring two to four additional inches of rain to western Cuba on Thursday, bringing the total expected rainfall to 12 inches.

As of Thursday, 14 large active wildfires have burned 486,348 acres across CA, CT, KY, MA, MI, NM, OK, PA, TX, and VA. This year to date, 48,507 wildfires have burned 8,123,355 acres across the country.
In California, 2 fires have burned 15,624 acres as of Thursday.
- On Wednesday, the Mountain fire prompted evacuation orders for more than 10,000 people and threatened 3,500 structures.
- As of Thursday morning, sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph and wind gusts of up to 50 mph were posing a risk to firefighters battling the Mountain Fire.
- As of Thursday, at least 800 firefighters and 58 fire engines had been deployed to fight the Mountain Fire.
In Connecticut, 1 fire has burned 127 acres as of Thursday.
In Kentucky, 3 fires have burned 674 acres as of Thursday.
In Massachusetts, 1 fire has burned 188 acres as of Thursday.
In Michigan, 1 fire has burned 328 acres as of Thursday.
In New Mexico, 1 fire has burned 323 acres as of Thursday.
In Oklahoma, 1 fire has burned 12,488 acres as of Thursday.
In Pennsylvania, 1 fire has burned 577 acres as of Thursday.
In Texas, 1 fire has burned 400 acres as of Thursday.
In Virginia, 2 fires have burned 650 acres as of Thursday.

As of Thursday, over 150 million people across the U.S. states were under drought conditions.
- 318 million acres of crops are now under drought conditions, a 57% increase from last month.
A new report attributed human-caused global warming as the dominant driver of worsening drought in the Western U.S.
- Researchers found that during the Western drought of 2020 to 2022, 61% of its severity was due to high temperatures driven by human-caused warming, while only 31% was from reduced precipitation.
- Since 2000, human-caused warming has not only become the dominant factor in the severity of drought but was also found to be expanding the areas affected by drought conditions.
A new report forecasted that electricity generation from U.S. hydropower plants in 2024 would be 13% less than the 10-year average, in part due to extreme drought conditions.
On Wednesday, Washington, D.C., set a record with 35 continuous days without significant rainfall.