(July 16): More than 75 people have been rescued in Texas as floodwaters rise, while Canadian wildfire smoke is choking skies across the Midwest and Northeast, including New York, and heat continues to fuel wildfire risk in California.
Torrential rain has flooded parts of western and central Texas, where as much as nine inches (23cm) fell in just a few hours. No deaths had been reported through Wednesday night, according to Governor Greg Abbott, who declared a disaster in 59 counties and mobilised more than 1,300 emergency workers.
“We are dealing with and responding to a flood that is likely going to break records in Texas history,” Abbott said during a press briefing posted on Facebook. “Our primary focus right now and throughout the remainder of this torrential rain is saving lives.”
The flooding comes as multiple extreme weather hazards stretch across North America, from wildfire smoke blanketing major cities in Canada and the eastern US to heat and elevated fire danger across the West.
Air quality alerts are in effect from Minnesota to Massachusetts, while Canadian warnings extend from Saskatchewan to Ontario. Smoke from hundreds of Canadian wildfires has turned skies yellow-gray across the Great Lakes and Northeast as the jet stream pushes soot and ash south, said Frank Pereira, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center.
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Air quality around the Great Lakes, including Toronto, is currently rated very unhealthy, while in parts of New York, Philadelphia and Trenton, it’s rated unhealthy, according to AirNow.gov. Globally, Detroit, Minneapolis and Toronto have some of the worst air quality anywhere, according to IQAir, which collates data from 80,000 sensors worldwide.
Pereira said while the smoke poses a danger to residents throughout the central and eastern US, it will hold down temperatures that was set to drive energy demand surging as people turned to air conditioning to keep cool.
“We were expecting widespread, record-breaking temperatures across the Mid-Atlantic through today, but I am not seeing the number that was advertised,” Pereira said. “It will still be warm for sure, but not quite the intensity that we were previously going with.”
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Even so, power grids remain under strain. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which serves a large swath of the central US, issued a Level 2 energy emergency alert on Wednesday, citing forced generation outages, above-normal temperatures and electricity demand exceeding forecasts. The alert is one step below measures that can include rotating outages.
PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest power grid, issued a Level 1 emergency alert for Wednesday and Thursday, which typically asks power plant operators to stand ready to commit all available sources to support the system.
Only nine, daily high temperature records are set to be threatened, broken or tied through Friday across the US, the Weather Prediction Center said. Five of these will either be in Southern California or Florida. On Monday, as many as 60 records were in peril across the US.
Thursday’s high in New York’s Central Park is forecast to reach 92F (33C), while Washington has a high of 98F, but will feel closer to 103F with humidity factored in.
Across the West, hot, dry winds continue to elevate wildfire danger. The US Storm Prediction Center has issued a Level 1 of 3 fire-weather risk for parts of central California, Oregon and Nevada, though the threat is expected to shrink on Friday.
California has 13 active wildfires, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The largest, the Elephant Fire in Sierra County, has burned 13,016 acres (5,267 hectares) and is 31% contained.
Southern California also remains under extreme heat for at least one more day before cooler conditions arrive. Los Angeles is forecast to reach 92F on Thursday before temperatures ease to about 83F on Friday.
Uploaded by Evelyn Chan
