NBC News (September 3)
“The weather records for the New York City metropolitan area fell almost as quickly as the rain Wednesday night. The National Weather Service issued its first flash flood emergency ever for the city, and in Central Park, 3.2 inches of rain fell in an hour, setting a record. Newark, New Jersey, matched it, getting 3.2 inches of rain in an hour. Wednesday was the wettest day on record in Newark, with total rainfall of 8.4 inches…. Both cities experienced 1-in-500-year rainfall events. The result was one of the deadliest and most destructive flash flood events to hit the tri-state area, with at least 41 people dead by Thursday evening.”
Tags: 1-in-500-year, Central Park, Deadliest, Destructive, Emergency, Flash flood, New Jersey, Newark, NYC, Rain, Rainfall, Records, Weather
Chicago Tribune (June 8)
“Because of historic rains, less than half the normal amount of corn has been planted in Illinois.” The state is “the nation’s second-largest producer of corn,” typically supplying about 15% of U.S. production. “A disruption in planting has the potential to shake marketplaces, both domestic and foreign,” and this has been the slowest ever start. “As of June 2, Illinois farmers have only been able to sow corn seed in 45% of the acreage dedicated to the crop, 53% below the five-year average.”
Tags: Corn, Disruption, Historic, Illinois, Marketplaces, Planting, Rain, U.S.
Bloomberg (January 24)
This April, Capetown may become the first “great world city” to run out of water. Experts now expect “the reservoirs that feed this most beautiful of coastal cities will drop below critical levels, and stand at 13.5 percent of capacity. Taps will run dry in homes and businesses, and residents may have to start lining up” to fill containers with no more than “25 liters per person, as the city government desperately tries to reduce water consumption.” This is what happens when you “ignore warnings, underinvest and pretend that the rain will fall.”
Tags: Capetown, Consumption, Dry, Rain, Reservoirs, Taps, Underinvestment, Warnings, Water
USA Today (August 30)
“Climate change didn’t cause Harvey, but it almost surely made the storm worse.” And extreme weather “isn’t just happening in North America. Even as Harvey riveted the nation’s attention this week, the death toll topped 1,000 from unusually severe monsoonal rains half a world away in Bangladesh, India and Nepal.” With such destruction creating “a torrent of human misery, the question isn’t whether the nation can afford to get serious about global warming. We can’t afford not to.”
Tags: Bangladesh, Climate change, Death toll, Destruction, Extreme weather, Global warming, Harvey, India, Misery, Monsoons, Nepal, Rain, U.S.
