It’s hot and getting hotter along the equator in the Pacific. It’s hot and dry in the Pacific Northwest and hot and humid in Massachusetts. I keep getting emails in my inbox reminding me that it’s summer and it’s supposed to be hot, but one record after another shows that parts of the U.S. are experiencing truly record-breaking heat.
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to the latest stories about climate, energy, the environment and science. I’m Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent with USA TODAY.
On July 31, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released its environmental impact statement for addressing water shortages in the Colorado River. The bureau’s plans lean heavily on curtailing deliveries from Lake Mead to downstream water users, which includes Arizonans, writes Brandon Loomis at the Arizona Republic.
The plan allows for cuts of up to 3 million acre-feet a year among the states in the river’s Lower Basin — Arizona, California and Nevada. Arizona officials already have warned the state can’t accept the deepest cuts that have been outlined. Loomis also talked with The Excerpt about the latest developments. Arizona Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke said his team continued to negotiate with federal decision makers and the other six states in the watershed.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes say they were not included in final discussions for a federal plan on river water shortages, reports the Republic’s Debra Utacia Krol. The Tribes, which hold the most senior tribal rights on the lower river and 23% of Arizona’s entire allocation, submitted a letter to the bureau Aug. 2 outlining the concerns.
The plan also aims to use millions of dollars to pay some in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico to voluntarily use less water from the river, according to Colorado officials. USA TODAY’s Swasti Singhai writes the plan is the latest of a number of efforts to compensate people for using less water as the West faces an escalating water crisis.
Heat, drought and wildfires linger on
New wildfires are starting every day as drought and heat set up dangerous wildfire conditions in much of the West. Three fires that started on Aug. 1 near Spokane wiped out more than 600 homes and other structures, officials said. The damage can be seen in before and after photos. At least one of the Spokane fires is blamed on arson, but officials across the West are urging those who spend time outdoors to use caution to avoid accidentally starting fires.
More than 5.5 million acres have been burned in U.S. wildfires this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. More than 29,000 firefighting personnel are assigned to active fires across the nation.
In Oregon, an official says this year’s fires, which have burned more than 1.8 million acres, are the worst the state has had. Here’s why, according to Kyle Williams, deputy director of fire operations for the Oregon Department of Forestry. Williams detailed how one of the driest and hottest winter and springs on record set the stage for fires to grow with ferocious speed, vexing fire crews’ best efforts to knock them down early.
El Niño watch
Colorado State University released its hurricane season update this week, pointing to the strengthening El Niño, a naturally occurring climate cycle that brings warmer-than-normal waters to the eastern Pacific Ocean. The forecast team said seven additional named storms could occur in the Atlantic region, but the changes in atmospheric winds triggered by El Niño are expected to keep a lid on most storms that try to form.
Along the California coast, scientists say it could be a sharky summer thanks to changing currents prompted by El Niño that bring warmer water northward. But it’s not just white sharks. A number of rare or unusual species could appear offshore.
“We expect to see all kinds of weird tropical things come up with this warm water,” said Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Latest data center headlines
Critter corner
Construction crews have drilled supports and are pouring concrete for another stretch of what is billed as the world’s largest urban wildlife crossing in Southern California. The hope is that the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing will help save an isolated mountain lion population from extinction, writes Cheri Carlson with the Ventura County Star. A small cougar population in the Santa Monica mountains is boxed in by development and highways, obstacles that lead to inbreeding and low genetic diversity.
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