Climate Impact Report – 3/12

March 12, 2024

Key Facts Of The Day 3/12

The latest storm boosted Oregon’s mountain snowpack to 109% of normal and continued to decrease drought levels to their lowest since 2019.
Los Angeles, California, Mayor Karen Bass announced the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power captured more than 13.5 billion gallons of stormwater last month.
- Officials said the 13.5 billion gallons were enough water to serve nearly 165,000 households for a year.
Last week, Salisbury, Massachusetts, residents finished building a sand dune to protect their beachside homes from rising tides and repeated storms. Three days later, the barrier washed away when a storm brought historic high tides.
A farm insurance company is dropping some Iowa customers, adding to the list of businesses cutting their losses after a series of storms that wreaked costly damage in the state.

As of Monday, the Smokehouse Creek fire in Texas was 89% contained.
- The fire caused severe damage, scorching 90% of the land in neighboring Roberts County. It also burned in parts of Hemphill County and some land in Carson, Gray, and Wheeler counties.
As of Monday, the Windy Deuce fire burned nearly 145,000 acres in Moore, Carson, Hutchinson, and Potter counties and was 94% contained.

Last year’s drought and extreme heat in Louisiana devastated this year’s crawfish harvest and led to significant price hikes.
- During a typical year, Louisiana generates anywhere from 175 million to 200 million pounds of crawfish — contributing $500 million to the state’s economy annually.
- The Louisiana State University’s Agriculture Center estimates the potential losses to the state’s crawfish industry to be nearly $140 million.
Horticulturists at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Massachusetts raised concerns about how quickly climate change is affecting local flora and fauna, as many plants and trees started blooming about two or three weeks earlier than usual.