California’s snowpack — water stored in the shape of snow within the Sierra Nevada — stood at 174 percent of the standard average for this time of 12 months, in response to the state Department of Water Resources (DWR).
And more precipitation is coming: Later this week California is predicted to be lashed by an atmospheric river — a protracted, supersaturated tendril of tropical air, which through Friday can be driven by gale-force winds against the frigid air of the Sierra.
That may cause the precipitation to be squeezed out as snow and — for the second time since Latest Yr’s Eve — statewide floods.
“The numerous Sierra snowpack is sweet news but unfortunately these same storms are bringing flooding to parts of California,” DWR Director Karla Nemeth said in an announcement.
“That is a major example of the threat of utmost flooding during a protracted drought as California experiences more swings between wet and dry periods brought on by our changing climate.”
While the reinvigorated snowpack — a natural water-battery whose melting waters dole out 30 percent of California’s annual water needs — is a silver lining to the approaching storm, it is simply too early to be optimistic.
This time last 12 months, California’s snowpack also looked strong: standing at 160 percent of average. However the spring drought whittled down that surplus until April 1, when the Sierra’s snow levels were at lower than 40 percent their average levels — at a time of 12 months they might traditionally have been at their peaks, in response to The Associated Press.
“Big snow totals are all the time welcome, but we still have a protracted method to go before the critical April 1 total,” DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit Manager Sean de Guzman said in an announcement.
“It’s all the time great to be above average this early within the season, but we should be resilient and remember what happened last 12 months. If January through March of 2023 turn into just like last 12 months, we’d still end the water 12 months in severe drought with only half of a median 12 months’s snowpack,” de Guzman added.
Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the long run of sustainability. I’m Saul Elbein. Send suggestions and feedback. A friend forward this text to you?
Today we’ll have a look at the epic storms encircling much of the country, followed by a weakness in long-term climate modeling and how lawsuits proceed targeting 3M over PFAS.
‘Brutal’ storms to lash West Coast
A “brutal system” of storms is coming for West Coast cities from San Diego to Oregon, as a powerful atmospheric river dumps heavy rain and snow on hillsides and soils already saturated from flooding over the weekend, in response to the National Weather Service (NWS).
- “Those asking, ‘Where’s the Storm?’ It’s still coming,” the NWS Bay Area office tweeted around 10 a.m. Wednesday on the West Coast, above a satellite video of an infinite gyre covering many of the West Coast.
- “The rain this morning isn’t the most important event so to talk. Heavier rain is predicted later today,” the NWS added.
Coming in cold: “Over the following 7 days, several waves of energy are set to create atmospheric river conditions within the West,” the National Weather Service tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
- The NWS predictions showed “widespread 5 [plus-inch] rain accumulations” over the following week.
- “With each upcoming event, highly saturated soils create concern for flash flooding across the region,” NWS added.
Dropping bombs: The spinning storm is a “bomb cyclone” — a falling mass of cold air that may intersect with an “an exceptionally moist and comparatively warm” atmospheric river moving up from the tropics, meteorologist Daniel Swain of the University of California Los Angeles wrote on Twitter.
- The storm is predicted to drop as much as 4 inches of rain on the Bay Area and as much as 6 inches on coast-facing hills, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
- Heavy rains combined with debris-flinging winds mean “it’s going to be a difficult couple of days,” Swain told the Chronicle.
Hunkering down: California cities stood under a mix of flood watches, wind advisories and evacuation orders because the storm got here on.
- San Francisco City officials had given out 8,500 sandbags as of Tuesday, in response to The Associated Press.
- While recently burned areas are most in danger, “everyone needs to be prepared,” Bryan La Sota of the Los Angeles County Emergency Management Department told the Los Angeles Times.
- San Jose, between the 2 cities, warned unhoused residents living near creeks that “your life is at risk” and ordered their evacuation “immediately,” KRON reported.
Piling on: Adding to the risks of the continued storm are the lingering damage from the rains that lashed much of California — and particularly the San Francisco Bay — over Latest Yr’s Eve, television station KRON reported.
The San Francisco Department of Public Works had run out of sandbags as of Wednesday morning, in response to Patch.
What to do? In the event you’re within the storm zone, the Los Angeles Times advises that you just:
- Stay home under just about all circumstances.
- If it’s essential to leave in an emergency, bring supplies, stay out of floodwaters and use extreme caution.
- Avoid open flames and generators indoors, which may be deadly.
- If your home floods, “go up, not out.”
❄️ MIDWEST, SOUTH BEAR BRUNT OF ANOTHER STORM
One other massive storm curled across the middle of the U.S., dumping ice, snow and freezing rain on the Great Lakes and Plains and seeding tornadoes across the South.
- Towns in a Gulf state arc from Louisiana to Georgia were under tornado and flood watches, and the National Weather Service had recorded eight tornadoes as of Tuesday night, Reuters reported.
- Meanwhile, many communities within the Upper MIdwest states stood under snowfall predictions in excess of a foot, in response to the National Weather Service.
- One South Dakota town had nearly 2 feet as of Tuesday.
One colossal storm: “It’s all a part of the identical system,” NWS meteorologist Allison Santorelli told Reuters, referring to the southern and midwestern storms.
“The heavy snowfall is going on on the west to northern side of the storm … after which the rainfall and severe weather is across the south,” she added.
Climate models have one big weakness: study
Current models of future climate change could also be significantly underestimating how much warming will happen, a recent study has found.
Estimates of warming into the 2100s doesn’t easily account for the danger of sudden “tipping points,” just like the collapse of the Amazon rainforest or Antarctic ice sheet, in response to a paper published on Tuesday within the Proceedings of the Royal Society.
- Climate projections of greater than a century into the long run rely on computationally intensive simulations.
- As a shortcut, researchers sometimes use data gleaned from shorter-term forecasts, which they then project into the long run.
What’s the issue? This technique can’t account for the danger of a sudden change to the worldwide climate system — which could drastically shift the common climate.
- Such tipping points are possible even at current levels of heating, as we reported.
- By assuming that future temperatures will reflect today’s averages, scientists risk underestimating how the impacts of future global heating.
No easy way out: “To ensure of the long-term behaviour of a contemporary global climate model, there are not any shortcuts to doing extensive simulations,” researcher Robbin Bastiaansen of the University of Utrecht said in an announcement.
3M faces legal reckoning over PFAS
Chemical and materials company 3M is facing an onslaught of lawsuits over its production of ceaselessly chemicals — whilst it pronounces that production will stop, The Wall Street Journal reported.
- Per- and polyfluroalkyl substances (PFAS) are polymers commonly used as grease or water repellants in consumer goods from nonstick pans to dental floss.
- They’ve also been linked to a wide selection of health problems, from immune and fertility disorders to types of cancer
Cutting production: 3M announced last month that it might stop producing PFAS by 2025 — even though it maintained the products were secure whilst it announced the halt.
- “While PFAS may be safely made and used, we also see a chance to steer,” chief executive Michael Roman said, citing rapidly changing regulations.
- The corporate had identified PFAS contamination in food as early as 2001, the Intercept reported.
Despite rising awareness of the risks of PFAS, “the nightmare hasn’t really stopped,” Rainer Lohmann, who studies the contaminant for the University of Rhode Island, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Barrage of suits: A minimum of three lawsuits per day have been filed against the corporate over its PFAS-laden products since 2020, Bloomberg Law reported last month.
- There have been not less than 3,500 cases mentioning PFAS filed against the corporate since 2015, in response to Bloomberg.
- The corporate faces billions of dollars in liability over the products it produced for itself, and as components for other corporations.
Critics are skeptical: While 3M has committed to ending PFAS production, “the devil is in the small print here because PFAS is such a big class of chemicals,” Latest Hampshire activist Andrea Amico told The Maine Monitor.
“I’m really curious as to how 3M defines PFAS and in the event that they’re truly going to stop making all PFAS chemicals, or if it’s only a certain kind of PFAS,” added Amico, whose family was exposed to the substances.
Feds: Attempted burglary behind Wash. grid attacks
An attempt to rob a retail store was behind the Christmas Day attacks on 4 Washington state electrical substations, in response to a criminal grievance filed on Tuesday in federal court.
- Two Washington men were charged within the attacks, which left greater than 15,000 people without power.
- Prosecutors emphasized that the attacks were a part of a pattern, and put residents across the region in danger.
The attacks cost not less than $3 million in damage, in response to the Justice Department.
Rising frequency: “We now have seen attacks corresponding to these increase in Western Washington and throughout the country and must treat each incident seriously,” U.S. Attorney Nick Brown said in an announcement.
“The outages on Christmas left 1000’s in the dead of night and cold and put some who need power for medical devices at extreme risk,” Brown added.
- Duke Energy reported six “intrusions” at Florida substations in September.
- 4 substations in Oregon and Washington were attacked in November.
- December saw two substations in North Carolina knocked out in a “targeted attack,” in response to officials.
Call for reform: Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission called on members to audit their risk of potential attacks on their physical infrastructure.
The federal government can also be considering recent cybersecurity rules to guard substations from distant attack, in response to UtilityDive.
World Wednesday
News from world wide.
‘Maya Train’ puts jungle in danger: activists
- A tourist railroad through a biosphere reserve within the jungles of the Mexican Yucatan — the so-called Maya Train — is spurring concerns that tracks will “[split] the jungle in half,” local activists told Reuters. The federal government has already spent $20 billion on construction, but activists and scientists warn that it has cut corners, resulting in concerns of pollution and collapse within the sinkhole-prone region.
Dam ‘battery’ provides stability to renewable grid
- The Portuguese grid is offsetting its intermittent renewable energy sources with an infinite, dam-based battery — an enormous mountain reservoir that receives water from wind-powered pumps when energy supplies are high and releases it as hydropower once they are low, The Latest York Times reported. “You’ll be able to’t have just solar and wind. You would like something to balance,” Fabian Ronningen, an analyst at consultancy Rystad Energy told the Times.
Foxconn and Nvidia to collaborate on self-driving cars
- Device maker Foxconn is teaming up with chip giant Nvidia to provide self-driving electric vehicles, The Wall Street Journal reported. The alliance will help each corporations — one Taiwanese, the opposite American — enter the increasingly-competitive EV sector, which Foxconn dipped its tow into six months ago with its first EV battery plant in Taiwan, the Journal reported..
Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for more and take a look at other newsletters here. We’ll see you tomorrow.
