North America – Page 16 – Desdemona Despair

Statewide rankings for average temperature and precipitation for September 2019 compared to each September since records began in 1895. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

October 16, 2019

September 2019 hottest on record globally, second hottest in U.S. history – All-time record for 12-month rainfall in U.S.

5 October 2019 (Copernicus Climate Change Service) – In Europe, temperatures were above average over most of the continent, especially in the south and south-east. Below-average temperatures occurred over much of Norway and Sweden, and over the far east of the continent. Globally September 2019 was 0.57°C warmer than the average September from 1981-2010, making […]

Southern resident orca J16 makes a rainbow while surfacing in Puget Sound. Photo: Miles Ritter

October 16, 2019

Orca task force adds 13 recommendations at final meeting as “biological extinction” looms

By Bellamy Pailthorp 8 October 2019 (KNKX) – Their goal is clear: to prevent Puget Sound’s iconic Southern Resident killer whales from going extinct. Solving that problem is anything but simple. The task force convened by Gov. Jay Inslee to save the orcas added 13 new recommendations this week, at its final meeting. The additions […]

The community center in Altha, Florida after Hurricane Michael, shown on 12 February 2019 (top) and 11 September 2019 (bottom). Photo: Tallahassee Democrat

October 12, 2019

Hurricane Michael survivors hanging on one year later – Thousands of Panhandle residents still live in tents, trailers, and hotel rooms – “Collectively we’ve forgotten them”

By Nada Hassanein 12 October 2019 SNEADS, Florida (Tallahassee Democrat) – Rodney and Tonya Hewett remember gazing outside the window of their farmhouse during Hurricane Michael. They saw their pool fence flying in the forceful winds, the wooden poles like swords. A deer that tried to run for safety went airborne. The Hewetts have been […]

Aerial view of Frying Pan Lake in Alaska. If the proposed massive Pebble Mine, located between two prime salmon spawning streams, is ever built, Frying Pan Lake, would disappear beneath a giant pile of tailings. Bristol Bay is one of the world’s greatest fisheries. Photo: SeattlePI

October 10, 2019

Battle over Bristol Bay mine: Native, fisheries groups sue Trump – “There’s simply no precedent for open pit mining coexisting with sockeye salmon on the scale proposed by the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay”

By Joel Connelly 8 October 2019 (SeattlePI) – Five Bristol Bay native and fisheries groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday, seeking to restore Clean Water Act protection and block a giant open pit copper-goldmine proposed cheek-by-jowl with the world’s greatest sockeye salmon fishery. The suit was filed on National Salmon Day. The U.S. Environmental […]

Map showing the coefficient of variation of precipitation (CVP) and its historical and projected changes in the continental United States. (A and B) Historical (1981–2010) CVP from PRISM for the cool and warm seasons, respectively. The bounding box in (A) indicates the Southwest region used for subsequent regional analyses. (C and D) PRISM-estimated historical change in CVP (∆CVPhistorical) from the early 20th century (1901–1930) to the late 20th/early 21st century (1981–2010) for the cool and warm seasons. Graphic: Dannenberg, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

October 3, 2019

Extreme rainfall variability driving tree growth reductions in western U.S. – “Key Southwest tree species may be at risk as precipitation extremes intensify”

By Rosemary Brandt 2 October 2019 (UA News) – As the Earth’s temperature warms, its hydrological cycle kicks into overdrive – wet years get wetter, and dry years get drier. According to a new University of Arizona-led study, these increased rainfall extremes could have dire consequences for the semi-arid forests of the western U.S. “In […]

Greg Wood, a Fairfax County, Virginia firefighter supporting USAID, sits in the dining tent of the camp set up on the tarmac at the Marsh Harbour Airport on 25 September 2019. The outfit has been on the ground since the hurricane, providing support to the Bahamian government. Photo: Andrew West / The USA Today Network-Florida

October 2, 2019

Bahamas struggles to right itself a month after Category 5 Hurricane Dorian brutalized islands – “Our very existence as a country of many low-lying islands and over 2,400 cays is under grave threat”

By Amy Bennett Williams 1 October 2019 NASSAU, Bahamas (Fort Myers News-Press) – Stooped and heavily laden, Keri Pierre trudged slowly uphill under blazing Bahamian sunshine. She was running out of time. As the days of her free temporary stay at Paradise Island’s Sunrise Beach Club dwindled, Pierre mounted an increasingly frantic search through Nassau for […]

Map showing fires around Paradise, California during the Camp Fire on Thursday, 8 November 2018. Although the main body of fire was massed to the east of Paradise, embers created spot fires elsewhere. Graphic: Deer Creek Resources / Google Earth

September 24, 2019

California utility cuts off power to thousands amid wildfire threat – “Humidity levels are dropping, and winds are picking up”

SAN FRANCISCO, 24 September 2019 (AP) – Thousands of people in Northern California woke up Tuesday without electricity after Pacific Gas & Electric cut power to try to prevent wildfires amid windy, dry and hot conditions. PG&E cut electrical service to 24,000 customers in three counties in the Sierra Nevada foothills Monday evening, saying power […]

72-hour rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Imelda compared with Hurricane Claudette in 1979, Tropical Storm Allison in 2001, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Imelda covered an area as large as Claudette and bigger than Allison but fell short of Harvey. Graphic: Jesse Ferrell / WeatherMatrix

September 23, 2019

Imelda rainfall is now 7 times more likely than 30 years ago – Climate change is making flooding more frequent in southeast Texas

By Jeff Berardelli 22 September 2019 (CBS News) – Over 36 inches of rain fell in just 36 hours in parts of coastal Texas this week. Astronomical rain rates of 6 inches per hour were observed generating the equivalent of a month’s worth of rain in 60 minutes. Imelda’s immense rainfall is both amazing and […]

Migration and food availability in Guatemala, 2016-2018. Data: U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Graphic: NBC News

September 21, 2019

Trump admin ignored its own evidence of climate change’s impact on migration from Central America

By Jacob Soboroff and Julia Ainsley 20 September 2019 GUATEMALA CITY (NBC News) – Research compiled one year ago by Customs and Border Protection pointed to an overwhelming factor driving record-setting migration to the U.S. from Guatemala: Crop shortages were leaving rural Guatemalans, especially in the country’s western highlands, in extreme poverty and starving. An […]

Homes lay in ruin in The Mudd neighborhood in the Marsh Harbour area of Abaco, Bahamas, on Monday, 9 September 2019, one week after Hurricane Dorian hit. Photo: Fernando Llano / AP Photo

September 21, 2019

Hurricane Dorian left 1.5 billion pounds of debris in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas – Total losses estimated at $7 billion – “We acknowledge that we are in a national climate crisis and the country is facing a national climate emergency”

By Jan Wesner Childs 21 September 2019 (The Weather Channel) – Officials are grappling with how to deal with 1.5 billion pounds of debris left behind in Marsh Harbour after Hurricane Dorian decimated the community in Abaco, Bahamas. The landscape was littered after Dorian with splintered homes and buildings, boats, cars and every sort of […]