You would think that would be instinctive but many seem to ignore that instinct. Especially when people see standing water. There is a temptation if you drive through it fast enough you can make it.
Hey, that looks like drivers during Texas winters on ice. "BUT I GOT A 4x4!" Sweet - enjoy your 4x4 in a ditch, sk8rboi.
Canada's forests used to be one of the great carbon sinks on the planet. Over the last couple of decades, they've been a major source of atmospheric carbon and it's primarily due to wildland fires.
That's one of the more depressing graphs I've seen in a while, and I've seen a slew. I can't quite read the fine print. This is from VisualCarbon and NationalObserver?
In Australia, the average premium for home insurance is up 28% over the last 12 months. Insurance companies are pulling out of places like Florida, California, and Louisiana. Globally, insurance payouts this year are double the average for the previous ten years. US insurance companies are expected to lose a trillion dollars over the next 10 years--that is, if they pay out at all. Federal crop insurance losses are up 400% for drought and 300% for floods over pre-2010 figures. This is not sustainable and what happens when your home or farm cannot be insured? It loses value and likely can't be sold or borrowed against based on our current way handling real estate transactions. Yeah, we're going to need a new model for insurance.
Development patterns are going to have to change. Building remote homes in fire prone forest or grassland areas should be priced according to the higher risks. Same with building a lot of coastal development on barrier islands.
Bolivia just had the hottest temp ever recorded in the southern hemisphere in a meteorological winter: 113 degrees.
Yesterday afternoon my car thermometer said 108 F. Most outdoor events and even several indoor programs were cancelled in Minneapolis.
NPR has a nice visual article about wildfires. We'll need a lot more firefighters than we have or are expecting. https://apps.npr.org/us-wildfires-impact-environment-climate-change/
Yeah, the number of vulnerable communities out there (US and world) is crazy large and climatic conditions are pushing more into the at-risk category all the time. I honestly don't know what we'll do when we have a bad, windy day with multiple large fires in New England and the upper Midwest. They are not prepared, not staffed, and not experienced. It would take 24-48 hours to transfer resources from the Western US. The same goes for chunks of Texas and the South, the SE, the mid-Atlantic--most places. And of course, we don't have the numbers needed for now, much less 10 years from now--I'm kind of amazed we haven't had a total collapse yet. Also, I'm at the point where I would advise against anyone becoming a wildland firefighter--pay, benefits, and support are not commensurate with the elevating risk.
A fire of 3,000 acres could/would be considered small in some parts of the US, but I think that it is on the large side for Texas. Video at the link. Homes evacuated as wildfire burns 3,000 acres in wooded area north of Huntsville
For East Texas, it is indeed large. West Texas fires can eat up some acres though. Check back in 10 years to see if 3,500 acres is still a large fire for East Texas.
Why insurance premiums keep going up and up or simply leaving town https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-set...tural-disasters-climate-catastrophes-in-2023/ With months to go before 2023 wraps up, the U.S. has set a new record for the number of weather disasters in a year that cost $1 billion or more. There have been 23 climate catastrophes and weather events costing at least $1 billion as of the end of August, breaking the record of 22 set in 2020, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Monday. This year's disasters have so far cost more than $57.6 billion and killed 253 people. And the number could climb higher. NOAA is still totaling the cost of Tropical Storm Hilary, which wreaked havoc across California last month, and a drought in the South and Midwest. There's also an "above normal" forecast for this year's hurricane season, which will continue through the end of November. Some of the latest costly disasters include the firestorm in Hawaii, Hurricane Idalia and hail storms in Minnesota. Last year, there were 18 climate extremes that caused at least $1 billion in damage each, totaling more than $165 billion. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell warned in August that the organization's disaster fund could dry upwithin weeks and delay the federal response to natural disasters. President Biden asked Congress last month for $12 billion to replenish the disaster fund, but Criswell said on "Face the Nation" that $12 billion in extra funds may not be enough. … The number and cost of disasters have increased over time, NOAA said. The increase has happened because of a combination of factors, including climate change, where and how we build, and the value of structures at risk of possible loss. "Vulnerability is especially high where building codes are insufficient for reducing damage from extreme events," NOAA says. "Climate change is also playing a role in the increasing frequency of some types of extreme weather that lead to billion-dollar disasters— most notably the rise in vulnerability to drought, lengthening wildfire seasons in the Western states, and the potential for extremely heavy rainfall becoming more common in the eastern states." Between 1980 to 2023, 61 tropical cyclones, 185 severe storms, 22 wildfires, 42 flooding events, 22 winter storms, 30 droughts and 9 freezes costing $1 billion or more impacted the U.S, according to NOAA. The total cost of those 371 events exceeds $2.615 trillion. There were an average of 18 events a year costing a billion dollars or more between 2018 and 2022.
Over 5,000 dead in Libya following the collapse of multiple dams after record rainfall. This is a mix of freak weather, human failure from lack of maintenance and warnings, also climate change as the Mediterranean coasts is more vulnerable to big rain events and storm surges. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...issing-as-derna-counts-human-cost-of-disaster
