Tag Archives: Californias

Report: Climate change made conditions perfect for fueling California’s fire outbreak

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summary

  • A new report states that the modern and dry winds that have been dried at high temperatures led to the fire in the Southern California have been about 35 % higher due to climate change.
  • The survey results are from a world meteorological group that analyzes the effects of global warming on extreme events.
  • The fire killed at least 29 people and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings.

The International Scientist Group has increased the extreme situation of climate change in the extreme situation that recent fires have made RO sounds in the Los Angeles area as a whole.

A strong state of dry winds at high temperatures ahead of the fire could have been about 35 % higher due to global warming caused by humans. New reports from the World Meteorological attribute groupWe analyze the effects of global warming on extreme events.

The fire, which began in the event of a fierce storm in the spring, killed at least 29 people, including houses, shops, and schools, as it had not been raining in the Great Los Angeles since spring.

“This was a perfect storm for the conditions of the fire disaster. From the viewpoint of the climate that enables the climate, the weather that drives the fire, and the huge environment from the place where these ignitions occurred.” Merced, who contributed to the report at the University of California, said at a press conference.

Compared to the time before the industrial revolution before fossil fuels were widely used, the Los Angeles area had a “dry season” on average every year, and the fire may match the seasonal Santaanana style. Is high. 。

Park Williams, a geographical professor at the University of Los Angeles, the University of California, said Park Williams in the cool season of Southern California. Unusually dry state; Ignition (almost always comes from people); and extreme weather like recent storms. He explained each of these conditions as an individual switch in a system that needs to be turned over all four to emit light.

“The artificial warming caused by climate change caused by humans makes light brighter,” said Williams.

The author in the report analyzes the weather and climate models to evaluate how the warm atmosphere changes the possibility of fire (it means a condition that increases the risk of mountain fire). They also tracked how metrics called the fire weather index changed over time. The index tracks all factors that contribute to temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and fire.

Researchers have discovered that the types of conditions that promote the fire in the LA region are expected to occur once every 17 years in today's climate. Such a state would have been predicted once in 23 years without climate change, and it would not have been so extreme when they occurred.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

California’s atmospheric rivers pose higher landslide risk

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Recent rains have accelerated land movement in the landslide-prone coastal city of Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County, altering previously uncharted landslide areas, as stated in a city news release.

The sedimentary rock layers in the area tilt toward the sea, causing clay layers to expand and become slippery when saturated with water due to minimal friction, explained Onderdonk.

Concerning areas are expanding due to heavy rains, with a decades-old plan to dewater slopes in the Avalon Cove landslide area significantly slowing down movement, but recent acceleration led to the closure of Wayfarer’s Chapel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Jr. in Avalon Cove.

The city of Rancho Palos Verdes, faced with risks to homes and roads, is urging Gov. Gavin Newsom to proceed with state and federal emergency declarations for expedited emergency fixes through the permitting process, as mentioned here.

Many coastal cities in California are vulnerable to landslides.

A tarp covers the bluff behind the house overlooking Capistrano Beach in Dana Point, California. Several seaside areas are dealing with concerns of landslides and coastal erosion following recent storms that hit the state.
NBC News

Drone footage of beach houses built on a landslide rubble in Dana Point made headlines recently. Scientists are studying how climate change affects landslides, expected to be detailed in a 2022 study in “Geophysical Research Letters.”

Research indicates that atmospheric river storms in the San Francisco Bay Area coincide with landslides about 76% of the time and are becoming more frequent and intense on the West Coast due to a warming atmosphere’s increased water vapor absorption and transport capacity.

A warming sea due to human-induced global warming is leading to rising sea levels, endangering California’s coastlines, with projections suggesting significant beach loss by 2100.

Edward and Debbie Winston-Levin, residents of Dana Point, express concerns about coastal erosion impacting their property and affecting nearby amenities.

After recent storms in California, Edwards, who lives in Dana Point, looks out at his waterfront home amid concerns about landslides and coastal erosion.
NBC News

Various coastal cities are making adaptations due to the changing landscape, with plans in motion to address potential risks and impacts.

Experts caution that protecting California’s iconic beaches while safeguarding cliffside homes poses a challenging dilemma for communities.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

California’s recovery from last year’s storms hindered by new atmospheric river floods

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As California prepares for another strong atmospheric river storm on Sunday, Lake Tulare serves as a reminder of the impactful effects these extreme storms can have.

The lake’s floodwaters, which were formed after approximately 12 atmospheric river storms hit California in 2023, are still present 9 months after the resurgence of the “ghost lake.” More than a month later, they still cover thousands of acres of prime farmland.

This summer, the stagnant water of the lake became a gathering place for wild birds and caused an outbreak of avian botulism. Wildlife officials had to patrol daily by airboat and collect hundreds of dead birds. Submerged flooded vehicles and communication equipment at the bottom of the lake left farmers unable to access their fields.

The continuing presence of the lake in this part of the Central Valley emphasizes how the environmental impacts of last year’s extreme rainfall are still affecting California. While this weekend’s storms could bring heavy precipitation to other parts of the state, most flooding effects are not expected to last long.

Currently, Lake Tulare is rapidly shrinking despite recent rainfall. As of Thursday, about 4,532 acres of farmland were still underwater, but the floodwaters have subsided, according to Kings County spokesman Justin Caporusso. This means the lake is now less than 20 times smaller than last year’s peak, and life is returning to normal for nearby residents.

Sgt. Nate Ferrier of the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, who visited the lake in late January, noted that much of the lake has been cleaned up.

“The farming community was already revitalized,” he said. “There were tractors everywhere.”

The lake was a natural feature of the southern San Joaquin Valley until settlers dug irrigation canals to reroute water and drain agricultural land more than a century ago. Last year, the Tulare Basin flooded after a series of storms because reservoirs could not handle heavy snowmelt runoff from the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Caporusso stated that this week’s atmospheric river storms, expected to be accompanied by a significant storm on Sunday, are unlikely to have a significant impact on Tulare Lake. The reservoir upstream of the lake has the capacity to handle the precipitation, and the California Department of Water Resources found that about 45% of normal snow falls in the southern Sierra Nevada during this period.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Researchers report a 30% decline in California’s western monarch population last year

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SAN FRANCISCO — The number of western monarch butterflies wintering in California declined by 30% last year, likely due to the high humidity, researchers announced Tuesday.

Volunteers visiting sites in California and Arizona around Thanksgiving removed 230,000 butterflies from 330,000 butterflies by 2022, according to the Xerses Society, an environmental nonprofit focused on invertebrate conservation. It is said that more than one fish was caught.

Populations of the orange and black insects have rebounded to hundreds of thousands in recent years. In 2020, the number of butterflies plummeted to just 2,000., the lowest on record. But even though the butterflies have recovered, their numbers are still far below what they were in the 1980s, when monarchs numbered in the millions.

Scientists say butterfly populations are critically low in western states because housing construction and increased use of pesticides and herbicides are destroying milkweed habitat along migratory routes. Says.

Climate change is also one of the main factors in the monarch butterfly's extinction, preventing the butterflies from migrating 3,000 miles (4,828 km) each year to coincide with spring and wildflower blooms.

“Climate change is creating challenges for many wildlife species, and the monarch butterfly is no exception,” said Emma Pelton, monarch butterfly conservation biologist at the Xerces Society. “We know that the severe storms we saw in California last winter, atmospheric rivers flowing back to back, are on some level connected to climate change.”

Western monarch butterflies migrate south from the Pacific Northwest to California each winter, returning to the same places and even the same trees, where they huddle together and stay warm. They breed multiple generations along the route until they arrive in California, usually in early November. When warm weather arrives in March, it spreads east of California.

East of the Rocky Mountains, another population of monarch butterflies migrates from southern Canada and the northeastern United States into central Mexico. Scientists estimate that monarch butterfly populations in the eastern United States have declined by about 80% since the mid-1990s, but the decline in the western United States is even steeper.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Can Technology-Backed Planners Revive the Lost Art of City-Building in California’s Big Cities?

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I
As we were chopping garlic and herbs at Burning Man, we met Gabriel Metcalf, an urban planner hired to design a new city in California with the backing of a tech billionaire.
new york times
The mystery of who was secretly buying up more than 50,000 acres of farmland in Solano County, about 80 miles northeast of San Francisco, has just been uncovered.

The buyers included Silicon Valley investors who were committed to ambitious plans for a new “California Dream” city with walkable neighborhoods, climate-friendly infrastructure, green energy jobs, and affordable housing. It turns out that the list includes celebrities.

Many people are deeply suspicious of tech elites throwing money around thinking they can solve everything. And the way California Forever, an investor-backed company, secretly bought up nearly $1 billion worth of land without the knowledge of local residents or officials, also discouraged people from getting excited about the project. In the months since the project was announced, residents, officials and environmentalists have raised serious questions about the feasibility of turning rural land into a bustling city.

I followed up with Metcalfe to see if what sounded like a bold vision when shared in a pop-up city in the Nevada desert actually makes sense in the real world. . Metcalf, who comes across as more of a pragmatic urban design geek than a Silicon Valley techie, admits he understands where the skeptics are coming from.

“This has never been done before, at least not in this way or on this scale. There's a lot of work to do to get people on board and understand the vision,” he said over coffee in San Francisco's Dogpatch district. he said while drinking. “We're not proposing a utopia. We're just proposing a city. We're not claiming that this will solve all your problems. But this is another tool. I would argue that it can be helpful.”




Farmland in rural Solano County, California. Counties where California Forever wants to build.
Photo: Godofredo A. Vasquez/AP

California faces difficult housing issues that Metcalf, a respected urban planner, believes can only be addressed through bold action.

Metcalf ran Spar, a San Francisco-based urban planning think tank, for a decade and a half, where he advocated for building more cities.
public housingways to address the region's housing crisis include increasing public transportation and increasing the minimum wage.

…

Source: www.theguardian.com