In the last few days, a moisture-laden heat wave has released extreme weather in almost every corner of California.
In a single day, Northern California was hit with triple-digit temperatures, as well as hundreds of lightning strikes burning fires. The mercury hit 107 degrees on Sunday in Santa Cruz, known for its temperate climate, and Death Valley reached 130 degrees – one of the worst temperatures ever recorded.
People take selfies on Monday on the thermometer of the Furnace Creek Visitor Center in Death Valley National Park. Death Valley recorded a whopping 130 degrees Sunday – one of the warmest temperatures ever recorded.
(John Locher / Associated Press)
Meanwhile, unusually muddy air made Los Angeles feel like Houston, and hot nights failed to offer much relief. The Central Valley swelled with temperatures exceeding 110 degrees. A tornado caused by the fire hit the Sierra Nevada community of Loyalton del. And a pyrocumulus cloud towered over Southern California, where heat and wildfires raised smog levels higher than they have been in years.
Did we mention that the power went too?
As one of the worst heat waves in years continues to burn California, millions are experiencing the devastation that comes with extreme weather that is growing more rapidly with climate change. Warmer nights in particular have the impression of global warming, scientists say, and offer a glimpse into the future of California, as greenhouse gas emissions are slowly warming the planet.
“Climate change is certainly increasing the frequency, severity and duration of extreme hot and warm nights,” said Flavio Lehner, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “It is safe to assume that climate change contributed to the extreme nature of recent events,” although only a recent study could indicate to what extent.
Medical experts meanwhile said they were extremely concerned about the health risks posed by this heatwave because of its similarity to a July 2006 heatwave that resulted in thousands of visits to emergency rooms for heat-related illness and hundreds too many deaths. They secure a jump in such hot casualties, which they fear will be marred by the closure of air-conditioned public spaces due to coronavirus restrictions.
These recent weather events are the result of three separate meteorological phenomena that combine in a way that is rarely seen in California, experts say.
The heat wave that broiled the West – longer and harder than typical for August – was the first to arrive.
It is a high pressure system that rotates clockwise across California, Nevada and Arizona that is hot, sent dry desert air over the Golden State, and broke daily and monthly heating records across the Central Valley.
Then Tropical Storm Elida off the coast of Mexico began to feed the moisture of the heat wave, causing instability in the atmosphere. This moisture is the reason why so many of the fires burning in California have recently created towering pyrocumulus clouds, said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain.
Finally, a thunderstorm sent about 1,100 miles south of the Bay Area in Sonora, Mexico, an invisible rippling wave of rising pressure north through the atmosphere, where it mixed with the heat and moisture to hundreds of lightning strikes across hundreds of miles from the Bay Area on Saturday and Sunday. This caused dozens of fires, while a tornado formed inside the interior.
National meteorologist from the Water Service Evan LaGuardia lives in the Reno Valley and said he could see a plume that would eventually spawn a fiery tornado from its back window.
“It was just amazing that a fire could create such a thing,” he said. “All the ingredients came together at once, the atmosphere was laid out and ready to go,” he said.
At least 100 new fires started on Monday due to lightning, on top of others that started from the 1,500 or so lightning strikes that spread across the Bay area over the weekend, said Lucas Spelman, spokesman for the California Department. of State Forest Management and Fire Protection.
Some of those lightning streaks may have created smoldering stacks of wood and brush that are just waiting for enough sunlight and heat to turn into an active fire that can go away from grinning eyes. An Angeles National Forest crew that was sent to Australia earlier this year had a similar fire spring back to life just recently.
‘The brush is primarily for burning; we know there is enormous potential there, ”said Spelman.
In the Central Valley, Modesto, Stockton and Sacramento all broke their all-time highs for the month of August this weekend, with each community reaching temperatures of 111, 112 and 113 degrees, respectively.
If temperatures do not deepen in the 90s at all this week, Sacramento will be on pace to break its record of 11 consecutive days of triple-digit heat in July 2006, Mueller said.
“It has been very unusually hot for August, and even for the summer,” Mueller noted. “This heatwave will subside as the hottest, or at least one of the top heat waves, for the entire time for the Sacramento area.”
Those records are likely to continue in the coming years due to the warming effect of greenhouse gas emissions.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, California has already warned 1 to 2 degrees as a result of the man-made build-up of greenhouse gases, and according to a political science assessment, temperatures could average between 5.6 degrees and 8.8 degrees by 2100, depending on of how much pollution mankind releases, and how quickly.
Greenhouse gases increase the chance of extreme heat by gradually warming from base temperature and by pushing the limits of possible weather.
To date, in the 2000s in the United States, on average, two record high maximum temperatures for each day reached record low minimum temperatures, said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
“This means with global warming, we are experiencing more extreme heat, and this can be seen in the California heat wave,” he said. “As average temperatures continue to warm, we will see even more record high maximum temperatures and extreme temperatures.”
But the characteristics of this heatwave that are most concerned when it comes to human health is its longevity, high humidity and lack of cooling at night, said Helene Margolis, an associate professor of medicine at UC Davis Department of Internal Medicine.
“That means the built environment, such as houses, buildings and the street itself, can’t withstand the heat,” Margolis said. “That you have this cumulative heat recovery over several days. And the whole environment is getting hotter and hotter, amplifying the risk. Because people actually can not cool down. ”
That lack of relief makes it harder for people’s bodies to recover at night and increases the chance that they will end up in the hospital with heat stroke, dehydration and other ailments. Extreme heat also increases the risk of complications for people with a spectrum of chronic diseases including kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Margolis and other health experts also expect that this heat wave will be more dangerous due to restrictions in place to control the pandemic.
Heat has a disproportionate effect on the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions – the same populations already have a higher risk of contracting the coronavirus. But with shopping malls, libraries, cinemas and other air-conditioned public spaces, mostly closed, “they have fewer options to stay cool,” Margolis said.
“COVID-19 has caused them to be afraid to leave their homes to take advantage of cooler environments, and there are less cool environments to go after,” she added. “That the chance of exposure to heat is greater, and the risk of heat-related health impact will be increased.”
Adding to health-related misery, air quality has also taken a dive. Wildfires and extreme heat generated smog readings that were the highest in Southern California in more than a decade.
Hourly levels of ozone – the invisible gas in smog that triggers asthma and other health problems – reached 173 parts per billion, as ppb, in Redlands on Friday and 167 ppb on Saturday in Glendora. Average hourly concentrations of one hour have not exceeded 163 ppb in the region since 2009, according to the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Rolling blackouts and the threat of extra outages also complicate people’s plans to deal with the heat.
Even in Death Valley, there is no guarantee that power will remain uninterrupted to activate air conditioners if the demand for electricity is too great, said David Blacker, executive director of Death Valley Historical Assn. and a resident of Death Valley National Park for 20 years.
A person walks Monday on a boardwalk near the salt flats in Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park. “Climate change is likely to increase the frequency, severity and duration of extreme heat and hot nights,” said one climate scientist.
(John Locher / Associated Press)
“You can have a hard time being in the hottest place on earth for two consecutive days – provided you have air conditioning,” Blacker said. “But this is the last place on Earth that you want to be without just and consistent power.”
“We are looking at a forecast of about 120 degrees for the rest of the week – and 122 on Sunday,” he added. “When it’s been so long, kids can’t play outdoors, adult temps start to get shorter and there’s a lot of screaming on TV when the news is on.”
Undeterred were heat-seeking holidaymakers from around the world who flocked to the park’s headquarters in Furnace Creek on Monday, 190 feet below sea level, cursing, hoping to soar through historic heights. Many of them gathered around a large digital thermometer prominently displayed at the entrance, posing for snapshots.
Park spokeswoman Brandi Stewart welcomes the attention, to a point.
“But honestly, people would not have to jump in their cars and go to Death Valley to experience the extreme temperatures,” she said. “We are remote, and mobile service is not available everywhere.”
Death Valley has event plans in case of power outage.
“At least,” Stewart said, “evacuation is part of the plan.”
