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Why This Matters: Tropical Storm Bertha is following an increasingly familiar pattern of unprecedented amounts of rainfall along with strong winds that persist into the interior areas. Tropical storms, it seems, are not just for summer and not just for coastal areas anymore. The potential for flash flooding due to torrential rain falling over a short period of time threatens cities like Fayetteville, Charlotte, Wilmington, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Roanoke and Wytheville, Virginia; and Charleston and Beckley, West Virginia. This is further evidence of the new normal when it comes to severe summer weather, thanks to climate change.
South Florida Got Drenched – Rain Records Shattered
Bertha is just the latest in a string of tropical storms and hurricanes striking the Carolinas in recent years, including Jose, Maria, Florence, Michael, Dorian, and Humberto just since 2017. Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of north-central and northeastern South Carolina, central North Carolina, southwestern Virginia, and southeastern West Virginia because the ground is already saturated from other significant rainfall events this week. Strong thunderstorms ripped through Charlotte last Friday, killing two people, with lots of trees and power lines down. More rain is forecast for the region through the end of the week.
Flooded Streets in Miami Image: Miami Herald screengrab
Temperatures are forecast to continue to exceed 110 degrees across the Southwestern U.S. this week — Phoenix might set a record for its all-time high. But it’s not only going to bake the South — the heatwave will cause 100-degree temperatures across the Ohio Valley and into the Mid-Atlantic. At the same time, NOAA forecast that a “La Niña” (cooling of the ocean near the equator in the Pacific) could develop later this year increasing the likelihood of fall hurricanes, as well as a colder winter for some parts of the country.
Why This Matters: The very areas of the country that are being ravaged by COVID-19 are now experiencing the worst of the heatwave too.
At the end of June, we wrote that a record-breaking high temperature of 100° F was detected in the northeastern Siberian town of Verkhoyansk. This caused alarm as this was one more indicator of the rapid warming happening at the Arctic Circle. Unfortunately, this stretch of record heat has continued in Siberia where’s it’s accelerated […]
At least 50 people have died and many others are stranded and unable to get help because of massive flooding in the Southwestern Japan island of Kyushu, where torrential downpours and mudslides turned streets into rivers and washed-out bridges on Monday, with heavy rain expected to continue through Tuesday, Kyodo News reported.
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