Is Hollywood out of ragtag bands of world-savers?
We have seen a spate of unusual weather across the country lately, you may have noticed. The video from Rocky Mount, NC on Wednesday looked like a scene from Twister.
Nothing to see here. Again.
North Carolina sees fewer tornadoes than the Midwest. Still, about 31 hit the state in an average year, according to the National Weather Service. Hurricanes and tropical storms generate many of those along the coastal plain. Neither spawned the EF3 that hit Rocky Mount and a Pfizer plant on Wednesday:
An important Pfizer pharmaceutical plant in North Carolina was severely damaged on Wednesday after a powerful tornado ripped through the area, threatening production lines that normally provide huge amounts of medicine to U.S. hospitals. Meanwhile, torrential rain flooded parts of Kentucky and communities from California to South Florida endured scorching heat that at times reached record-high temperatures.
Pfizer confirmed the large manufacturing complex was damaged by a twister that touched down shortly after midday near Rocky Mount, but said in an email that it had no reports of serious injuries. A later company statement said all employees were safely evacuated and accounted for.
[…]
The plant produces anesthesia and other drugs as well as nearly 25% of all sterile injectable medications used in U.S. hospitals, Pfizer said on its website. Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health, said the damage “will likely lead to long-term shortages while Pfizer works to either move production to other sites or rebuilds.”
WRAL reports that it was “the second-ever EF-3 tornado to hit North Carolina in the month of July.” Sixteen people were injured and dozens of buildings damaged. No, the tornado did not destroy stocks of Covid vaccines.
Vermont has noticed odd weather as well. Megan Mayhew Bergman writes at The Atlantic that Lamoille County, was supposed to be all but immune “from the combined effects of climate change, including sea-level rise, wildfires, crop damage, and economic impact. But that was before the floods.”
Bergman writes:
July’s flood is just the latest in a string of extreme weather events in Vermont this year. After a historically warm January, a late-May frost may have destroyed more than half of the state’s commercial apple crop. By summer, smoke from Canadian wildfires choked the once-clean air. Then, during the week of July 10, heavy rains flooded the state capital, Montpelier, and washed out homes and businesses across the state. It was the worst flooding since Hurricane Irene, a “100-year” storm that struck only 12 years ago.
Vermont is no longer the haven many believed it to be. And if this tiny, bucolic state isn’t safe, far from the ocean in one of the coolest parts of the country, it’s hard to imagine a place that is.
No place is safe, not even “climate havens” like mine:
Academics have long had an interest in identifying “climate havens”—regions that may be less likely to suffer extreme heat, sea-level rise, and inland flooding as the global temperature continues to climb, and that may have the capacity to accommodate climate refugees. Vermont towns are often on these lists. One, compiled by the Tulane University real-estate professor Jesse Keenan just last year, included Burlington, Vermont, along with cities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Asheville, North Carolina. And yet, 100-year storms could hit Pittsburgh as frequently as every two decades, according to a recent analysis by the climate nonprofit First Street Foundation; in the coming decades, Asheville is predicted to be prone to drought, extreme heat, and extreme precipitation. If conditions look this bad in the so-called havens, we’re in for a much-needed awakening.
Allegedly “woke” world governments are still un-woke when it comes to climate, including ours, despite President Biden’s efforts.
Kentucky saw record rainfall this week.
If it’s not rain and tornadoes, it’s heat (CNN):
At least 18 people have died from the heat across the Phoenix, Arizona area as of July 15, and another 69 heat-associated fatalities are under investigation, public health data shows.
The Maricopa County Department of Public Health reported a spike of nearly 30 deaths between July 9 and 15 that are suspected to be heat-related.
Temperatures during this same stretch of time have exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit as a heat dome bears down on the region.
The Guardian: reports a heat wave across Europe:
Hailstorms have hit northern Italy as near-record temperatures begin to ebb, but forecasters have warned of a fourth heatwave hitting southern Europe next week, with temperatures of up to 48C.
More than 110 people had sustained injuries after the north-eastern Italian region of Veneto was hit on Thursday by extreme weather, including large hailstones, said the governor, Luca Zaia, who declared a regional state of emergency for the areas affected.
And no, it’s not your imagination (New York Times):
Last month was the planet’s warmest June since global temperature record-keeping began in 1850, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in its monthly climate update on Thursday. The agency also predicts unusually hot temperatures will occur in most of the United States, almost everywhere except the northern Great Plains, during August.
The first two weeks of July were also likely the Earth’s warmest on human record, for any time of year, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Digby tweeted on Tuesday, “Is it just me or do these news reports about heat records and flooding *all over the world* look like a science fiction movie — and we’re all acting like it’s no big deal?”
Can someone find a saucy female scientist, a cocky former astronaut, and a stereotypical computer nerd to step up and fix this in the third reel? Please?
And it’s only July.