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Tag: Climate

  • Hundreds of thousands are still without power in the Houston area. Here’s how it happened

    Hundreds of thousands are still without power in the Houston area. Here’s how it happened

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    DALLAS – Hundreds of thousands of people in the Houston area likely won’t have power restored until next week, as the city swelters in the aftermath of Hurricane Beryl.

    The storm slammed into Texas on Monday, knocking out power to nearly 2.7 million homes and businesses and leaving huge swaths of the region in the dark and without air conditioning in the searing summer heat.

    Although repairs have restored power to nearly 1.4 million customers, the scale of the damage and slow pace of recovery has put CenterPoint Energy, which provides electricity to the nation’s fourth-largest city, under mounting scrutiny over whether it was sufficiently prepared for the storm and is doing enough now to make things right.

    Some frustrated residents have also questioned why a part of the country that is all too familiar with major storms has been hobbled by a Category 1 hurricane, which is the weakest kind.

    Here’s what to know:

    What damage did Beryl leave behind?

    Beryl was no longer a Category 5 behemoth by the time it reached the U.S. before sunrise Monday. It made landfall as a weakened hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph (128 kpm) after having already torn a deadly path of destruction through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean.

    In the Houston area, Beryl toppled transmission lines, uprooted trees and snapped branches that crashed into power lines. By Friday morning, CenterPoint said it had restored power to almost 1.4 million customers. But nearly 900,000 were still without power, and the company predicted that about half a million would still be in the dark by Monday. Most of those customers were expected to be in the areas where Beryl came ashore.

    The staggering summer heat along the Texas coast has added to the urgency of restoring power and the city opened cooling centers for residents with air conditioning.

    The area got a brief break from temperatures that reached above 90 degrees (above 32.2 Celsius) with a new round of storms Thursday and Friday. But the rain was also expected to hamper crews’ efforts to repair power lines.

    What’s being done to restore power?

    CenterPoint Energy has defended its preparation for the storm and said that it had brought in about 12,000 additional workers from outside Houston since landfall to expedite power restoration.

    The utility said it would have been unsafe to preposition those workers inside the predicted storm impact area before it made landfall. Since then, workers have had to assess damage to more than 8,600 miles of power lines.

    Under sometimes sharp questioning Wednesday from Houston city councilmembers about the utility’s handling of the storm, Brad Tutunjian, vice president for regulatory policy for CenterPoint Energy, said it wouldn’t have been safe to pre-position outside crews to “ride out” the storm.

    He said the extensive damage to trees and power poles has hampered the ability to restore power quickly.

    Rural communities in Beryl’s path have also struggled to restore power. In coastal Matagorda County, where Beryl made landfall, officials said it may take up to two weeks to get the electricity back on for around 2,500 customers in the hard-hit community of Sargent, where homes were destroyed and badly damaged.

    What other storms have hit Houston?

    Beryl is just the latest natural disaster to wreak havoc on the power grid in the Houston area. In May, a powerful storm that ripped through the area with high winds left nearly 1 million people without power.

    Houston was also hit hard in 2021 when Texas’ power grid failed during a deadly winter storm that brought plunging temperatures, snow and ice. Millions of Texans lost power during that storm and were left to ride it out in frigid homes, or flee.

    In 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island as a Category 2 storm with 110-mph (177-kph) sustained winds, bringing flooding and wind damage to the Houston area. In the aftermath, Houston created a task force to investigate how the power was knocked out for more than 2 million people and took 19 days to restore.

    One key recommendation was for CenterPoint Energy to install an “intelligent grid” system that would automatically reroute power to unaffected lines during an outage. A document on the utility’s website noted that 996 of the devices had been installed as of 2019, which would have covered less than half of the grid at the time. It was not immediately clear if more progress had been made, and the company did not immediately respond to requests for further comment Wednesday.

    Where is Texas’ governor?

    Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been the face of the state’s response while Gov. Greg Abbott is on an economic development visit to Asia, where he’s traveling to Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

    Abbott left Texas on July 5 with a delegation that included other lawmakers, state officials and civic leaders. On Tuesday, Abbott posted on social media that he has remained in contact with emergency management officials and Patrick, who is the acting governor while Abbott is traveling.

    Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas was criticized in 2021 for traveling to Cancun while his state suffered through a deadly freeze. This week, Cruz has traveled along the coast visiting hard-hit communities alongside state officials. On Tuesday, Cruz said he was sleeping on a friend’s couch after his own home in Houston lost power.

    ___

    Associated Press/Report for America reporter Nadia Lathan contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Jamie Stengle, Associated Press

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  • On NYC beaches, angry birds fight drones patrolling for sharks and struggling swimmers

    On NYC beaches, angry birds fight drones patrolling for sharks and struggling swimmers

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    NEW YORK – A fleet of drones patrolling New York City’s beaches for signs of sharks and struggling swimmers is drawing backlash from an aggressive group of seaside residents: local shorebirds.

    Since the drones began flying in May, flocks of birds have repeatedly swarmed the devices, forcing the police department and other city agencies to adjust their flight plans. While the attacks have slowed, they have not stopped completely, fueling concern from wildlife experts about the impact on threatened species nesting along the coast.

    Veronica Welsh, a wildlife coordinator at the Parks Department, said the birds were “very annoyed by the drones” from the moment they arrived on the beach.

    “They will fly at it, they’ll swoop at it, they’ll be vocalizing,” Welsh said. “They think they’re defending their chicks from a predator.”

    No birds have been harmed, but officials say there have been several close calls. The drones, which come equipped with inflatable life rafts that can be dropped on distressed swimmers, have yet to conduct any rescues. They spotted their first shark on Thursday, resulting in a closure of most of the beach.

    City officials said the “swarming incidents” have been primarily carried out by American oystercatchers. The shorebird, known for its striking orange bill, lays its eggs this time of year in the sand on Rockaway Beach. While its population has improved in recent decades, federal authorities consider the species a “high conservation concern.”

    The birds eventually may grow habituated to the devices, which can stretch over 3 feet (nearly a meter) long and emit a loud hum as they take flight, said David Bird, a professor of wildlife biology at McGill University.

    But he was quick to raise a far more dire possibility: that the drones could prompt a stress response in some birds that causes them to flee the beach and abandon their eggs, as several thousand elegant terns did following a recent drone crash in San Diego.

    “We don’t know a lot about what sort of distance is required to protect the birds,” he said. “But we do know there are birds on this beach that are highly endangered. If they abandon their nests because of the drones, that would be a disaster.”

    On Rockaway Beach, a popular summertime destination for New Yorkers, American oystercatchers share their habitat with multiple tern species of waterbirds, as well as piping plovers, a small, sand-colored bird that is the city’s only federally designated endangered species. Local officials closely monitor the plovers each summer, barring beachgoers — and drones — from the stretches of sand where they primarily nest.

    The city’s Emergency Management Department, which also flies drones over the beach, flagged the coastal conflict last month to other drone operators in the police and fire department, who agreed to launch the devices further from oystercatcher nesting areas.

    “We pointed out that there’s a nest here and there’s two angry parents who don’t want you anywhere near their eggs or their babies,” said Natalie Grybauskas, the agency’s assistant commissioner.

    Since then, agencies have been holding briefings on the issue, a departure from their usual work on disasters like fires and building collapses.

    “It’s rare that you have to learn about the life cycles of baby birds,” Grybauskas said.

    But even after the city adjusted its flight range, beachgoers said they witnessed groups of birds rushing at the drones.

    New York City is not alone turning to drones to patrol its waters. Following a spate of shark bites last summer, a similar effort was launched by officials on Long Island. Those devices are smaller and quieter and do not have flotation devices. In recent years, lifeguards in Australia also have used drones to monitor sharks and to conduct rescue operations.

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a devoted drone enthusiast, has touted the new drone program as a “great addition to saving the lives of those that we lose over the summer,” especially as the city struggles to hire lifeguards to staff its beaches.

    Four people have drowned off city beaches this summer, matching the total number of swimming deaths from last year.

    After two teenagers disappeared while swimming off a beach adjacent to Rockaway, the NYPD flew its drones as part of the search mission. Both bodies eventually washed up on the shoreline.

    The fire department’s drones also have captured footage of lifeguards assisting swimmers on Rockaway Beach struggling in a rip tide.

    Christopher Allieri, founder of the NYC Plover Project, a bird protection group, praised the city for taking an innovative approach to water safety. But he stressed additional precautions were necessary to ensure the drones weren’t harming the shorebird population.

    “Wildlife in New York is often an afterthought,” he said. “We should be asking ourselves how we can use this technology in a way that works for all New Yorkers, and that includes those with feathers.”

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Jake Offenhartz, Associated Press

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  • Houston utility says 500K customers still won’t have electricity next week as Beryl outages persist

    Houston utility says 500K customers still won’t have electricity next week as Beryl outages persist

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    AUSTIN, Texas – About 500,000 customers still won’t have electricity into next week as wide outages from Hurricane Beryl persist and frustration mounts over the pace of restoration, an official with Houston’s biggest power utility said Thursday.

    Jason Ryan, executive vice president of CenterPoint Energy, said power has been restored to more than 1 million homes and businesses since Beryl made landfall on Monday. The company expects to get hundreds of thousands of more customers back online in the coming days, but others will wait much longer, he said.

    The Category 1 hurricane — the weakest type — knocked out power to around 2.7 million customers after it made landfall in Texas on Monday, according to PowerOutage.us.

    CenterPoint Energy has struggled to restore power to affected customers, who have grown frustrated that such a relatively weak storm could cause such disruption at the height of summer.

    Beryl has has been blamed for at least eight U.S. deaths — one each in Louisiana and Vermont, and six in Texas. Earlier, 11 died in the Caribbean.

    Even though it was relatively weak compared to other hurricanes that blew through Houston in recent years, it still managed to knock out power to much of the nation’s fourth-largest city during a period of stifling heat and humidity.

    ___ Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Nadia Lathan, Associated Press

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  • Beryl set to strengthen on approach to Texas due to hot ocean temperatures

    Beryl set to strengthen on approach to Texas due to hot ocean temperatures

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    TEXAS — With its unprecedented tear through the ultrawarm waters of the southeast Caribbean, Beryl turned meteorologists’ worst fears of a souped-up hurricane season into grim reality. Now it’s Texas turn.

    Beryl hit Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 2 hurricane on Friday, then weakened to a tropical storm. It’s expected to reach southern Texas by Sunday night or Monday morning, regaining hurricane status as it crosses over the toasty Gulf of Mexico.

    National Hurricane Center senior specialist Jack Beven said Beryl is likely to make landfall somewhere between Brownsville and a bit north of Corpus Christi Monday. The hurricane center forecasts it will hit as a strong Category 1 storm, but wrote “this could be conservative if Beryl stays over water longer” than expected.

    The waters in the Gulf of Mexico are warm enough for the early-season storm to rapidly intensify, as it has several times before.

    “We should not be surprised if this is rapidly intensifying before landfall and it could become a major hurricane,” said Weather Underground co-founder Jeff Masters, a former government hurricane meteorologist who flew into storms. “Category 2 may be more likely but we should not dismiss a Category 3 possibility.”

    Beven said the official forecast has Beryl gaining 17 to 23 mph in wind speed in 24 hours, but noted the storm intensified more rapidly than forecasters expected earlier in the Caribbean.

    “People in southern Texas now need to really keep an eye on the progress of Beryl,” Beven said.

    Masters and University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy said hurricane center forecasters have been very accurate in predicting Beryl’s track so far.

    Already three times in its one-week life, Beryl has gained 35 mph in wind speed in 24 hours or less, the official weather service definition of rapid intensification.

    The storm zipped from 35 mph to 75 mph on June 28. It went went from 80 mph to 115 mph in the overnight hours of June 29 into June 30 and on July 1 it went from 120 mph to 155 mph in just 15 hours, according to hurricane center records.

    Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach, using a different tracking system, said he counted eight different periods when Beryl rapidly intensified – something that has only happened in the Atlantic in July two other times.

    MIT meteorology professor Kerry Emanuel doesn’t give Beryl “much of a chance for another 35 mph wind speed jump in the Gulf of Mexico, but said it’s a tricky thing to forecast.

    Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm shows the literal hot water the Atlantic and Caribbean are in right now and the figurative hot water the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.

    The storm smashed various records even before its major hurricane-level winds approached the island of Carriacou in Grenada on Monday.

    Beryl set the record for the earliest Category 4 with winds of at least 130 mph (209 kilometers per hour) – the first-ever category 4 in June. It also was the earliest storm to rapidly intensify with wind speeds jumping 63 mph (102 kph) in 24 hours, going from an unnamed depression to a Category 4 in 48 hours.

    Colorado State University’s Klotzbach called Beryl a harbinger.

    Forecasters predicted months ago it was going to be a nasty year and now they are comparing it to record busy 1933 and deadly 2005 – the year of Katrina, Rita, Wilma and Dennis.

    “This is the type of storm that we expect this year, these outlier things that happen when and where they shouldn’t,” University of Miami’s McNoldy said. “Not only for things to form and intensify and reach higher intensities, but increase the likelihood of rapid intensification.”

    Warm water acts as fuel for the thunderstorms and clouds that form hurricanes. The warmer the water and thus the air at the bottom of the storm, the better the chance it will rise higher in the atmosphere and create deeper thunderstorms, said the University at Albany’s Kristen Corbosiero.

    “So when you get all that heat energy you can expect some fireworks,” Masters said.

    Atlantic waters have been record warm since April 2023. Klotzbach said a high pressure system that normally sets up cooling trade winds collapsed then and hasn’t returned.

    Corbosiero said scientists are debating what exactly climate change does to hurricanes, but have come to an agreement that it makes them more prone to rapidly intensifying, as Beryl did, and increase the strongest storms, like Beryl.

    Emanuel said the slowdown of Atlantic ocean currents, likely caused by climate change, may also be a factor in the warm water.

    A brewing La Nina, which is a slight cooling of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide, also may be a factor. Experts say La Nina tends to depress high altitude crosswinds that decapitate hurricanes.

    Copyright © 2024 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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    AP

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  • North Dakota tribe goes back to its roots with a massive greenhouse operation

    North Dakota tribe goes back to its roots with a massive greenhouse operation

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    BISMARCK, N.D. – A Native American tribe in North Dakota will soon grow lettuce in a giant greenhouse complex that when fully completed will be among the country’s largest, enabling the tribe to grow much of its own food decades after a federal dam flooded the land where they had cultivated corn, beans and other crops for millennia.

    Work is ongoing on the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation’s 3.3-acre (1.3-hectare) greenhouse that will make up most of the Native Green Grow operation’s initial phase. However, enough of the structure will be completed this summer to start growing leafy greens and other crops such as tomatoes and strawberries.

    “We’re the first farmers of this land,” Tribal Chairman Mark Fox said. “We once were part of an aboriginal trade center for thousands and thousands of years because we grew crops — corn, beans, squash, watermelons — all these things at massive levels, so all the tribes depended on us greatly as part of the aboriginal trade system.”

    The tribe will spend roughly $76 million on the initial phase, which also will includes a warehouse and other facilities near the tiny town of Parshall. It plans to add to the growing space in the coming years, eventually totaling about 14.5 acres (5.9 hectares), which officials say would make it one of the world’s largest facilities of its type.

    The initial greenhouse will have enough glass to cover the equivalent of seven football fields.

    The tribe’s fertile land along the Missouri River was inundated in the mid-1950s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the Garrison Dam, which created Lake Sakakawea.

    Getting fresh produce has long been a challenge in the area of western North Dakota where the tribe is based, on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. The rolling, rugged landscape — split by Lake Sakakawea — is a long drive from the state’s biggest cities, Bismarck and Fargo.

    That isolation makes the greenhouses all the more important, as they will enable the tribe to provide food to the roughly 8,300 people on the Fort Berthold reservation and to reservations elsewhere. The tribe also hopes to stock food banks that serve isolated and impoverished areas in the region, and plans to export its produce.

    Initially, the MHA Nation expects to grow nearly 2 million pounds (907,000 kilograms) of food a year and for that to eventually increase to 12 to 15 million pounds (5.4 million to 6.4 million kilograms) annually. Fox said the operation’s first phase will create 30 to 35 jobs.

    The effort coincides with a national move to increase food sovereignty among tribes.

    Supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic led tribes nationwide to use federal coronavirus aid to invest in food systems, including underground greenhouses in South Dakota to feed the local community, said Heather Dawn Thompson, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Tribal Relations. In Oklahoma, multiple tribes are running or building their own meat processing plant, she said.

    The USDA promotes its Indigenous Food Sovereignty Initiative, which “really challenges us to think about food and the way we do business at USDA from an indigenous, tribal lens,” Thompson said. Examples include indigenous seed hubs, foraging videos and guides, cooking videos and a meat processing program for indigenous animals.

    “We have always been a very independent, sovereign people that have been able to hunt, gather, grow and feed ourselves, and forces have intervened over the last century that have disrupted those independent food resources, and it made it very challenging. But the desire and goal has always been there,” said Thompson, whose tribal affiliation is Cheyenne River Sioux.

    The MHA Nation’s greenhouse plans are possible in large part because of access to potable water and natural gas resources.

    The natural gas released in North Dakota’s Bakken oil field has long been seen by critics as a waste and environmental concern, but Fox said the tribal nation intends to capture and compress that gas to heat and power the greenhouse and process into fertilizer.

    Flaring, in which natural gas is burned off from pipes that emerge from the ground, has been a longtime issue in the No. 3 oil-producing state.

    North Dakota Pipeline Authority Director Justin Kringstad said that key to capturing the gas is building needed infrastructure, as the MHA Nation intends to do.

    “With those operators that are trying to get to that level of zero, it’s certainly going to take more infrastructure, more buildout of pipes, processing plants, all of the above to stay on top of this issue,” he said.

    The Fort Berthold Reservation had nearly 3,000 active wells in April, when oil production totaled 203,000 barrels a day on the reservation. Oil production has helped the MHA Nation build schools, roads, housing and medical facilities, Fox said.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Jack Dura, Associated Press

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  • Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after killing at least 7 people in the southeast Caribbean

    Hurricane Beryl roars toward Mexico after killing at least 7 people in the southeast Caribbean

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    PLAYA DEL CARMEN – Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico’s Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake.

    What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened slightly but remained a major hurricane. Its eye was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight.

    Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge, but in nightlife hotspots like Playa del Carmen and Tulum tourists still took one more night on the town.

    Mexico’s Navy patrolled areas like Tulum telling tourists in Spanish and English to prepare for the storm’s arrival.

    Late Wednesday night, the storm’s center was about 560 miles (905 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 21 mph (32 kph). Beryl was forecast to make landfall in a sparsely populated area of lagoons and mangroves south of Tulum in the early hours of Friday, probably as a Category 2 storm. Then it was expected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and restrengthen over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to make a second strike on Mexico’s northeast coast near the Texas border.

    The storm had already shown its destructive potential across a long swath of the southeastern Caribbean.

    Beryl’s eye wall brushed by Jamaica’s southern coast Wednesday afternoon knocking out power and ripping roofs off homes. Prime Minister Andrew Holness said that Jamaica had not seen the “worst of what could possibly happen.”

    “We can do as much as we can do, as humanly possible, and we leave the rest in the hands of God,” Holness said.

    Several roadways in Jamaica’s interior settlements were impacted by fallen trees and utility poles, while some communities in the northern section were without electricity, according to the government’s Information Service.

    The worst perhaps came earlier in Beryl’s trajectory when it smacked two small islands of the Lesser Antilles.

    Michelle Forbes, the St. Vincent and Grenadines director of the National Emergency Management Organization, said that about 95% of homes in Mayreau and Union Island have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl.

    Three people were reported killed in Grenada and Carriacou and another in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, officials said. Three other deaths were reported in northern Venezuela, where four people were missing, officials said.

    One fatality in Grenada occurred after a tree fell on a house, Kerryne James, the environment minister, told The Associated Press.

    St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has promised to rebuild the archipelago.

    The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

    In Cancun Wednesday afternoon, Donna McNaughton, a 43-year-old cardiac physiologist from Scotland, was taking the approaching storm in stride.

    Her flight home wasn’t leaving until Monday, so she planned to follow her hotel’s advice to wait it out.

    “We’re not too scared of. It’ll die down,” she said. “And we’re used to wind and rain in Scotland anyway.”

    ___

    Associated Press journalists John Myers Jr. and Renloy Trail in Kingston, Jamaica, Mark Stevenson and María Verza in Mexico City, Coral Murphy Marcos in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Lucanus Ollivierre in Kingstown, St. Vincent and Grenadines contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Martín Silva And Fernando Llano, Associated Press

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  • A major fossil fuel group has a plan to sue Denver over its climate-minded building polices

    A major fossil fuel group has a plan to sue Denver over its climate-minded building polices

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    After wildfire smoke and smog smothered Denver in the summer of 2021, the city approved an ambitious plan to tackle its largest source of planet-warming pollution: big buildings.

    Local advocates and climate officials knew the Mile High City wouldn’t reach its lofty climate targets without an aggressive plan for its office towers, businesses and apartment blocks, especially since those types of buildings account for nearly half of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions.

    To help fix the problem, Denver updated its building codes and passed ordinances to reduce natural gas usage. The codes banned gas furnaces and water heaters in new commercial and multifamily buildings starting in 2024. In existing buildings, the rules required property owners to install electric systems whenever replacing gas equipment in 2025. While those regulations don’t prohibit natural gas equipment, any remaining gas-powered furnaces or boilers can only support a primary electric heating system. 

    Denver’s landmark climate policy is now threatened by legal challenges.

    A coalition of landlords and building operators fired the first salvo in April 2024, filing a lawsuit arguing that part of Denver’s building rules ran afoul of a federal energy efficiency law and placed an unfair financial burden on an already beleaguered real estate industry.

    Another potential lawsuit could soon join the fight to dismantle Denver’s climate-minded building policies. A powerful fossil fuel trade group, the National Propane Gas Association, plans to file a separate legal challenge, which could drag the city into a well-funded national effort to stop local governments from limiting gas in buildings.

    A legal strategy laid out in a leaked document

    A meeting agenda obtained by CPR News shows the National Propane Gas Association — an organization representing propane manufacturers, distributors and retailers — recently considered setting aside $20,000 to challenge Denver’s codes in federal court.

    While it’s unclear if the organization approved the funding, the agenda for the Zoom meeting held on May 30 notes the association’s Colorado chapter had already put $7,500 toward the potential lawsuit. The document further reveals the group has retained Baker Botts, a corporate law firm based in Houston, to lead the potential legal challenge. 

    Neither the law firm nor the local chapter of the propane association responded to CPR News’ requests for comment. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the propane group said the organization does not comment on “active, pending or potential lawsuits.”

    But the document suggests the organization has weighed the benefits of suing to block Denver’s climate-minded building codes. In a letter to the executive committee accompanying the meeting agenda, Jacob Peterson, the National Propane Gas Association’s director of state advocacy and affairs, wrote that Colorado’s recent focus on all-electric buildings has turned it “into a problematic state from a marketplace competitiveness standpoint.” 

    While city data show none of Denver’s commercial or multi-family buildings rely on propane, Peterson noted that other Colorado communities have pursued “anti-gas policies” over the last few years. A sustainability advisory board in Golden, for example, recently recommended an all-electric building code for new construction. 

    “If this Denver code goes unchallenged and is allowed to stand, there is concern that other Colorado communities, including areas where our core customers reside, will follow suit,” Peterson wrote to the executive committee. 

    Denver is far from the only Colorado community trying to use local rules to encourage residents to switch from natural gas to all-electric heat pumps and induction stoves. In 2022, Crested Butte became the first Colorado municipality to ban natural gas in new construction. A recently finalized code in Boulder also requires all-electric new buildings starting in December 2024, though it includes narrow exceptions for gas hookups in commercial kitchens and laboratories. 

    Across the country, more than 140 state and local governments have approved measures encouraging residents to ditch gas, according to an analysis by the Building Decarbonization Coalition, a pro-electrification advocacy group. 

    In his letter, Peterson told the National Propane Gas Association’s executive committee he expects the trade group will be a plaintiff in the potential Denver lawsuit — but neither the letter nor the meeting agenda indicate when lawyers might file it.

    The potential lawsuit would expand on a successful case in California.

    The meeting agenda reveals the explicit aim of a potential lawsuit: If filed, the overall goal is to replicate a legal victory in California, which forced the city of Berkeley to stop enforcing its first-in-the-nation ban on natural gas pipelines in new construction earlier this year. 

    Berekely’s 2019 ordinance marked the opening shot in a battle for all-electric buildings. By limiting access to natural gas, the city’s leaders and climate advocates hoped to take full advantage of a grid increasingly powered by zero-carbon resources like wind and solar. 

    The decision to scrap the law followed a successful lawsuit from the California Restaurant Association. A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed that the city’s ordinance violated a federal law giving the U.S. Department of Energy sole authority to set efficiency standards for appliances. 

    The National Propane Gas Association’s potential lawsuit would rely on the same argument to challenge Denver’s climate-minded building codes, according to the agenda obtained by CPR News. If a lawsuit is filed and prevails, the court ruling could block similar rules across the Tenth Circuit, which includes Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. 

    The propane group has backed similar lawsuits in other parts of the country. In October 2023, it sued New York City and New York state to challenge laws banning fossil fuels in new buildings starting at the end of 2025. Recent reporting by The Boston Globe also suggests the propane association’s New England affiliate is considering a lawsuit against Massachusetts over its pro-electrification policies. 

    If any of those lawsuits fail, the propane industry and its allies think it could have a counterintuitive upside: A split between federal court circuits could attract the attention of the majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court. In a recording obtained by The Boston Globe, a lawyer representing the propane association noted the nation’s highest court could intervene to settle any disagreement, potentially imposing a nationwide prohibition on local gas bans. 

    Meanwhile, environmental advocates doubt the legal reasoning behind the lawsuits. The cases rely on the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, a federal law born from the 1970s oil crisis giving the U.S. Department of Energy sole authority to set appliance efficiency standards. 

    Amy Turner, the director of the Cities Climate Law Initiative at Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, said cities aren’t trying to regulate the companies making furnaces or water heaters, but rather shift homes and offices away from a type of energy use driving global warming. 

    “What’s happening is that very well-funded, very well-organized interest groups are taking this law that had a particular purpose — helping protect manufacturers from a patchwork of technical requirements for their products — and using that to push back on state and local climate laws,” Turner said.

    The National Propane Gas Association could have some powerful allies behind its lawsuit against Denver

    In the initial lawsuit filed by Colorado landlords and property owners, the plaintiffs argue federal law invalidates Colorado’s and Denver’s building performance standards, which cap the amount of energy used in existing large buildings. 

    The documents obtained by CPR News suggest the propane industry’s potential lawsuit would rely on the same argument to take on a slightly different piece of the city’s green building policies. Rather than challenging Denver’s building performance standards, it would ask a court to throw out the city’s building codes, which require a shift to electric systems in commercial and multifamily buildings in new construction or during a major renovation project. 

    There’s also no indication the initial lawsuit is linked to the National Propane Gas Association. Andrew Hamrick, a general counsel for the Apartment Association of Metro Denver assisting with the first legal challenge, told CPR News he wasn’t aware of a second potential lawsuit planned by the propane industry.

    That doesn’t mean the propane industry lacks allies. The meeting agenda obtained by CPR News suggests the National Association of Home Builders and the American Gas Association are part of a coalition backing the propane industry’s potential lawsuit. The document, however, doesn’t indicate whether either trade group has pledged any financial support. 

    A spokesperson for the American Gas Association told CPR News the group is “not engaged in a lawsuit seeking to invalidate any Denver building codes and has not provided financial support.” A media representative for the National Association of Home Builders declined to comment. 

    Both groups, however, have a track record of trying to deter climate action and public health initiatives. The home builders group has used its political muscle to block other state and local rules designed to improve energy efficiency and reduce the climate footprint of new homes, including changes to building codes to require wiring to accommodate electric vehicle chargers.

    A recent NPR investigation found the American Gas Association spent decades casting doubt on scientific studies showing gas stoves threaten indoor air pollution. More recently, the trade group has successfully lobbied for state laws to prohibit towns and cities from restricting gas in new buildings. Those prohibitions are now in place in nearly half of all U.S. states, according to an analysis published by S&P Global last year. 

    Despite high-profile opposition to its climate plans, a spokesperson for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, who took office last year, insists the city is committed to following through with its buildings policy. Denver attorneys on June 24 also filed a motion to dismiss to the suit from landlords and property owners on Monday, arguing it has clear authority under federal law to move buildings away from fossil fuels.

    “We’ll continue to work closely with the development community to make sure everyone has the resources they need to meet these goals and succeed,” said Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.

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    Sam Brasch

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  • A key to Biden’s lagging wind energy goal will set sail after the election

    A key to Biden’s lagging wind energy goal will set sail after the election

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    Wind turbines, solar panels and a coal-fired power station in China.

    Owngarden | Moment | Getty Images

    The United States is producing less than 1% of the wind power it wants to generate by 2030. But an enormous boat promising to change that is about 89% built, and when it’s done next year, the real race to catch up begins.

    The ship, named the Charybdis after a mythological Greek sea monster, won’t set sail until next year, potentially after one of the most pro-green energy administrations in history has left the White House. And as Eric Hines, the director of Tufts University’s offshore wind energy graduate program, puts it, “We’re going to need somewhere on the order of five of these installation vessels in just a few years.”

    The Biden administration wants the U.S. to generate 30,000 megawatts from wind power within the next five and a half years. As of last year, that figure stood at just 42 megawatts, putting the nation far behind Europe — which added 18,300 megawatts of new wind energy capacity in 2023 alone, according to WindEurope.

    In recent years, constructing massive offshore windmills has come with headwinds from supply chain snags to higher interest rates. But the U.S. faces an added logistical puzzle from a 100-year-old maritime law that, along with those other factors, has contributed to project delays and even cancellations.

    The outcome of November’s election isn’t likely to affect the Charybdis, whose operator plans to take advantage of green energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. But the prospect of a new administration much less keen on renewables could hamper additional projects.

    Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed at a New Jersey rally in May that offshore wind installations harm whales, saying, “We are going to make sure that ends on day one. I am going to write it out in an executive order.” (“There are no known links between large whale deaths and ongoing offshore wind activities,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said.)

    The first major parts of the boat were laid down in 2020, kicking off a $625 million project between Dominion Energy and Seatrium AmFELS, which is building the massive vessel in its Brownsville, Texas, shipyard. At over 30,000 tons and with 58,000 square feet of deck space, the Charybdis will be able to transport 12 blades at a time, each measuring 357 feet and weighing 60 tons.

    We’re going to need somewhere on the order of five of these installation vessels in just a few years.

    Eric Hines

    Tufts University Professor

    Just as important as its technical specs, the boat will also be able to meet the requirements of the Jones Act, a 1920 merchant marine law that says cargo shipped from one point to another within the U.S. must be carried by an American vessel. And so far, there’s no American vessel capable of carrying wind turbine parts directly from shore to installation sites miles off the coast.

    The Charybdis’ first project will be Dominion’s offshore wind farm under development 24 miles east of Virginia Beach. Once completed, its 176 turbines are expected to deliver 2,600 megawatts of energy, enough to power over 900,000 homes. But to install its first two pilot turbines, it had to stage the parts in Canada to comply with the Jones Act, adding long travel times and related costs.

    “Obviously, you don’t want to install a large project like that,” said Mark Mitchell, the Dominion Energy senior vice president overseeing the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project — which, at $9.8 billion, is currently the largest and priciest in the country.

    Instead, the Charybdis will be able to pick up components on the coast, sail out to the wind farm site, and plant itself into the ocean floor using four 30-story legs that will transform the ship into a construction platform. Then, using a crane with a boom longer than 20 full-sized vehicles lined up bumper to bumper, it will begin assembling the turbines.

    After completing the Virginia project, the ship will be available for contract to other offshore wind projects along the nation’s coastline. Mitchell hopes the Charybdis can do more than complete wind farms already in the works, but inspire developers and planners to propose new ones too.

    “It’s a little bit of the chicken or the egg. As we start committing the projects, others can commit to infrastructure like this,” Mitchell said, adding that state and federal incentives will “pass right down to our customers.”

    But in other cases, federal subsidies have not been enough to overcome rising costs. One major reason: the Federal Reserve, which raised interest rates 11 times between March 2022 and July 2023, the fastest pace it has raised rates since the early 1980s.

    It’s a little bit of the chicken or the egg. As we start committing the projects, others can commit to infrastructure like this.

    Mark Mitchell

    Dominion Energy

    Higher interest rates make it more expensive to finance large construction projects like wind farms.

    “The cost of construction is very high,” Hines said. “If you imagine the time while one is constructing a project, you’re not making any money off the project. And so money that you borrow that time to construct the project, there’s a premium on that money, and the lower the interest rates, the better.”

    Last year, Danish company Orsted canceled two projects off the coast of New Jersey, citing “challenging” conditions.

    “Macroeconomic factors have changed dramatically over a short period of time, with high inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain bottlenecks impacting our long-term capital investments,” Orsted said in October. The company paid the state $125 million to cease development.

    The Biden administration acknowledges the pressure from higher interest rates and points to tax credits in the IRA as a way to offset them.

    “We know that there are a number of different tools that will help us overcome some of those macroeconomic challenges,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

    He acknowledged that the Biden administration’s goal of 30,000 megawatts of wind energy is “ambitious” but pointed to projects in the pipeline as a sign of things to come. The Energy Department has tallied nearly $6 billion of investments to develop offshore wind over the last few years, including in 17 manufacturing sites and at 15 ports.

    “Those are the kinds of investments that we need to continue to see in order to reach the president’s goals,” Marootian said.

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  • ‘We’re going to lose these homes:’ TS Alberto’s storm surge eats away at Bolivar Peninsula sand dunes

    ‘We’re going to lose these homes:’ TS Alberto’s storm surge eats away at Bolivar Peninsula sand dunes

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    CRYSTAL BEACH, Texas – The Houston area dodged the worst of Tropical Storm Alberto, but that doesn’t mean we got away without a scratch.

    Our barrier islands took a beating from Alberto’s storm surge. Galveston Bay and nearby barrier islands saw two to four feet of storm surge roll onto the island.

    For communities on the Bolivar Peninsula, this turned out to be a devastating punch to their solo line of defense when it comes to fending back the angry waters of the Gulf of Mexico: sand dunes.

    Crystal Beach on Bolivar Peninsula after storm surge from Tropical Storm Alberto ate away at the coastline. Photo: June 20, 2024 (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)

    “This ain’t a storm. This is disturbance out in the Gulf,” said Crystal Beach resident Shane Stone. “It’s 400 miles away and look what it’s done.”

    In some areas of Crystal Beach, roughly 25 yards worth of sand dunes were seemingly washed out overnight.

    Some homes are now exposed to the elements at their foundation with the waves from the Gulf nearly hitting their pilings.

    At one home in the Tidelands community, the entire backyard and dunes were washed away.

    A backyard in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula eroded away by the storm surge from Tropical Storm Alberto on June 20, 2024. (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)

    “Every bit of 10 to 12 foot height. Gone,” said Stone.

    For the second day in a row on Thursday, storm surge was eating away at the beach and dunes.

    Residents recorded video of sand literally washing away in front of them.

    “This used to be all yard. These dunes was over this,” Stone explained. “We’re going to lose these houses.”

    Sand dunes are one of the best ways to hold back the Gulf of Mexico’s destructive storm surge.

    Researchers in Southwest Florida highlighting the importance of dunes after Hurricane Ian in September 2022.

    At Florida Gulf Coast University, researchers are employing the help of LIDAR-equipped drones to map the beach before, immediately and after Hurricane Ian.

    Their findings show that storm surge takes two swings at their target: once on the way in and again on the way out.

    “We realized that the storm surge actually causes problems twice, once coming in the so-called flood surge and once going out the ebb surge,” said Dr. Mike Savarese with The Water School at Florida Gulf Coast University. “And that returning water created, oh, horrendous conditions, in fact, most of the damage.”

    It’s that ebb surge that’s ripping away the dunes from Bolivar Peninsula.

    “Could you imagine if we actually have a hurricane,” Stone said. “A category one, category two. What it’s going to do?”

    A backyard in Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula eroded away by the storm surge from Tropical Storm Alberto on June 20, 2024. (Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.)

    A Galveston County spokesperson told KPRC2′s Gage Goulding on Thursday that crews are still evaluating the extent of the damage.

    Then they’ll be able to devise a plan to mitigate the damage until the end of hurricane season.

    But the reality is, it’ll take time and that’s the one thing residents don’t have with another tropical system already brewing in the Gulf.

    “Unfortunately, I think we’re doomed,” Stone said.

    Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.

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    Gage Goulding, Douglas Burgess

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  • Collecting sex-crazed zombie cicadas on speed: Scientists track a bug-controlling super-sized fungus

    Collecting sex-crazed zombie cicadas on speed: Scientists track a bug-controlling super-sized fungus

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    LISLE, Ill. – With their bulging red eyes and their alien-like mating sound, periodical cicadas can seem scary and weird enough. But some of them really are sex-crazed zombies on speed, hijacked by a super-sized fungus.

    West Virginia University mycology professor Matt Kasson, his 9-year-old son Oliver, and graduate student Angie Macias are tracking the nasty fungus, called Massospora cicadina. It is the only one on Earth that makes amphetamine — the drug called speed — in a critter when it takes over. And yes, the fungus takes control over the cicada, makes them hypersexual, looking to spread the parasite as a sexually transmitted disease.

    “They’re zombies, completely at the mercy of the fungus,” said University of Connecticut cicada researcher John Cooley.

    This particular fungus has the largest known genome of any fungus. It has about 1.5 billion base pairs, about 30 times longer than many of the more common fungi we know, Kasson said. And when these periodical cicadas live underground for 17 years (or 13 years in the U.S. South), the spores generally stay down there with them.

    “This was a mycological oddity for a long time,” Kasson said. “It’s got the biggest genome. It produces wild compounds. It keeps the host active — all these quirks to it.”

    Kasson decided to ask people from around the country to send in infected cicadas this year. And despite an injured leg, Kasson, his son and Macias travelled from West Virginia to the Morton Arboretum outside Chicago, where others have reported the fungus that takes over a cicada’s nether parts, dumping the genitalia and replacing it with a white, gummy yet flaky plug that’s pretty noticeable. The spores then fall out like salt from a shaker.

    Infected cicadas are supposed to be hard to find.

    Ten seconds after she hops off the golf cart, Macias is in the trees, looking. She emerges victorious, hand in the air with a cicada, yelling “I got one.”

    “That was just lucky,” Oliver whines.

    “Luck, huh? Let’s see you get one,” Macias replies.

    Ten seconds later at a neighboring bush, Oliver finds another. And just a bit after that a photographer finds a third.

    Kasson and his small team collected 36 infected cicadas in his brief Chicago area jaunt with people sending him another 200 or so from all over. He’s still waiting for an RNA analysis of the fungus.

    Some cicada experts have estimated maybe one in 1,000 of the periodical cicadas are infected with this fungus, but it’s not much more than a guess. Mount St. Joseph University’s Gene Kritsky, a biologist who wrote the book on this year’s unique dual emergence, said it might be skewed because the healthy cicadas stay higher up in the trees.

    This year “the fungus is about how it always is,” Cooley said in an email. “It’s not super common.”

    There’s debate among scientists if the fungus infects more cicadas deep in the soil coming out of the ground after 13 or 17 years or if it infects the newly hatched nymphs on the way underground for more than a decade.

    This fungus isn’t the type of parasite that kills its host, but instead it needs to keep it alive, Kasson said. Then the infected cicadas attempt to mate with others, spreading the spores to its mate/victim. The males even pretend in their hypersexualized state to be females to entice and infect other males, he said.

    The cousin to this fungus which infects annual cicadas out west also makes a psychoactive compound in the cicadas but it is more akin to psychedelics like magic mushrooms, Kasson said. So sometimes people, even experts, mix up the amphetamine that the infected 17- and 13-year cicadas produce with the more trippy compounds of the annual bugs, he said.

    Either way, don’t try it at home. Even though cicadas themselves are edible, not so much the infected ones.

    In the interest of science, Kasson tried one during this emergence, making sure they were from the inside of a female so more antiseptic.

    “Man, it was so bitter,” Kasson said, explaining that he immediately rinsed his mouth out. “It tasted like something you would consider poisonous.”

    ___

    Read more of AP’s climate coverage at http://www.apnews.com/climate-and-environment

    ___

    Follow Seth Borenstein on X at @borenbears

    ___

    The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

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  • Record-breaking US heat wave scorches the Midwest and Northeast, bringing safety measures

    Record-breaking US heat wave scorches the Midwest and Northeast, bringing safety measures

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    PHOENIX – Stifling heat blanketed tens of millions of people in United States on Tuesday, forcing people and even zoo animals to find ways to cool down as summer arrives in what promises to be a sweltering week.

    Extreme heat alerts stretched from Iowa to Ohio and even into the upper reaches of Michigan on Tuesday, canceling outdoor activities across the region. The National Weather Service said the dangerous heat wave was expected to make its way across the country and into Maine until at least Friday.

    Near Toledo, Ohio, the city of Rossford called off its weekly street fair because of temperatures expected to reach the upper 90s. A food bank in upstate New York canceled deliveries for Wednesday out of concern for its staff and volunteers.

    An organization that provides produce to areas with limited access to fresh foods in Columbus, Ohio, prepared frozen towels for their workers if they overheat and packed cold water to stay hydrated

    “Hydration is the key,” said, Monique McCoy, market manager for the Local Matters Veggie Van.

    Schools in New York canceled field trips Tuesday to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, where workers turned on water misters for visitors and the animals. Elephants and other animals were getting chunks of ice in their pools, said Ted Fox, the zoo’s executive director.

    “Most of the species love them,” Fox said. “Even the tigers love to lick the ice and put their heads on them when that’s when it’s this warm.”

    A recent study found that climate change is making heat waves move more slowly and affect more people for a longer time. Last year, the U.S. saw the most heat waves — abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days — since 1936.

    Chicago broke a 1957 temperature record Monday with a high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 degrees Celsius). Hot and muggy conditions will continue this week with peak heat indexes near 100 F (37.7 C) at times, the National Weather Service in Chicago said in a post on the social platform X.

    Much of the Midwest and Northeast were under heat warnings or watches, with officials opening cooling centers and urging people to limit outdoor activities when possible and to check in with family members and neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat.

    In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul activated the National Guard to assist in any heat emergencies that develop over the next several days.

    “This is a time of significant risk, and we’re doing our best to make sure that all lives are protected,” Hochul said Tuesday.

    In Southern California, firefighters increased their containment of a large wildfire burning in steep, hard-to-reach areas of mountains north of Los Angeles. But hot, dry, windy weather could challenge their efforts Tuesday. Wildfires also burned in New Mexico, prompting the evacuation of a village of 7,000 people.

    While much of the U.S. swelters, late-season snow was forecast for the northern Rockies, with parts of Montana and north-central Idaho under a winter storm warning into Tuesday. As much as 20 inches (51 centimeters) was predicted for higher elevations around Glacier National Park.

    Meanwhile, a fresh batch of tropical moisture was bringing an increasing threat of heavy rain and flash flooding to the central Gulf Coast. Hurricane season this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory.

    ___

    Orsagos reported from Columbus.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of weather at https://apnews.com/hub/weather

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Anita Snow, Associated Press

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  • Record-breaking US heat wave scorches the Midwest as New York activates the National Guard

    Record-breaking US heat wave scorches the Midwest as New York activates the National Guard

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    PHOENIX – Extreme heat alerts affected tens of millions of people in the United States on Tuesday as cities including Chicago broke records at the start of a week of sweltering weather.

    Midwestern states started to bake Monday in what the National Weather Service called a dangerous and long duration heat wave expected to stretch from Iowa to Maine until at least Friday.

    New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Tuesday that she has activated the National Guard to assist in any heat emergencies that develop over the next several days.

    “This is a time of significant risk, and we’re doing our best to make sure that all lives are protected,” Hochul said during a morning briefing.

    Chicago broke a 1957 temperature record Monday with a high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 degrees Celsius). Hot and muggy conditions will continue this week with peak heat indexes near 100 F (37.7 C) at times, the National Weather Service in Chicago said in a post on the social platform X.

    The heat didn’t stop people in Chicago’s Grant Park from ordering the hottest dishes off the menu at the food truck where Emmanuel Ramos is a cook, WBBM-TV reported.

    “They be ordering the hottest stuff on the hottest day,” he said. “They order ramen, corn — they just want everything hot. I don’t know why,” Ramos said. “Right now, something that would be good is the smoothies.”

    Last year, the U.S. saw the most heat waves — abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days — since 1936. Officials warned residents to take precautions.

    Much of the Midwest and Northeast were under heat warnings or watches, with officials opening cooling centers and urging people to limit outdoor activities when possible and to check in with family members and neighbors who may be vulnerable to the heat.

    The heat has been especially dangerous in recent years in Phoenix, where 645 people died from heat-related causes in 2023, which was a record. Temperatures there hit 112 F (44.4 C) on Saturday. Weather service forecasters say the first two weeks of June in Phoenix were the hottest start to the month on record there.

    A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix, Ted Whittock, advised reducing time outdoors between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., staying hydrated and wearing light, looser fitting clothing. More than 100 cooling centers were open in the city and surrounding county, including two new overnight ones.

    In Southern California, firefighters increased their containment of a large wildfire burning in steep, hard-to-reach areas of mountains north of Los Angeles. But hot, dry, windy weather could challenge their efforts Tuesday. Wildfires also burned in New Mexico, prompting the evacuation of a village of 7,000 people.

    The warming temperatures come amid growing concern about the effects of extreme heat and wildfire smoke. The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity sent a petition Monday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency asking it to recognize extreme heat and wildfire smoke as major disasters.

    The agency did not immediately issue a specific response to the petition. A FEMA spokesperson for the western U.S. states said there was nothing that would preclude an emergency declaration for extreme heat but noted that there would need to be an immediate threat to life and safety that local authorities could not respond to.

    While much of the U.S. swelters, late-season snow was forecast for the northern Rockies, with parts of Montana and north-central Idaho under a winter storm warning. As much as 20 inches (51 centimeters) was predicted for higher elevations around Glacier National Park.

    Meanwhile, a fresh batch of tropical moisture was bringing an increasing threat of heavy rain and flash flooding to the central Gulf Coast.

    Hurricane season this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of weather at https://apnews.com/hub/weather

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Anita Snow, Associated Press

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  • EU countries approve landmark nature law after delays

    EU countries approve landmark nature law after delays

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    Austria’s Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology Leonore Gewessler reacts before an extraordinary European Union energy ministers meeting at the European Council headquarters in Brussels on December 13, 2022.

    Valeria Mongelli | Afp | Getty Images

    European Union countries approved a flagship policy to restore damaged nature on Monday, after months of delay, making it the first green law to pass since European Parliament elections this month.

    The nature restoration law is among the EU’s biggest environmental policies, requiring member states to introduce measures restoring nature on a fifth of their land and sea by 2030.

    EU countries’ environment ministers backed the policy at a meeting in Luxembourg, meaning it can now pass into law.

    The vote was held after Austria’s environment minister, Leonore Gewessler of the Greens, defied her conservative coalition partners by pledging to back the policy – giving it just enough support to pass.

    “I know I will face opposition in Austria on this, but I am convinced that this is the time to adopt this law,” Gewessler told reporters.

    The policy aims to reverse the decline of Europe’s natural habitats – 81% of which are classed as being in poor health – and includes specific targets, for example to restore peat lands so they can absorb CO2 emissions.

    The move by Austria’s minister angered Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservative People’s Party, which opposes the law. The OVP minister for EU affairs, Karoline Edtstadler, said Gewessler’s vote in favour would be unconstitutional.

    Belgium, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency and chairs meetings of ministers, said the Austrian government dispute would not affect the legality of the EU ministers’ vote.

    EU countries and the European Parliament negotiated a deal on the law last year but it has come under fire from some governments in recent months amid protests by farmers angry at costly EU regulations.

    A flower meadow with dandelions and buttercups as well as some vacation farms in the area around Hinterwinkl can be seen in front of the mountain panorama with the double summit of the large and small Bischofsmütze near Filzmoos in Salzburger Land (Austria).

    Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

    Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden voted against the law on Monday. Belgium abstained.

    EU countries had planned to approve the policy in March but called off the vote after Hungary unexpectedly withdrew its support, wiping out the slim majority in favour.

    Countries including the Netherlands had raised concerns the policy would slow the expansion of wind farms and other economic activities, while Poland on Monday said the policy lacked a plan for how nature protection would be funded.

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  • Heat forces Greek authorities to shut down Acropolis during afternoon hours for a second day running

    Heat forces Greek authorities to shut down Acropolis during afternoon hours for a second day running

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    ATHENS – Authorities in Greece are closing down the Acropolis in Athens during the afternoon on Thursday for a second day as the country swelters under unseasonably high temperatures.

    The Culture Ministry said the hilltop citadel, which is Greece’s most popular ancient site, would be closed from midday to 5 p.m. (0900-1400 GMT) because of the heat.

    All other archaeological sites in the Greek capital will be closed during the same hours. People who have booked visits for that period can use their tickets later in the day, the ministry said.

    Temperatures are expected to exceed 40 C (104 F) on Thursday in much of central and southern Greece, including greater Athens, the Cyclades islands and Crete.

    Officials are on heightened alert for wildfires, which plague Greece every summer.

    Authorities in Athens are providing air-conditioned areas to the public and have issued fans to secondary schools where end-of-year and university entrance exams are being held.

    The weather is expected to cool Friday and Saturday.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Associated Press

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  • Each of the Past 12 Months Broke Temperature Records

    Each of the Past 12 Months Broke Temperature Records

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    June 2023 did not seem like an exceptional month at the time. It was the warmest June in the instrumental temperature record, but monthly records haven’t exactly been unusual in a period where the top 10 warmest years on record all occurred in the past 15 years. And monthly records have often occurred in years that are otherwise unexceptional; at the time, the warmest July on record had occurred in 2019, a year that doesn’t stand out much from the rest of the past decade.

    But July 2023 set another monthly record, easily eclipsing 2019’s high temperatures. Then August set yet another monthly record. And so has every single month since—a string of records that propelled 2023 to being the warmest year since tracking started.

    On Wednesday, the European Union’s Earth-monitoring service, Copernicus, announced that it has now been a full year where every month has been the warmest version of that month since there’s been enough instruments in place to track global temperatures.

    The history of monthly temperatures shows just how extreme the temperatures have been over the past year.Courtesy of C3S/ECMWF

    As you can see from this graph, most years feature a mix of temperatures—some higher than average, some lower. Exceptionally high months tend to cluster, but those clusters also tend to be shorter than a full year.

    In the Copernicus data, a similar yearlong streak of records happened once before, in 2015/2016. NASA, which uses slightly different data and methods, doesn’t show a similar streak in that earlier period. NASA hasn’t released its results for May’s temperatures yet—they’re expected in the next few days—but it’s very likely that the results will also show a yearlong streak of records.

    Beyond records, the EU is highlighting the fact that the one-year period ending in May was 1.63 degrees Celsius above the average temperatures of the 1850–1900 period, which is used as a baseline for preindustrial temperatures. That’s notable because many countries have ostensibly pledged to try to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial conditions by the end of the century. While it’s likely that temperatures will drop below the target again at some point within the next few years, the new records suggest that we have a very limited amount of time before temperatures persistently exceed it.

    Increasing line graph labeled Global surface temperature increase above preindustrial

    For the first time on record, temperatures have held steadily in excess of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average.Courtesy of C3S/ECMWF

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    Jon Brodkin, Ars Technica

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  • Hurricane season will bring 4 to 7 major storms, NOAA predicts. How to prevent catastrophic damage to your home

    Hurricane season will bring 4 to 7 major storms, NOAA predicts. How to prevent catastrophic damage to your home

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    Hurricane Irma strikes Miami, Florida, in 2017.

    Warren Faidley | Getty Images

    Hurricane season has officially begun.

    With scientists predicting yet another active year for storms, making your home hurricane resistant has become a more valuable precaution.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its forecast May 23 that it expects an 85% chance of “above-normal” activity this hurricane season, which spans from June 1 to Nov. 30.

    NOAA forecasts 17 to 25 total named storms with winds of 39 mph or higher. Eight to 13 are expected to spiral into hurricanes, and four to seven of those might turn into major hurricanes — Category 3, 4 or 5 — with winds reaching 111 mph or higher.

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    “Severe weather and emergencies can happen at any moment, which is why individuals and communities need to be prepared today,” Erik A. Hooks, deputy administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said in a statement released with the NOAA forecast.

    “Already, we are seeing storms move across the country that can bring additional hazards like tornadoes, flooding and hail,” he said. “Taking a proactive approach to our increasingly challenging climate landscape today can make a difference in how people can recover tomorrow.”

    How climate change may affect storm activity and damage

    Hurricanes are among the most expensive natural disasters in the U.S., and experts say the storm-related damage is likely to become more significant as storms become more severe.

    NOAA said “near-record warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean” are expected to be among the factors creating the environment for tropical storm formation.

    A separate forecast from hurricane researchers at Colorado State University predicts an “extremely active” hurricane season in 2024 due to record-warm tropical and eastern subtropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures.

    The water temperatures across the tropical Atlantic in 2024 on average are about 1 degree Celsius, or 1.5 to 2 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer than normal. While it doesn’t sound like much, it’s a big difference, said Phil Klotzbach, a senior research scientist at the Department of Atmospheric Science of Colorado State University.

    “The tropical Atlantic right now is record warm,” he said. “That means more fuel for the storms that are trying to form.”

    Now’s the time to prepare and have a plan in place.

    Phil Klotzbach

    a senior research scientist at the Department of Atmospheric Science of Colorado State University

    While atmospheric and water conditions may change, it’s wise for residents of storm-prone areas to think about undertaking home projects sooner rather than later.

    “Now’s the time to prepare and have a plan in place,” Klotzbach said. “You don’t want to be making these preparations at the last minute.”

    Some of the projected effects of global warming on hurricane activity include sea level rise increasing coastal flooding, higher rainfall rates, and storms that are more intense and strengthen rapidly, according to a research overview from NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.

    “Warmer sea surface temperatures intensify tropical storm wind speeds, giving them the potential to deliver more damage if they make landfall,” wrote the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a think tank.

    Projections from reinsurer Swiss Re show that since the 1970s, hurricane residential loss expectations have been on the rise, in part due to an increase in hurricane activity and changes in property value from population growth. Improvements in building standards have offset some of that increase, however.

    Wind resistance is about preventing ‘pressurization’

    Upgrades could help consumers protect their home, typically one of their most valuable assets, from windstorms and other natural disasters.

    Making your home hurricane resistant can be a significant financial undertaking. But it’s one that has the potential to pay off as such storms become more intense due to climate change.

    In 2024, the national average cost to upgrade an entire house with hurricane windows runs between $1,128 and $10,293, or $100 and $500 per window, including installation, according to home improvement site This Old House. And that’s just one project.

    About $8.1 billion could be saved annually in physical damage from windstorms if homes had stronger connections between roofs and walls, or tighter nail spacing, according to a 2022 analysis on hurricane-resistant construction by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    Part of the challenge of making home improvements with windstorms in mind is that hurricanes are different and unpredictable, said Jeff Ostrowski, a housing analyst at Bankrate.

    “You don’t know if you’re going to be dealing with storm surge, or high winds or heavy rains. You’re trying to prepare for all those things at once,” he said.

    It’s like a balloon that blows up, and when it blows up so much … it pops. That’s what happens to your house when the wind comes in. 

    Leslie Chapman-Henderson

    president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes

    There are two key elements in your home to help prevent wind-related damage in a hurricane, according to Leslie Chapman-Henderson, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes, or FLASH. You want to:

    1. Make sure the structural strength between the roof and the wall can withstand wind pressure and impact of debris.
    2. Protect all the openings in your home: the doors, windows and the garage.

    “What we’re working to prevent is pressurization. It’s like a balloon that blows up, and when it blows up so much … it pops,” she said. “That’s what happens to your house when the wind comes in.” 

    Ways to make your home more hurricane resistant

    1. Have an inspector assess your house

    Having an inspector come out to see your house is a good starting point for your projects. They will provide a report of what areas in your home need to be redone or reinforced against harsh weather.

    2. Reinforce your roof

    The average cost to replace a roof in the U.S. is about $10,000, but the exact cost will depend on multiple factors, such as the size of your roof, according to the Department of Energy.

    Fortified, a nonprofit reroofing program that helps strengthen homes against severe weather, offers guidelines to homeowners planning to replace their roofs on how to withstand challenges in their area, said Jennifer Languell, president and founder of Trifecta Construction Solutions, a sustainable consulting firm in Florida.

    “It tells you what you need to do to make your roof more sturdy,” she said.

    If you’re not ready to completely reroof your house, adding caulk or an adhesive to strengthen the soffits — the material connecting the roof edge to the exterior walls — will reduce the probability of wind and water gushing into your attic in a storm, said Chapman-Henderson of FLASH. Repair jobs for the soffit and fascia, a horizontal board usually outside the soffit, can cost between $600 and $6,000, according to Angi.com.

    Securing the roof to the walls in an existing home with an attic can be done by installing metal clips or straps that strengthen the hold-down effect, she said. While the exact cost will depend on factors such as the size of your home and the scale of the project, such retrofitting costs span from $850 to $1,350, according to Kin, a home insurance company.

    You can do all this stuff in terms of hardening the house, but you’re still kind of at the mercy of whatever storm comes.

    Jeff Ostrowski

    housing analyst at Bankrate

    3. Secure your windows and doors

    “Do you have hurricane-impact windows? If not, can you put them in?” said Melissa Cohn, regional vice president of William Raveis Mortgage.

    If installing new hurricane windows isn’t in the budget, shutters are lower-cost options to protect windows and other openings, said Chapman-Henderson.

    Shutters vary by material, installation and price. Removable galvanized storm panels made of steel are $5 to $6 per square foot, making them the most affordable option, according to information compiled by FLASH.

    It may be worth installing shutters as an extra layer of protection, even with impact-proof windows, said Trifecta Construction Solutions’ Languell.

    Meanwhile, garage doors are the “largest and weakest opening,” said Chapman-Henderson. Replacing the entire garage door for a wind-rated or impact-resistant version can span from $2,000 to $9,000, according to FLASH.

    Emergency bracings can be a lower-cost solution: temporary 2-by-4 wood braces can reinforce your nonwind-resistant door for approximately $150 for materials and installation. A garage door storm kit can run up to $750, FLASH data found.

    “You can do all this stuff in terms of hardening the house, but you’re still kind of at the mercy of whatever storm comes,” said Bankrate’s Ostrowski.

    4. Talk to your insurer about possible discounts

    Strengthening your home against disasters may help lower your insurance cost.

    Insurers typically factor in natural-disaster risks when deciding what properties to underwrite and at what cost. That’s why some are pulling back in high-risk areas, or raising prices significantly.

    Insurance costs also tend to be higher for existing homes than newly built ones, because many older homes were constructed under less stringent building codes.

    Once you have an inspector visit your house and recommend projects to make your home more hurricane resistant, talk to your insurance agent about which suggestions are most likely to reduce your premium, Ostrowski said.

    Keep in mind that each state is different in terms of what premium reductions are available and to what extent, and it depends on the risks, the company’s exposure and the regulatory environment, said Loretta Worters, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute.

    Homeowners’ insurance premium rates are based on measurable risk, and while mitigation efforts might help reduce the risk, the scientific measurement of catastrophe risk and mitigation efforts is still evolving, she said.

    “All analysis of premium pricing related to mitigation efforts is a question of degree of risk, and not removal of risk entirely from the policy,” Worters said.

    Grants, financing can help mitigate costs

    If the cost of preparing your home against hurricanes is daunting, there may be grants, tax credits and other programs to help lessen the burden.

    Some states have set up matching grant programs for disaster retrofits, said Chapman-Henderson.

    In Florida, residents may be eligible to apply for grants up to a $10,000 dollar-for-dollar match for approved upgrades such as shutters, roofing, or strengthening a garage door or roof-to-wall connections, she said. There are similar programs in Alabama and Louisiana.

    To find out more, homeowners can search for loans, grants or tax credits available in their state through dsireusa.org, which lists all the funding opportunities and incentives for hardening your home against disasters, Languell said.

    For people with poor credit or who live in states that don’t have matching-dollar programs, Property Assessed Clean Energy programs allow a homeowner to finance upfront costs of eligible improvements on a property and pay the costs over time through the property tax bill, said Chapman-Henderson.

    Energy-efficient mortgages, also referred to as green mortgages, may also be worth exploring. These loans are meant to help homeowners finance eco-friendly home upgrades or outright buy homes that help reduce energy consumption and lower utility bills, although they often have strict loan limits and require additional information during your application, according to LendingTree.

    Depending on your hurricane-resistance project, that might be a fit: Sometimes, energy efficiency goes hand-in-hand with durability, Languell said.

    “Sealing the underside of your roof sheathing would also help you from an energy standpoint because it’s sealing all the cracks and crevices,” she said, as this repair both keeps your roof on your house and helps avoid water or air leaks.

    The same goes for window replacements: “If you are going to replace your windows from a single-pane window to an impact window that has a better energy performance, it’s saving you on energy,” Languell said.

    In this new series, CNBC will examine what climate change means for your money, from retirement savings to insurance costs to career outlook.

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  • Lava spurts from Iceland volcano for second day as its fissure extends 2 miles

    Lava spurts from Iceland volcano for second day as its fissure extends 2 miles

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    GRINDAVIK – Lava continued to spurt from a volcano in southwestern Iceland on Thursday but the activity had calmed significantly from when it erupted a day earlier.

    The eruption Wednesday was the fifth and most powerful since the volcanic system near Grindavik reawakened in December after 800 years, gushing record levels of lava as its fissure grew to 3.5 kilometers (2.1 miles) in length.

    Volcanologist Dave McGarvie calculated that the amount of lava initially flowing from the crater could have buried the soccer pitch at Wembley Stadium in London under 15 meters (49 feet) of lava every minute.

    “These jets of magma are reaching like 50 meters (165 feet), into the atmosphere,” said McGarvie, an honorary researcher at Lancaster University. “That just immediately strikes me as a powerful eruption. And that was my first impression … then some numbers came out, estimating how much was coming out per minute or per second and it was, ‘wow.’”

    The activity once again threatened Grindavik, a coastal town of 3,800 people, and led to the evacuation of the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, one of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions.

    Grindavik, which is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik, has been threatened since a swarm of earthquakes in November forced an evacuation in advance of the initial Dec. 18 eruption. A subsequent eruption consumed several buildings.

    Protective barriers outside Grindavik deflected the lava Wednesday but the evacuated town remained without electricity and two of the three roads into town were inundated with lava.

    “I just like the situation quite well compared to how it looked at the beginning of the eruption yesterday,” Grindavik Mayor Fannar Jónasson told national broadcaster RUV.

    McGarvie said the eruption was more powerful than the four that preceded it because the largest amount of magma had accumulated in a chamber underground before breaking the earth’s surface and shooting into the sky.

    The rapid and powerful start of the eruption followed by it diminishing quickly several hours later is the pattern researchers have witnessed with this volcano, McGarvie said. It’s unknown when eruptions at this volcano will end.

    “It could go on for quite some considerable time,” McGarvie said. “We’re really in new territory here because eruptions like this have never been witnessed, carefully, in this part of Iceland.”

    Iceland, which sits above a volcanic hot spot in the North Atlantic, sees regular eruptions. The most disruptive in recent times was the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which spewed huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and led to widespread airspace closures over Europe.

    None of the current cycle of eruptions have had an impact on aviation.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Brian Melley contributed from London.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Marco Di Marco, Associated Press

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  • Cyclone floods coastal villages and cuts power in Bangladesh, where 800,000 had evacuated

    Cyclone floods coastal villages and cuts power in Bangladesh, where 800,000 had evacuated

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    DHAKA – A cyclone flooded coastal villages and left hundreds of thousands of people without power Monday in southern Bangladesh, where nearly 800,000 residents had evacuated. At least seven deaths were reported.

    Cyclone Remal started lashing Bangladesh’s southern coast late Sunday and was moving fast and would weaken by noon Bangladesh’s Meteorological Department in Dhaka said.

    TV stations reported that dozens of Bangladeshi coastal villages were flooded as many flood protection embankments were either washed away or damaged by the force of the storm surges. Authorities gave no casualty figures yet, but Dhaka-based Somoy TV reported that at least seven people died. Two others were missing after a boat capsized in southwestern Bangladesh, the station said.

    Moderate to heavy rainfall had been forecast in coastal districts in India’s West Bengal state, where high winds uprooted trees. A 1 meter (3.1 feet) storm surge was expected to flood low-lying coastal areas.

    The India Meteorological Department expected Remal to reach maximum wind speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour (75 mph), with gusts up to 135 kph (85 mph) in the area of West Bengal’s Sagar Island and Bangladesh’s Khepupara region on Sunday night.

    On Sunday, Bangladesh evacuated nearly 800,000 people from vulnerable areas. Bangladesh’s junior minister for disaster management and relief, Mohibur Rahman, said volunteers have been deployed to move the evacuees to up to 9,000 cyclone shelters. The government also closed all schools in the region until further notice.

    India’s Kolkata airport was closed for the day Monday. Bangladesh shut down the airport in the southeastern city of Chattogram and canceled all domestic flights to and from Cox’s Bazar.

    Bangladesh also suspended loading and unloading in the country’s largest main seaport in Chittagong and moved more than a dozen ships from jetties to the deep sea as a precaution.

    Remal was the first cyclone in the Bay of Bengal ahead of this year’s monsoon season, which runs from June to September.

    India’s coasts are often hit by cyclones, but changing climate patterns have increased the storms’ intensity, making preparations for natural disasters more urgent.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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    Associated Press

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  • Photos: India’s river islanders return home in between floods

    Photos: India’s river islanders return home in between floods

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    Yaad Ali is dreading the rainy season’s arrival this year.

    The 56-year-old farmer from northeastern India’s Assam state lives with his wife and son on Sandahkhaiti island on the Brahmaputra River.

    The island, like 2,000 others on the river, floods with increasing ferocity and unpredictability as human-caused climate change makes rain heavier and more erratic in the region.

    The family move away with every flood, and move back to their house every dry season.

    Ali said politicians in the region have made promises to provide relief for them, including during the current election, but little has changed for his family. For now, they contend with being displaced for large parts of the year.

    “We need some sort of a permanent solution,” Ali said. “In the last few years, it’s only a short time after we recover from flood damages that we have to be ready to face another flood.”

    A permanent piece of land in a safer region of the state can be the only solution to their troubles, he said. And while local governments have talked about it, only a few river islanders have been offered land rights in the state.

    When The Associated Press met Ali and his family last year, they were relocating because of incessant rain that had flooded their island home. Now, during the dry season, Ali and his family cultivate red chilli peppers, corn and a few other vegetables in their small farm on the island.

    ‘Nobody cares about our problems’

    Like most other islanders, farming is their livelihood: An estimated 240,000 people in the Morigaon district of the state – where some of the river islands, known as Chars, are located – are dependent on fishing and selling produce like rice, jute and vegetables from their small farms.

    When it rains, the family stays as long as they can, living in knee-deep water inside their small hut, sometimes for days; cooking, eating and sleeping, even as the river water rises. But sometimes the water engulfs their home, forcing them to flee with their belongings.

    “We leave everything and try to find some higher ground or shift to the nearest relief camp,” Monuwara Begum, Ali’s wife, said last year. The relief camps are unhygienic and there’s never enough space or food, Ali said, and “sometimes we get only rice and salt for days”.

    But when it is dry, the family has temporary respite. They move back to their homes, tend to their farms, and are able to make a living selling the produce they harvest.

    India, and Assam state in particular, is seen as one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change because of more intense rain and floods, according to a 2021 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, a New Delhi-based climate think tank.

    Like many others on the Chars, Ali and his family are unable to afford to permanently relocate and have reconciled themselves to their fate of moving back and forth to their home.

    “Nobody cares about our problems,” said Ali. “All the political parties promise to solve the flood problems but after the election, nobody cares about it.”

    “We have to manage here somehow,” he said.

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  • Sweltering Temperatures in Mexico, Central America and U.S.

    Sweltering Temperatures in Mexico, Central America and U.S.

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    Extreme heat in Mexico, Central America and parts of the U.S. South has left millions of people in sweltering temperatures, strained energy grids and resulted in iconic Howler monkeys in Mexico dropping dead from trees.

    Meteorologists say the conditions have been caused by what some refer to as a heat dome — an area of strong high pressure centered over the southern Gulf of Mexico and northern Central America that blocked clouds from forming and caused extensive sunshine and hot temperatures. This extreme heat is occurring in a world that is quickly warming due to greenhouse gases, which come from the burning of fossil fuels like oil, gas and coal.

    The high temperatures are stretching across the Gulf of Mexico into parts of the United States including Texas and Florida. The heat comes as thousands of people in Texas remain without power after thunder storms hammered parts of the state last week.

    Shawn Bhatti, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service forecast office in Miami, said southerly winds from the tropics transported warm, moist air northward from the equator, which contributed to the unusually warm conditions.

    South Florida has been hotter than normal. Miami International Airport recorded a daily high of 96 degrees Fahrenheit (35.6 degrees Celsius) on May 19. That surpassed the temperatures of 86 to 88 degrees (about 30 degrees Celsius) Miami normally sees this time of year.

    A heat advisory issued by the NWS was in effect for parts of Texas Thursday. Temperatures along the Rio Grande were expected to rise up to 111 degrees Fahrenheit (43.9 degrees Celsius) and 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) in the Davis and Chinati mountains.

    Experts say the heat event raises concerns about ocean water temperatures and their influence on the upcoming Atlantic hurricane season.

    The region is transitioning from an El Nino, where tropical cyclone activity in the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic is typically reduced, into a La Nina pattern in which the likelihood of tropical cyclone activity increases, said Andrew Kruczkiewicz, senior researcher at the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University.

    Kruczkiewicz said the extreme heat adds another ingredient to the risk of tropical cyclone activity this season, since these storms are fueled by warm ocean temperatures.

    The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday there is an 85% chance that the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1, will be above average in storm activity.

    Mexico’s brutal heat wave has been linked to the deaths of more than two dozen people since March. But the worst is expected for the end of this week and early next week.

    Mónica Eréndira Jiménez, from the Mexican Weather Service, said the current heat wave will be one of the longest and most worrisome of 2024 because it’s affecting the vast majority of the country. In May, more than 46 locations had record temperatures.

    The situation is especially serious in places like Mexico City, which on May 9 had a record high of almost 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.3 degrees Celsius) and is expected to reach 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 Celsius) in the coming days. In the capital, heat combines with pollution so ozone concentrations are expected to increase, warned the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s climate change program.

    The impacts on wildlife have shocked scientists, who reported more than 130 howler monkey deaths in the southeast jungles and higher bird mortality in the northern part of the country likely from heat and other factors.

    With below-average rainfall throughout almost all of the country this year, lakes and dams are drying up and water supplies are running out.

    Protests have multiplied. A group of police agents blocked six lanes of traffic Wednesday on a main Mexico City avenue, saying their barracks lacked water for a week and the bathrooms were unusable.

    Authorities have had to truck in water for hospitals and to firefighting teams.

    Low levels at hydroelectric dams have contributed to power blackouts in parts of the country, and this week the nation’s largest convenience stores chain — OXXO — said it was limiting purchases of ice to two or three bags per customer in some places.

    The Mexican Weather Service forecasts another heat wave for June but it is expected to be shorter and not as severe as this one.

    Nearby nations including Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Haiti are also experiencing abnormally warm temperatures due to this area of high pressure.

    ___

    O’Malley reported from Philadelphia, Verza from Mexico City.

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    ISABELLA O’MALLEY and MARIA VERZA / AP

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