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Smoke Blankets Western North America, 106 F Temps in Portland, Flash Northern Plains Drought Threatens U.S. Wheat Crop
The
climate change related impacts from continued fossil fuel burning
just keep on ramping up.
7
August, 2017
Last
Thursday, the
mercury struck 106 degrees Fahrenheit in Portland, Oregon.
The reading, just one degree shy of the hottest temperature ever
recorded for the city, came after the thermometer soared to the 103 F
mark on Wednesday. The extreme heat prompted some locals to re-name
the typically wet and cool city — ‘Hotlandia’ — even as a
broader severe heatwave blanketed most of the U.S. West.
(Smoke
covers large portions of the U.S. West following record heat in many
locales. Image source:NASA
Worldview.)
During
the weekend, the heat shifted north and east — thrusting 90+ degree
(F) temperatures into British Columbia where severe wildfires have
been raging throughout the summer. As a result, fire intensity spiked
once again and great plumes of smoke today blanketed hundreds of
miles of western sky.
In
total, more
than 575,000 hectares have
burned in British Columbia so far this year. This is about 6 six
times the average rate of wildfire burning for a typically wet and
cool region. An intensification of the fire regime that came on as
temperatures warmed, climates changed, and indigenous plants found
themselves thrust into conditions outside those they’re adapted to.
The
extreme heat was brought on by the kind of combined Pacific Ocean
warming and upper
level high pressure ridge amplification
that some researchers have linked to human-caused climate change. And
the overall impacts of the system have been as outlandish as they are
notable.
(Extreme
heat blankets the U.S. on Thursday, August 3rd. Image source: The
National Weather Service.)
Further
east, the high plains have suffered from extraordinarily dry
conditions throughout spring and summer. Since April, rainfall totals
have been reduced by 50 percent or more. The drying began with the
start of growing season and has continued on through early August.
After a rapid intensification during recent weeks, 62
percent of North Dakota and 38 percent of Montana are now blanketed
by severe drought conditions or worse.
The
drought’s center mass is near the Missouri River Basin — a
primary water shed for the northern plains states. Since April, these
key regions have seen as little as one quarter the usual
precipitation amount.
This
equals the driest growing season ever recorded for some locations.
And overall conditions are about as bad as they have been at any time
in the past 100 years.
The
result has been the
emergence of a very intense flash drought.
One of a type that has become more common as atmospheric temperatures
have increased and as evaporation from waters and soils has
intensified. At Lodgepole Montana, the heat and drought were enough
to ignite a 422 square mile wildfire. Covering an area 1/3 the size
of Rhode Island, the fire is Montana’s largest blaze since 1910.
The fire is now, thankfully, 98
percent contained.
More worrisome, the massive blaze is now accompanied by 9
smaller sister fires throughout the state.
And all before the peak of fire season.
(Flash
drought — a new phenomenon brought on by human-forced climate
change — emerges in Montana. Image source: The
US Drought Monitor and Grist.)
But
perhaps the worst of the drought-related damage has impacted the
region’s wheat crops. Andreports
now indicate that fully half of the Northern Plains wheat crop is
presently under threat.
Overall current damage estimates for the Northern Plains drought
alone are spiking above 1 billion dollars and states are now seeking
emergency funding from a relief pool that the Trump Administration
recently cut.
But
regardless of Trump’s views on climate change or his related lack
of preparedness, the damages and risks just continue mounting.
Montana resident Sarah Swanson recently noted in Grist:
“The damage and the destruction is just unimaginable. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen in decades.”
Sadly,
with atmospheric carbon levels in the range of 407 ppm CO2 and 492
ppm CO2e, and with fossil fuel burning still continuing, these kinds
of devastating droughts, heatwaves, and fires will just keep on
getting worse.
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