Climate Impact Report – 9/30

September 30, 2024

Key Facts Of The Day 9/24

Hurricanes and Tropical Storms

Hurricane Helene Impacts

As of Monday morning, 102 people had died due to Hurricane Helene and its impacts.
As of 9 am EST Monday morning, more than two million customers were without power across the Hurricane’s path.
- In South Carolina, 751,819 customers were without power, 574,768 in Georgia, 458,833 in North Carolina, 119,428 in Florida, and 99,119 in Virginia.
According to the National Weather Service, Helene dumped a total of 12 to 14 inches of rain in South Carolina, 12 to 16 inches in Florida, and 12 to 14 inches in Georgia.
Helene’s path of destruction stretched more than 500 miles from the coast of Florida to the Blue Ridge Mountains.
As of Monday, about 90 river gauges across Helene’s path were experiencing some level of flooding, with about 20 gauges at moderate or major flood stage.
In South Carolina, Duke Energy’s president announced that the company’s transmission system had seen “unprecedented damage” and prioritized fixing the utility infrastructure. The company hoped to have power restored for most of the state by Friday.
Communication losses have resulted in hundreds of missing person reports. As of Monday morning, about 600 missing person reports had been filed in Buncombe County, North Carolina.
On Sunday, President Biden approved Major Disaster declarations for Florida and North Carolina, allowing survivors to access recovery funds and resources.
- As of Monday, emergency declarations had been approved for Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, and Alabama.
As of Sunday, more than 3,300 Federal workforce employees had been deployed to support response efforts in states that were impacted by the Hurricane.
According to an early estimate by AccuWeather, Helene caused between $95 and $110 billion in damage and economic loss, making it one of the costliest storms in history.
Florida towns on the state’s Gulf Coast, where Helene first made landfall, experienced record-breaking storm surges that destroyed buildings and caused damaging floods.

Potential Tropical Storm

According to the National Hurricane Center, a tropical depression was expected to form this week in the same region where Hurricane Helene formed.
- The center warned that there was a 40% chance that the disturbance would develop in the Gulf of Mexico over the next seven days.

Wildfires

As of Monday, 30 large active wildfires have burned 1,580,407 acres across OR, ID, CA, AZ, WA, SD, and WY. This year, to date, 38,601wildfires have burned 7,896,735 acres across the country.
In Arizona, 1 fire has burned 1,812 acres as of Monday.
In California, 3 fires have burned 117,881 acres as of Monday.
In Idaho, 4 fires have burned 229,616 acres as of Monday.
In Oregon, 4 fires have burned 38,245 acres as of Monday.
In South Dakota, 1 fire has burned 800 acres as of Monday.
In Washington, 1 fire has burned 1,726 acres as of Monday.
In Wyoming, 1 fire has burned 466 acres as of Monday.

Extreme Heat

On Sunday, Phoenix broke its daily high record before noon, in a late September record-breaking heat wave.
- By 11 am, temperatures reached 108 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 107 degrees set in 2023.
- Sunday’s record extended a week of record-breaking temperatures in Phoenix that are expected to last through the first week of October.
- On Saturday, the temperature hit 117 degrees, breaking the previous daily high record of 108 degrees set in 1992.
- Sunday night, the city’s night-low temperature reached 88 degrees, breaking its previous record-warm low of 82 degrees.
Phoenix was placed under an excessive heat warning that was expected to remain in effect through October 4th.