Stormwater flows into Biscayne Bay, 1 June 2024 - 18 June 2024. The flows from the Little River exceeded rates of 2000 cubic feet per second, causing very low salinity in the bay, resulting in large-scale fish kills. Graphic: Miami Waterkeeper

Record flooding yields massive fish kill in miles-long stretch of Biscayne Bay – “These events are anything but normal”

By Margaret Wong 23 July 2024 (The Cool Down) – Biscayne Bay is reeling from its fourth major fish kill in as many years, triggered by recent record flooding in South Florida.  What’s happening? Torrential rains have inundated the region, causing a significant influx of freshwater into the bay, which has led to low salinity […]

A drone view shows flood waters surrounding homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl in Surfside Beach, Texas, U.S., 8 July 2024. Photo: Adrees Latif / REUTERS

Texas insurance crisis gets bad news – “With insurers withdrawing from climate-risk-prone markets or not renewing policies, securing essential coverage is becoming increasingly challenging”

By Suzanne Blake 10 July 2024 (Newsweek) – Texans have been facing a home insurance crisis that is only likely to escalate in the days after Hurricane Beryl, experts told Newsweek. Hurricane Beryl first entered Texas in Matagorda on Monday morning as a Category 1 hurricane after moving throughout the Caribbean. The hurricane persisted throughout Texas with strong winds and rain, […]

Fallen power lines littered the roads in Galveston after Hurricane Beryl hit the Texas coast on Monday, 8 July 2024. Photo: Meridith Kohut / The New York Times

Rising frustration in Houston after millions lost power in storm – “For a Category 1 hurricane to result in over a million customer outages in its immediate aftermath demonstrates that there is plenty of need for the resiliency hardening investments”

By J. David Goodman and Ivan Penn 10 July 2024 (The New York Times) – The sun felt hotter than usual in Houston this week, as millions of sweltering residents emerged from the rapid thrashing of Hurricane Beryl to face a prolonged power outage — the largest ever seen by the city’s utility, according to […]

Satellite image of Hurricane Beryl as it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast of Texas on 8 July 2024. Photo: Wanmei Liang / NASA Earth Observatory

8 dead, 2.5 million without power as Hurricane Beryl slams into Texas, Louisiana

By Clyde Hughes, Allen Cone, and Darryl Coote 8 July 2024 (UPI) – At least eight people were killed after Hurricane Beryl slammed southeast Texas with heavy winds, rain and flash flooding Monday. More than 2.5 million were still without power late Monday. The death toll included seven people killed in Texas and one in […]

The Little Sioux River floods homes in Smithland, Iowa, on 25 June 2024. Photo: Zach Boyden-Holmes / The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK

Flooding across the U.S. Midwest may have wiped out up to 1 million acres of crops, new estimates show – 7 million acres accumulated more than 6 inches of rain, which caused standing water in fields

By Tyne Morgan 3 July 2024 (Farm Journal) – Portions of Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska are grappling with the aftermath of flooding, while continuing to fight a swollen river. The Mississippi River is facing flood threats, too. The high waters and flooding are suffocating fields, causing crop damage to key growing areas across the […]

Florida governor Ron DeSantis delivers remarks in Umatilla, Florida,Tuesday, 25 June 2024, during a visit to tout the state’s infrastructure grants program. In May 2024, DeSantis signed a bill that stripped the phrase “climate change” from much of Florida law, reversing 16 years of state policy and, critics said, undermining Florida’s support of renewable and clean energy. Photo: Joe Burbank / Orlando Sentinel

Florida censors references to climate science in textbooks for public schools – “How do you write an environmental science book to appease people who are opposed to climate change?”

By Leslie Postal 5 July 2024 (Orlando Sentinel) – Textbook authors were told last month that some references to “climate change” must be removed from science books before they could be accepted for use in Florida’s public schools, according to two of those authors. A high school biology book also had to add citations to […]

Flames consume a home on Bessie Lane as the Thompson Fire burns in Oroville, California, Tuesday, 2 July 2024. An extended heat wave blanketing Northern California resulted in red flag fire warnings and power shutoffs. Photo: Noah Berger / AP Photo

Insurance crisis that started in Florida and California is spreading – “Insurance companies are responding to the fact that we’re seeing more frequent and more severe climate events, and the fact that they’re paying out more than they’re bringing in”

By Scott Cohn 2 July 2024 (CNBC) – An insurance crisis that has sent premiums skyrocketing and caused carriers to flee coastal states like Florida and California is spreading, and it is fundamentally changing the real estate market in states across the country. “Not only is the cost higher than people anticipated, but just the inability to […]

Homes destroyed by Hurricane Beryl lie in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, 4 July 2024. Photo: Lucanus Ollivierre / AP Photo

Hurricane Beryl batters Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as Texas officials urge coastal residents to prepare – 11 dead across the Caribbean – “This is a determined storm that is still strong”

By Martín Silva and John Myers Jr. 5 July 2024 TULUM, Mexico (AP) – Beryl battered Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday after hitting near the resort town of Tulum, whipping trees and knocking out power, while officials in Texas urged coastal residents to prepare as the storm moves toward the Gulf of Mexico. Beryl hit Mexico as […]

Map of the U.S. showing 11 weather and climate disasters each costing $1 billion or more that occurred between January and May, 2024. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

Billion-dollar disasters swept across the U.S. in Spring 2024

By Meredith Garofalo 13 June 2024 (Space.com) – Two severe weather events in May brought the number of billion-dollar disasters for the United States in 2024 up to nearly a dozen.  The month began with a tornado outbreak from May 6 to May 10 that stretched across 23 states, going from South Dakota to Florida. […]

An abandoned home sits across from a vacant lot Wednesday, 22 May 2024, in Hannibal, Missouri. Photo: Jeff Roberson / AP Photo

For shrinking Mississippi River towns, frequent floods worsen fortunes – “Everybody’s gone. This is a ghost town.”

By Michael Phillis, Jim Salter, and Camille Fassett 11 June 2024 WEST ALTON, Missouri (AP) – Devastating flooding, driven in part by climate change, is taking an especially damaging toll on communities that once thrived along the banks of America’s most storied river. Flooding has pushed people out of their homes near the Mississippi River at […]

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