Map showing reduction of stored groundwater in the U.S. Southwest, April 2002 - September 2023. Gravity measurements from the GRACE series of satellites show that the decline in water levels in the Great Basin region from April 2002 to September 2023 has most severely affected portions of southern California (indicated in red). Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest. Graphic: Hall, et al., 2024 / Geophysical Research Letters

NASA satellites find record snow didn’t offset Southwest U.S. groundwater loss – “In years like the 2022-23 winter, I expected that the record amount of snowfall would really help to replenish the groundwater supply. But overall, the decline continued.”

By James R. Riordon 17 June 2024 (NASA GSFC) – Record snowfall in recent years has not been enough to offset long-term drying conditions and increasing groundwater demands in the U.S. Southwest, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data [Snowfall Replenishes Groundwater Loss in the Great Basin of the Western United States, but […]

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 […]

People walk through waist-deep water in a flooded street as they evacuate on 12 June 2024, in Hollywood, Florida. On 12 June 2024, Gov. DeSantis signed the state budget after cutting almost $1 billion from the fiscal plan, including about $205 million in stormwater, wastewater, and sewer projects. Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Florida governor Ron DeSantis cuts stormwater flooding funding amid Florida deluge – “All those storm water projects he cut look pretty stupid right now”

By Jordan King 13 June 2024 (Newsweek) – Communities in Florida were hit with heavy rainfall and intense flooding on the same day Governor Ron DeSantis cut budgets for multiple water projects. On 12 June 2024, DeSantis signed the state budget after cutting almost $1 billion from the fiscal plan, the Tampa Bay Times reported—including about $205 […]

A drone view shows the flooded plantations, houses and streets of the Integracao Gaucha settlement in Eldorado do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, 17 May 2024. Photo: Amanda Perobelli / REUTERS

Flooded Brazil “ghost town” a climate warning to world, UN advisor says – “It was underwater for almost 40 days. There wasn’t even any rats running around. Everything had died.”

By Jake Spring 26 June 2024 SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Record floods that killed over 170 people and displaced half a million in southern Brazil are a warning sign of more disasters to come throughout the Americas because of climate change, an official at the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Tuesday. Roughly 389,000 people, opens […]

Floodwaters rushed around the Rapidan Dam on the Blue Earth River in Minnesota on 24 June 2024, washing away an electrical substation. Photo: Ben Brewer / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Breached Minnesota dam at risk of failure still standing amid “historic” flooding

By Kyle Stokes and Torey Van Oot 25 June 2024 (Axios) – “Historic” flooding across the state will likely require a federal disaster declaration, Gov. Tim Walz said Monday. Threat level: Recent heavy rain, including a foot-and-a-half in southern Minnesota, has already closed roads, caused serious damage, and left some communities under feet of water. The latest: A breached […]

A man sits on a bench during a heatwave in New Orleans on Tuesday, 8 August 2023. Photo: David Grunfeld / The Times-Picayune / NOLA.com

“It’s unbearable”: in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough – “The types of cooling systems that we sold 10 years ago are not able to keep up with the weather we have”

By Delaney Nolan 11 Jun 2024 (The Guardian) – Gloria Gellot, 79, takes a careful seat in a kitchen chair in front of her only air-conditioning unit, massaging her knees. She’s hung a sheet in the doorway to keep the cool air in the kitchen, and drawn shades to keep the sun – already blazing […]

A man stands near his home looking at a street he says has been flooded for months, on Thursday, 7 December 2023, in Prichard, Alabama. Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that don’t work. Photo: Brynn Anderson / AP Photo

Trillions of gallons leak from aging drinking water systems, further stressing shrinking U.S. cities – “It’s a huge problem because infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating”

By Tammy Webber 4 March 2024 PRICHARD, Alabama (AP) – Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that don’t work. For generations, the water […]

A screenshot from a CBC video shows a girl in Sheikpura, India suffering from record-breaking heat on 29 May 2024. In the northeast of India, students fainted from the heat in their classrooms. Photo: CBC

Animals collapse, water shortages bite amid India’s searing heat – “I haven’t seen it so hot in 56 years”

By Sakshi Dayal, Tanvi Mehta, and Anushree Fadnavis 31 May 2024 NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Animals collapsed, people jumped on water tankers with buckets amid shortages, and government employees changed their work hours as blistering summer heat kept its grip on north India on Thursday. Although Thursday’s readings were marginally lower in Delhi than the […]

Map showing maximum temperatures in India during the period 16 May 2024 through 25 May 2024. Parts of Rajasthan, Bundelkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and west Haryana experienced maximum temperature in the range of 45°C to 48°C. Punjab, Delhi NCR, and Uttar Pradesh experienced between 43-46°C. Graphic: Navdeep Dahiya

“Unbearable” heat in Delhi is testing limits of human survival – “The rise in temperatures comes alongside water shortages, and together are making many areas simply unlivable”

By Karishma Mehrotra and Dan Stillman 29 May 2024 DELHI (The Washington Post) – India’s capital territory of Delhi experienced some of its hottest weather on record Tuesday and Wednesday, with highs in some neighborhoods near the landmark threshold of 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). The exceptional heat has closed schools, endangered outdoor workers, […]

Overdose deaths in Baltimore, 1993-2022. Baltimore’s fatal overdose rate has quadrupled since 2013. It dipped in 2022, but preliminary data for 2023, not shown here, indicates overdoses were on track to rise again. Data: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Graphic: Molly Cook Escobar / The New York Times

Almost 6,000 dead in 6 years: How Baltimore became the U.S. overdose capital – “Unprecedented in the city’s history”

By Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme, and Jessica Gallagher 23 May 2024 (The New York Times) – People in Baltimore have been dying of overdoses at a rate never before seen in a major American city. In the past six years, nearly 6,000 lives have been lost. The death rate from 2018 to 2022 was nearly […]

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