Washington – Desdemona Despair

Spatial distribution of the total number of exposed days in 995 California ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) from 2006 to 2019 under the main analysis definition for climate hazards (85th percentile for extreme heat and 15 μg/m3 for wildfire PM2.5). (A) Compound exposure, (B) extreme heat alone, and (C) wildfire smoke alone. Gray color represents excluded ZCTA that has a population of ≤1000 or lacks any exposed day (extreme heat alone, wildfire smoke alone, or both). Graphic: Chen, et al., 2024 / Science Advances

April 28, 2024

Extreme heat, wildfire smoke harm low-income and nonwhite communities the most – “It’s really important to highlight this social injustice aspect of climate change”

By Dorany Pineda 2 February 2024 LOS ANGELES (AP) – Extreme heat and wildfire smoke are independently harmful to the human body, but together their impact on cardiovascular and respiratory systems is more dangerous and affects some communities more than others. A study published Friday in the journal Science Advances said climate change is increasing the frequency […]

(a) Maps of the Pacific Northwest U.S. showing the median annual flight hours between November 1st and January 31st for Historical, and near-future, mid-future, and distant-future time frames for two RCPs, (b) elevations with Cascade and Rocky Mountain ranges marked, (c) Map of the continental United States with highlighted study area (grey). The historical panel of ‘a’ marks two locations in Washington State, Omak, and Richland, which are referenced in the text. Note that the elevation data is not used in any analysis and is provided solely for visual context. Graphic: Rajagopalan, et al., 2024 / Nature Scientific Reports

April 28, 2024

Western honeybee colonies at risk of collapse, WSU study finds – “They’re really the glue in our ecosystems. And you never notice the glue — until it stops working.”

By Conrad Swanson 1 April 2024 (The Seattle Times) – One of nature’s most important keystone species is working itself to death. Colonies of honeybees — crucial pollinators for a wide variety of plants and cash crops — are at risk of collapse because of climate change, a recent study by scientists at Washington State University and […]

2023 had the warmest December on record for Sea-Tac, Olympia, and Quillayute, with mean daily average temperatures of 45.5°F (7.5°C) in Seattle and Olympia, and 48.0°F (8.9°C) in Quillayute. Graphic: NWS Seattle

January 4, 2024

Seattle set record-high December temperatures in 2023, following global trend – “It is unlikely that this would reverse anytime soon, unless there’s very, very drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions”

By Lauren Girgis 4 January 2024 (Seattle Times) – If you like the snow, this unusually warm winter likely isn’t for you. Snow levels this season have been “marginal, to say the least,” said Rune Harkestad, president of Kittitas County’s Kongsberger Ski Club, based east of Snoqualmie Pass. December did bring a fair share of […]

A post-wildfire debris flow in the burn scar of the Walker Creek Fire caused significant damage in central Washington in the summer of 2022. Photo: Washington State Department of Natural Resources

December 3, 2023

When burn scars become roaring earthen rivers – “We’re screwed for mudslides”

By Kylie Mohr 1 November 2023 (High Country News) – Two Septembers ago, the residents of Grotto, Washington, woke to the Bolt Creek Fire ripping through the mountains above their homes. “This doesn’t happen here,” Patricia Vasquez remembers saying at the time, shocked. While areas east of the state’s Cascade mountains frequently burn in the […]

Estimated ocean parasite populations in the Puget Sound, 1880-2019. The count per host of ocean parasites that obligately require three or more hosts declined through time, while that of two- and one-host parasites remained stable. Shown are model predictions between the years 1880 and 2019 from phase 1 analysis. Predictions are for the “average” parasite species within each group (i.e., within 1-host parasites, 2-host parasites, and 3+-host parasites) where average is defined as “the parasite species with the abundance that is closest to the average abundance of all parasite species.” Graphic: Wood, et al., 2023 / PNAS

January 22, 2023

Warming oceans have decimated marine parasites, and that’s not a good thing – “If this can happen unnoticed in an ecosystem as well studied as this one, where else might it be happening?”

By Hannah Hickey 9 January 2023 (UW News) – More than a century of preserved fish specimens offer a rare glimpse into long-term trends in parasite populations. New research from the University of Washington shows that fish parasites plummeted from 1880 to 2019, a 140-year stretch when Puget Sound — their habitat and the second […]

Pierce County drug poisoning deaths, January 2018–April 2021. Many of Pierce county's recent drug poisoning deaths included more than one drug. In 2019, Pierce County drug poisoning deaths were flattening along with state and were trending downward. However, drug poisoning deaths have risen dramatically in 2020 and 2021 despite increased harm reduction efforts, relaxed drug charges and relaxed Medications for Opioid Use disorder (MOUD) prescribing practices. Pierce County’s heroin deaths outpaced the State (comparison not shown). The number of heroin-involved deaths may be higher, since the body might metabolize heroin before labs detect it. Whites and males had the most poisoning deaths. Groups experiencing structural racism and inequitable health outcomes had the highest rates of poisoning deaths. These groups include American Indian/Alaska Natives, Hispanic/Latinx, and Black/African Americans. Deaths involving illicit fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, continued to surge into 2021. Locally, illicit drug makers and distributors add fentanyl to counterfeit prescription pills, tar heroin, and powders like methamphetamine without users’ knowledge. As a result, fentanyl is cheaper, easier to obtain, gets users hooked more quickly and keeps them coming back for larger doses. Both Pierce County and the State have experienced dramatic increases in poisoning deaths involving methamphetamine and other stimulants in 2020 and 2021, to which Naloxone (an emergency opioid blocker) doesn’t respond. Graphic: TPCHD

May 29, 2022

“Deaths Of Despair” on the rise in Pierce County, WA – “COVID-19 has been hard on everyone”

By Charles Woodman27 May 2022 TACOMA, WA (Patch) – The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is reminding everyone: help is available if you need it. In an update Friday, the health department reported that deaths from suicide, alcohol or drug misuse had climbed from 351 in 2019 to 423 in 2020, and these “deaths of despair” […]

Death rates from all drug poisonings per 100,000 Washington state residents, 2003-2020. Graphic: UW ADAI

April 9, 2022

DEA warns of “mass overdose events” from fentanyl as deadly trend spreads across U.S. – “I’ve been doing drug-trends research for 20 years, and fentanyl’s growth is the biggest, fastest shift we’ve ever seen—and also the most lethal”

By Beth Dalbey 7 April 2022 SEATTLE, Washington (Patch) – A rash of deadly “mass overdose events” across the country has the Drug Enforcement Administration warning Washington and other states to prepare for the worst. Drug Enforcement Administration head Anne Milgram said in the letter to local, state and federal law enforcement officials that in […]

Global and regional risks for increasing levels of global warming. (a) Global surface temperature change increase relative to the period 1850-1900. (b) Reasons for concern (RFC) impact and risk assessments assuming low-to-no adaptation. (c) Impacts and risks to terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. (d) Impacts and risks to ocean ecosystems. (e) Climate-sensitive health outcomes under three adaptation scenarios. Graphic: IPCC

March 12, 2022

Pacific Northwest heatwave in 2021 was a glimpse of global warming in North America – “We’re exposed to untold damage”

By Gillian Flaccus 1 March 2022 PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) – The U.S. Pacific Northwest was in the throes of a record-shattering heat wave last summer when a woman in her 70s was wheeled into an emergency room with symptoms of a life-threatening heat stroke. Desperate to cool her, Dr. Alexander St. John grabbed a body […]

U.S. Drought Monitor map of the U.S. West, 10 February 2022. In February 2022, 95 percent of the Western U.S. was experiencing drought conditions. In summer 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, two of the largest reservoirs in North America — Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both on the Colorado River — reached their lowest recorded levels. Graphic: Deborah Bathke / Richard Tinker NOAA / NWS / NCEP / CPC

February 15, 2022

Megadrought in U.S. West worsens to driest in at least 1,200 years – “We need to be preparing for conditions in the future that are far worse than this”

By Seth Borenstein 15 February 2022 (AP) – The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds. A dramatic drying in 2021 — about as dry as 2002 and one […]

Coronavirus in the U.S., January 2020-January 2022, showing case rates, hospitalizations, and mortality. Data: Johns Hopkins University / Department of Health and Human Services. Graphic: CNBC

January 21, 2022

Two years since Covid was first confirmed in U.S., the pandemic is worse than anyone imagined – “Everybody wants to get to this thing called endemic. I still don’t know what the hell that means.”

By Spencer Kimball and Nate Rattner 21 January 2022 (CNBC) – A 35-year-old man returned to the U.S. from Wuhan, China on Jan. 15, 2020 and fell ill with a cough and fever. He had read an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about an outbreak of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan […]