Oddly Early Winter Storm Snarls California, And Additional Rough, Wet Weather Hits Other Parts Of U.S. Southwest

Workers try to clear storm drains in San Francisco
Monday as cars splash through the deep puddles.
An oddly early, strong storm is hitting
Californian. Photo from the San Fransisco 
Chronicle, via Facebook.

 California is being hit today by the kind of storm they usually have to wait until January or February to see. 

The storm features locally heavy rains, the threat of debris flows and mudslides, heavy snow in the mountains and even a low but still real chance of a brief tornado in the Los Angeles basin. 

This type of storm hits California fairly regularly in the dead of winter, but they almost never happen this early in the season. 

The biggest threat from this storm is for people who live near and below the sites of those giant, deadly wildfires that hit the L.A. area last January. 

The City of Los Angeles issued evacuation warnings for homes near the fire burn areas in Pacific Palisades and Malibu, KTLA tells us. 

People who live near the site of a big January fire in and around Altadena were also told to be on the alert to possible evacuations. Same was true near other burn scars in Orange County. 

Valleys in southern California can expect an inch of rain, give or take, which is wildly big for October. The mountains and foothills can expect two to four inches. 

Normal rainfall for the entire month of October in Los Angeles is about a half inch. 

The biggest problem is that the rain in southern California should come in a relatively brief time, with most of it falling within four to six hours. Such downpours can really move rocks and dirt in areas where vegetation was destroyed by wildfires. 

As of 5:30 a.m local time, a gusty thunderstorm with downpours and gusts to 55 mph was blustering through the Los Angeles basin. Very odd for what is normally a dry time of year. 

Further north, the first snows of the season have started falling in the notoriously snowy Sierra Nevada mountains. 

By midwinter standards, this storm isn't huge. But for October, it's impressive. Snow levels were forecast to fall to 5,000 feet above sea level today. Interstate 80 through Donner Pass should have slushy snow and traffic delays along it today. Higher up, some ski resorts, though not open yet, can expect maybe a foot of snow. So I imagine some renegade skiers and riders will be up there doing their thing.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, torrential rains flooded roads and drowned cars in many areas. Several days, mostly Ubers and Lyfts leaving the airport, got trapped in flash flooding Monday night, ABC7 News in San Francisco reported. 

San Francisco on average receives 0.79 inches of rain during the entire month of October. More than that fell in just one day Monday, as the city received 0.87 inches, at least as measured at the airport. 

The oddly early preview of the California rainy season might or might not be good news for the fall and early winter wildfire season.

Strong, dry Santa Ana winds propel the ferocious wildfires in southern California. The worst of them hit from about now through mid December. (Last year, the lack of rain and the Santa Anas kept going well into January, hence the deadly mega fires in the L.A area).

Initially, everything will be damp, so the wildfire risk will be low. But the rain will inspire new plant growth - grass, weeds, that kind of thing. 

By this time of year, northern California is close enough to the normal storm track so that wildfire season is probably over up there. 

But in southern California, that new growth could dry out and become tinder for fires later this fall and early winter.  Southern California is not out of the woods for wildfires just yet. 

That's true even though the weird October rains in California might not be over. Another storm, smaller and weaker than the one they're getting now, could come through next Monday with a little more rain. After that, it seems California will revert back to its normal dry, sunny late October weather.

SOUTHWEST STORMS 

An intense microburst caused a lot of damage in
Tempe, Arizona Monday. It was part of a stormy
pattern in the normally dry southwest U.s. 

It's been a strangely stormy autumn in the Southwest this year, thanks in part to the remnants of Hurricane Priscilla, which originated off the west coast of Mexico. The storm remnants became Priscilla, the (very wet) queen of the desert.   

In Tempe, Arizona, an intense thunderstorm microburst Monday packing winds of at least 70 mph tore roofs off apartment buildings, mobile homes and businesses, displacing at least 130 people. Parts of warehouses collapsed, semi-trucks overturned, and power lines collapsed in the storm. Luckily, there were no serious injuries. 

Another microburst Sunday in Tucson, Arizona damaged several properties, blew over trees and saguaro cactus and caused flooding. The city received 1.2 inches of rain, the biggest storm in almost a year. 

On Sunday, flash floods damaged several homes in Mesa, Arizona and closed roads. 

The bad weather extended into New Mexico and Colorado, causing damaging flash floods in both states. 

In normally arid southwest Colorado, flash floods wrecked about 100 homes, prompted nearly a dozen high water rescues and blocked roads. As much as five inches of rain fell in that part of Colorado. Flooding also hit around Salt Lake City, Utah.   

It's Still The Year Of The Floods, Arizona, Tennessee Latest Victims

The inside of a flood-destroyed 
restaurant in Globe, Arizona. 

Over the spring and summer, I kept calling 2025 the Year Of The Floods. Devastating floods kept hitting so many parts of the U.S. through the winter, spring and summer.   

Those culminated with the immense Texas Hill Country flood over the July 4 weekend that killed at least 135 people. 

August in the U.S. was generally drier, but local floods continued to pick off communities and occasionally cost lives in various other parts of the nation.

The Year Of The Floods Hit again over the past few days. This time, Arizona and Tennessee were the big trouble spots.

The worst of these were in Arizona.

ARIZONA MONSOON

At least four people have died and there's widespread damage in normally arid Arizona due to intense monsoon storms. 

The worst of it hit the small city of Globe, Arizona, east of Phoenix. The old mining town with a population of 7,200 was swept by a flash flood Friday that turned downtown streets into whitewater rapids. 

About two inches of rain hit Globe Thursday, then several more inches poured down Friday, overwhelming dry washes and sending walls of water through the city and the nearby community of Miami. 

There have been three known deaths in and around Globe, and several other people are missing, reports the Arizona Republic. 

About 1,000 propane tanks from a distribution center were washed away in Globe and are scattered throughout the area. That obviously complicates the recovery effort, since some of them could still explode.

Video showed cars and propane tanks floating in downtown Globe with bursts of gas coming from some of the tanks. People at a baby shower in a Globe historical center said water burst in and almost immediately became at least waist deep inside the structure. Everybody at the baby shower was rescued. 

Downtown Globe has many historic buildings dating back to its mining past in the 1800s. Many of those buildings are now badly damaged. Exterior walls of the Wild Horses Saloon were blown out bye the rushing water. 

Serious flooding also hit around Phoenix and Scottsdale, where one person was reported dead and several other people were rescued from stuck, inundated cars. Phoenix had 1.64 inches of rain Friday, its wettest day since 2018.

TENNESSEE

In the mountains of east Tennessee, flash flooding and mudslides caused havoc on Saturday, especially around Great Smoky Mountains National Park. 

A landslide closed part of the Gatlinburg Bypass, a heavily traveled road around the tourist city of Gatlinburg and a gateway to the national park. Several other roads in the region were closed.

The rain has moved out of eastern Tennessee. Moisture from what will be Tropical Storm Imelda is unlikely to reach as far inland as the Smoky Mountains to an extent serious enough to cause more flooding.  

Although it's hard to determine whether the floods in Arizona and Tennessee have any link to climate change, they are consistent with it. A warming world means the atmosphere can hold more moisture that it could during cooler times. 

When the right storm comes along, that added moisture can result in extreme downpours, more intense than those we saw decades ago. 

If You Need A Heartwarming Weather Story, Here's Two: Baby In A Hurricane And Wedding In A Haboob

Dr. Juan Gershanik rescuing little
baby Christian Stewart from
Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.
The two have kept in touch 
ever since. 

Christian Stewart of Houston, Texas just celebrated his 20th birthday. 

That shouldn't at first glance be a big deal. Plenty of people celebrate birthdays and you probably don't know Christian Stewart.  

But he's alive today against long odds.  Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina almost killed him. Except a kind, brave doctor saved him.

Stewart was born in New Orleans, nearly three months premature in July, 2005.  He weighed just one pound, 12 ounces at birth. He was still in the NICU at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans when hurricane Katrina hit on August 28, 2005. 

The hospital was swamped with water. The emergency generators clicked on, but the water began to go after those, too. If the backup generators failed, Stewart's mechanical ventilator would stop, and he would die.

Enter Dr. Juan Gershanik, who rescued Stewart via a harrowing helicopter ride to Baton Rouge. 

The obvious spoiler is that Gershanik saved Stewart's life.  The good doctor has been attending Stewart's birthday ever since. 

For the full story in a video, click on this link, or if you see the image below, click on that. Then, below the video, Story #2 starts. 

THE WEDDING HABOOB

Things can get a little dusty with events this time of year in Arizona. Just ask a particular pair of newly weds

As ABC 15 Arizona reports:

Bekka and Jamie Ham just married amid a haboob
near Phoenix Arizona. Photo by Madisen Ruehle

"After a decade together, Bekka and Jamie Ham finally decided to tie the knot. They planned nothing too fancy - just a courthouse ceremony followed by some photos with their photographer and friend Madisen Ruehle to remember the day."

The courthouse ceremony in Chandler, Arizona, just southeast of Phoenix, was quick and flawless. It was the photography afterward that got tricky. 

"'We leave the courthouse and we just see a wall of dust coming. I didn't realize how fast it was coming - we were right in the middle of the dust storm,'" Ruehle said. 

The dust slammed into the couple and the photographer, but a rescuer was nearby.  Paul Roupas was getting ready for the grand opening of his new Aristocrat Coffee Roasters shop in downtown Chandler when he saw the couple in distress.

He hustled them into his shop and made sure they had a memorable if off the cuff wedding reception. Roupas brewed up some heart-shaped lattes, and had the couple pick out music for their first dance on a vintage vinyl record player. He didn't have Champagne, so their first toast to their married life was in the form of his and her ice cream cones. 

Outside, the dust turned into a muddy rain, then a cleaner, but gusty torrential downpour. But the newlyweds were safe inside to start their married life. 

Ruehle put the event on social media, where of course it went viral. She said her favorite comment on her post was:  "If a wet knot is harder to untie, then let it rain."

Here's the news video: Click on this link to watch, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

Massive Haboob Slams Phoenix, And Other Arizona Communities. Quite The Spectacle

Image of yesterday's massive haboob taking over
the Phoenix metro area. 

 Gosh, this blog thingy is turning into all Phoenix, all the time. 

I went on and on about the extreme summer heat there the other day, but yesterday, things got really wild out there in Arizona. 

A haboob, or giant dust storm hit the area as monsoon thunderstorms raged over large parts of Arizona and adjacent southeast California. 

Outflow from the storms stirred up the massive, apocalyptic looking wall of dust that dropped visibility to zero when it hit.

The haboob hit during the evening commute and some motorists said they couldn't see past their car hoods. The National Weather Service warned everyone to "pull aside to stay alive."

Apparently, everyone did. So far, I haven't seen any reports of deaths or serious injuries. 

Winds were intense in this swirling dust storm. A gust to 94 mph was reported at Sun Tan Valley, in the southeastern outskirts of the Phoenix metro area. The wind at Sky Harbor International Airport gusted to 70 mph amid the clouds of dust. Visibility there was at zero from 5:35 to 5:51 p.m. 

The temperature at the airport fell from 100 to 79 degrees in just 17 minutes.

To the shock of nobody, the haboob delayed plenty of flights at the airport.  A ground stop there lasted a good hour. A connector bridge at the airport was shredded by the storm, and part of a roof at a terminal was damaged. 

Power lines and even utility poles snapped. Trees fell on houses, cars and carports. Photos and video from the Phoenix showed fallen trees, traffic signals and wires. The bottoms of countless swimming pools were covered in dirt.  

The haboob yesterday about to swallow the Phoeni
Sky Harbor airport. 

In Arizona Monday,  the haboob was followed in many areas by torrential rains from the parent thunderstorm. 

As the rain turned the dust to mud then washed it away, flash flood alerts blared in the Phoenix area, along with many other areas in southern Arizona and far southern California away from the coast. 

The haboob traveled quite a distance, too. It developed a little north to Tucson, then slammed through Casa Grande around 4:25 p.m. local time before slamming into Phoenix an hour later. Which means it traveled a good 60 miles at least. 

Haboobs are pretty common in arid areas, including in the U.S. Desert Southwest.  A similar serious haboob swept through the Burning Man festival in northwest Nevada last weekend, ripping up encampments and other temporary structures. 

Some observers say the Phoenix haboob on Monday was the most intense since July, 2011. 

Every weather emergency has its precautions, and haboobs have theirs.  Motorists who see a wall of dust coming should pull into a parking lot. Or, if none is available, pull as far off the side of the road as possible. 

People are told to shut off their car lights.  The visibility in haboobs is so bad that people have been known to smash into parked cars with lights on, thinking they were on the highway. Kind of like a blizzard here in Vermont. Except obviously with sand, not snow. 

More haboobs, big thunderstorms and flash floods are possible in the Desert Southwest for the rest of today and likely tomorrow. 

On a vaguely humorous note, spell check kept trying to make me say Phoenix was hit with either a "kabob" or a "baboon" either of which would have been more fun and probably less dangerous. 

Videos:

Storm chaser Aaron Rigsby got some amazing shots of the Arizona haboob. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

 
Another video from the Associated Press, shows what it was like to be in a car during the haboob, then a timelapse of the haboob, followed by torrential rain, sweeping into downtown Phoenix. Again, click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that:

Arizona Heat Deaths Hit During Another Brutal Summer As Hot Spell Spreads Throughout West

Phoenix, Arizona is enduring yet another brutally
hot summer, even by their oven-like standards.
In recent days, the heat has spread 
throughout the western United States. 

Phoenix, Arizona has always been hell on Earth during the summer. 

Last year was by the far the most brutal ever. Phoenix endured its warmest year, longest stretch of consecutive days over 100 degrees, most days that reached 110 degrees, and warmest June, September, October and December.  

Everyone in Phoenix hoped this year would be cooler.   And it is! Kinda, sorta. The only problem is it is still one of the most brutal summers on record in Phoenix. 

It has become horribly routine. Every summer now is beyond what history taught Arizonans.  Climate change has turned the Arizona oven up to broil and beyond.  

That hot brutality is in the stats. This year, every day from July 27 through August 9 was 110 degrees or hotter. It peaked at 118 degrees on August 7, the hottest August day on record in Phoenix. 

On average, 21 days annually in Phoenix reach 110 degrees. As of Friday, this year already had 35 such days. At least it isn't as bad as last year, when they had a record shattering 70 days of 110 degree weather. 

To make it all the more unbearable, the monsoon season which often brings cooling thunderstorms has faltered.   

THE HEAT SPREADS

Over the past few days, it isn't just Phoenix. The heat has spread pretty much everywhere in the West, spreading northward all the way to Washington and beyond. 

In Washington State, the heat is forecast to last at least through Wednesday. Seattle is in the throes of its biggest heat wave of the summer. Highs on Saturday were near 90, and that kind of weather was expected to continue through Monday or Tuesday. 

Thunderstorms have been added to the mix, increasing humidity in some areas, raising the risk of flash flooding in the Sierra Nevada, and threatening new wildfire starts elsewhere due to lightning. 

In L.A County, thunderstorms with dry lighting and little rain set several small wildfires. The risk of more of these types of lighting-related fires through Tuesday, though Saturday brought the highest risk. 

The heat began a few days ago  in much of the West. Several Bay Area cities in California set record highs, including  Santa Rosa and San Rafael both at 100 degrees; Concord, at 101 and Livermore up to 102.  

Portland, Oregon got up to 102 degrees, Friday, breaking the previous record high for the date by four degrees.   Salem, Oregon had a record high of 101 and Eugene broke its daily record high by three degrees as the temperature reached 99 degrees. 

High schools in northern California and Oregon pushed back high school opening season football games into the night so that players and fans would avoid the most dangerous heat. 

DEADLY HEAT

Back in Phoenix, as always with Arizona heat, the hotter it gets, the grimmer the toll. As The Guardian tells us: 

"So far this year, three-quarter of heat related deaths have occurred outside, where temperatures in the most built-up, least shady parts of Phoenix can be 20 or 30 degrees higher on the sidewalk than the NWS's airport weather station. Unhoused people account for 40% of deaths, while substance misuse contributed to two-thirds."

The official death toll in Phoenix through midsummer was an about 30 percent  lower than last year, thanks in part to it being ever so slightly cooler in June and early July than in the record breaker 2024. The city has also improved access and extended hours at cooling centers around Phoenix. 

Still, The Guardian points out that heat deaths have soared in Maricopa County over the past decade or two. (The county encompasses Phoenix, its metropolitan area and many of its suburbs). There were 645 heat deaths in the county in 2023 compared to just 61 in 2014. 

Heat is the biggest weather killer in the U.S. About 2,000 Americans die of heat-related causes annually, and that might well be an undercount. 

AUTUMN IS COMING

It's finally forecast to cool off later this week in Phoenix with highs "only" in the 100 to 103 degree range. Much of the rest of the West should eventually cool down as well by the end of the week. By the end of the week, some cool, light showers might dampen Seattle. 

In the eastern two thirds of the United States, a large and sustained cool spell should keep temperatures comfortable all week, pushing the hot humid air all the way down to along the Gulf Coast. The first frost advisory of the season goes into effect late tonight in northern Minnesota.  

 

American Stupidity: Why Did Family Go Hiking In Blasting Phoenix Heat Wave

Hiking trails around Phoenix, Arizona do look lovely,
but what possessed parents in a family group to
take kids on a hike there on a 110+ degree day?

 You don't want to be outside for any length of time this time of year in Phoenix. 

That will seem obvious, given that Phoenix is probably the hottest major American city, at least in terms of temperature.  So anybody in their right mind would demur when somebody suggest a nice long hike in that weather, right?   

So why the living hell did, on June 29 a group of five adults and six children, mostly between the ages of 5 and 11, set off on a hike? They started around 10 a.m. and buy noon, they needed help. Desperately.  

A tactical rescue team was dispatched to the Holbert Trail, where the group was. "We basically dispatched the equivalent of a first alarm mountain rescue. We had upwards of five mountain rescue teams who responded. That's a lot of resources," Phoenix Fire Department Captain Rob McDade told AZFamily.com

"There's no reason to be on trails at 10 a.m. on an extreme heat day like this. Especially with younger children," McDade added, putting on his Captain Obvious hat.

I wonder if the Darwin Awards have a division for entire families instead of just winnings for individuals. Although I'd give the award to just the adults in the group. The ages of the children were 3, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 15. 

 The family also endangered the rescuers who had to go up and get them. The heat surely affected them, too, though I'm happy to report the rescuers survived the ordeal. At least until somebody else gets stupid in the Arizona desert summer. 

 Other members of the Phoenix fire department also panned the group.

"Trying to get the family out is very commendable but hiking on a day of extreme heat ad going around well-placed sigs that say 'This trail is closed,' is one of the worst decisions to make," Capt. Todd Keller of the Phoenix Police Department told the Arizona Republic. "The overwhelming feeling is not surprise, but disappointment."

Aside from common sense,  the family was not supposed to be there at all.  

The city of Phoenix closed most municipal trails, including the Colbert Trail that day because of the extreme heat. The city typically closes their trails from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on particularly hot days. 

The high temperature the day the family was rescued reached 114 degrees with an early morning low of a still sweltering 87 degrees. The normal June 29 high in Phoenix is 107, with a record high of 119.

So by any measure June 29 was a ridiculously hot day in Phoenix. 

Phoenix has a city ordinance that allows them to cite people who go into closed parks. Those convicted face a fine of $50 or more and eight hours of community service. 

 As azfamily.com reports:  

"You can face charges for leaving a child in a hot car, you could face charges for taking them hiking in the heat. Child crime experts say parents could be charged for neglect or abuse for knowingly bringing their children on hiking trails in extreme heat."

The Arizona Republic says people have died on Phoenix area trails when take foolhardy summer hikes. 

Ultimately, the hikers were not cited.  The city released this statement regarding the issue:

"While the city retains the authority to cite individuals for entering a closed park or trail, health and safety is the priority during an emergency rescue. The objective is to get individuals to safety off the mountain and connected to medical care as quickly as possible. No one should ever be deterred from calling for help out of concern or receiving a citation"

OK, fine, but inquiring minds want to know what possessed this group to go hiking in the first place. Alas, I could find no evidence of anybody from the group explaining what happened.  

I also, wonder - and hope - whether child protective services is looking into the matter. 

Two Extreme And Dramatic Weather Events Prove Fatal In Alaska, Arizona

Extreme flash flooding in the Havasu Creek and Falls
area of the Grand Canyon last week killed one person
and forced helicopter rescues for dozens of others. 

 I've been a bit fascinated and horrified in the past week of two big local weather-related events in two very different, scenic spots. One was a landslide in Ketchikan, Alaska and the other an epic flash flood in northern Arizona. 

I often cite local disasters like this as evidence of the harm created by climate change. 

Both of these disasters might have been related to climate change, but I don't know for sure and can't prove it either way. But still, they're pretty intense. 

NORTHERN ARIZONA

Havasu Creek and Havasu Canyon in northern Arizona - part of the Grand Canyon are an incredibly scenic spot in northern Arizona, popular with hikers and vacationers. It features Havasu Falls, a gorgeous blue-green feature that attracts thousands of tourists annually and is a main attraction to the Grand Canyon 

Hundreds of hikers were in the canyon and along the creek last Thursday when disaster struck. It's monsoon season in Arizona, when moisture from both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico find their way to the Desert Southwest. 

The monsoons create intense thunderstorms, famous for creating abrupt flash floods in the deserts, low water crossings, creeks, canyons and back country of Arizona. 

Last Thursday, an especially intense monsoon struck in and around Havasu Canyon.  The resulting flash flood was epic, stranding at least 100 hikers and sweeping away a woman, who was later found dead. 

Reports News 12 in Arizona:

"Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was hiking with her husband near Havasu Creek on Thursday when the  couple was swept away by the flash flood. Her husband was able to be rescued by rafters, but Nickerson went missing in the Colorado River."

Her body was eventually found 20 miles downriver. Nickerson's family is raising money for the National Park Service Search and Rescue in her honor. Family members said the search and rescue team is historically underfunded, and they believe this is a great way to honor Nickerson's memory. 

I couldn't agree more. 

The death toll could well have been higher, but Havasupai tribal members who live in the area recognized the flash flood situation developing and warned hikers to seek high ground immediately.  

The Havasupai Tribe's reservation is perhaps the most remote in the nation. You can only get to it on foot, mule or via helicopter. 

Havasu Falls and surrounding trails are now off limits to visitors for the foreseeable future. The tribe is working with FEMA on coordinating repairs.  Although monsoon flash flooding is common in this area, the one that struck last week was much worse than usual.  

Dramatic video of the flash flood are here and here. 

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA

Ketchikan, Alaska, on the state's panhandle south of Juneau,  is normally very wet - one of the wettest cities on Earth. Its normal annual rainfall is about 150 inches. (That compares to roughly 40 inches a year here in Vermont).  

Aerial view of the big landslide
in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Recently, however, the tain was too much even for soggy Ketchikan. A tragic landslide last Sunday buried part of a city neighborhood, killing one person and injuring three others. Numerous homes were destroyed in a dense neighborhood not far from downtown, reports Alaska Public Media.

The person killed was Sean Griffin, a senior maintenance technician for Ketchikan who was off duty but volunteering to clear clogged storm drains when the landslide hit. 

A number of factors could have contributed to the slide. Around 2.5 inches of rain fell on Ketchikan that day That's unusually heavy for a single day there, but not record-breaking.  

 Fatal landslides have been increasing in southeast Alaska, with four such slides in the past decade. It's possible climate change has had a hand in this, as increases in temperature, precipitation and wind associated with climate change might be making the steep landscape less stable. 

Gabriel Woken of the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said he suspect climate change might be playing a role, but the causes of the landslides are so complex that it's hard to know for sure.  

Phoenix, Arizona: Where Just The Summertime Pavement Can Kill You

Here in Vermont, it was sunny and 85 degrees when I 
walked barefoot across my asphalt driveway. It felt
pretty hot. Had I done the same thing on asphalt in 
Phoenix, Arizona this month, I would have been
hospitalized with third degree burns. 

 Emergency rooms in Arizona have certainly been busy with victims of the extreme heat out there. They also dealing with injuries that seem unimaginable to us northerners: Third degree burns from pavement, asphalt and car seats.  

You can imagine how dangerous it would be if an elderly person fell on asphalt sidewalk or parking lot this month in Phoenix and couldn't get up. 

Even those who can get up quickly are being seriously injured from burns caused by hot pavement. The Arizona Burn Center at Valleywise Health is having an unprecedented business summer.

Says CNN, in an interview with Dr. Kevin Foster, director of burn services at Valleywise Health: 

"Every single one of the 45 beds in the burn center is full, he said, and one-third of patients are people who fell and burned themselves on the ground. There are also burn patients in the ICU and about half of those patients are people burned after falls. "

People are burned by hot objects in Arizona every summer, but this year is much worse due to the persistent, extreme heat in Phoenix and elsewhere in the state.  

The heat has been unrelenting, and that takes a cumulative toll. Every day in Phoenix since June 30 has gotten to or above 110 degrees. This Saturday is forecast to be the first day this month below that level, as the high is "only" expected to reach 109 degrees. 

It's been as hot as 119 degrees in Phoenix this month. Under those conditions, pavement temperatures in the sun can go to 180 degrees or more. 

Says CNN:

"It can take only a 'fraction of a second's get a 'pretty deep burn,' Foster said. For people who have been on the pavement for 10 to 20 minutes, 'the skin is completely destroyed and the damage often goes down deep, meaning it is a third-degree burn.'" 

People with third degree burns need multiple surgeries and will spend weeks or months in a hospital.  They usually face years of reconstructive surgery and therapy. So it's a big deal.  

I'd also have to wonder if your shoes would melt if you walked down a Phoenix sidewalk during the afternoon this time of year. 

Nights have failed to get below 90 degrees in Phoenix since July 9.  Hot nights are even worse for those exposed to heat. People without access to air conditioning don't have an opportunity to lower the body temperature, because nights are too warm. 

Of course, pretty much every house and apartment in Phoenix is air conditioned.  A house without air conditioning in Phoenix is like a house in Vermont without heat. 

However, Phoenix, like most major cities, has a sizable homeless population. The estimated number of homeless people in Phoenix is roughly 6,000. There aren't nearly enough indoor shelter beds to accommodate them all. 

Also, some low income people can't afford to get their air conditioning fixed if it breaks. 

Says CBC radio: 

"As of July 15, at least 18 people have died of heat-associated causes in Phoenix in 2023, according to the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Another 69 suspected heat deaths are under investigation."

That doesn't include the number of heat deaths in other larger communities like Tucson, Arizona, El Paso, Texas or Las Vegas, Nevada. 

Heat is the leading cause of weather related deaths, more than floods, hurricanes, tornadoes or other scary hazards. 

 

Extreme Flooding, Storms Keep Popping Up

Extreme flooding in Zhenghou, China this week.

 Massive storms and flooding keep popping up in various parts of the world as extreme weather events become the new normal.  After the cataclysmic flooding in Germany, new big water disasters occurred this week in China, and to a somewhat lesser extent, Turkey and Arizona. 

CHINA

Enormous floods in China this week killed at least two dozen people, mostly in Henan province, In that regions capital, Zhengzhou,   The amount of rain that normally falls over the course of a year came in just three days, the BBC reports.  

Two feet of rain fell there just on Tuesday, which is the same amount as Zhengzhou's normal rainfall for an entire year. Eight inches of that coming within just one hour.  

According to meteorologist Minghao Zhou on Twitter, it's a record for any of the 2,400 reporting stations in China, and might be a world record for the most intense downpour in a city of more than 10 million. Zhengzhou is home to about 12 million. 

This is another case of extreme weather this year far exceeding previous records. Happening a lot, isn't it?

 The inevitable result was a catastrophic flood that sent deep water through most of the city.   There's harrowing video circulating on social media of subway passengers in Zhengzhou trapped in chest and neck deep water inside rail cars. 

Twelve people died in the subways and stations, though another 1,000 or so were rescued from train cars and underground stations, according to The Guardian. 

As the Guardian notes, China has pretty bad flooding every summer, but rapid urbanization, paving over farmland and climate change have all conspired to create a worsening, deadlier trend in the nations' flooding issues. 

TURKEY

Extreme flooding also hit the Black Sea region of Turkey over the past week or so, causing at least six deaths. Video showed deep rushing water swirling around high rise buildings and cars bouncing along in the rapids. Other video showed houses toppling into raging rivers. 

Floods are common in this part of Turkey in the summer, but again, these were much worse than usual. 

NEW ZEALAND

Parts of New Zealand have also been afflicted by record setting floods this month. Rivers in the Marlborough region of the nation hit record crests after nearly a foot of rain fell over two days last week. 

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the floodwaters.  New flood control walls and dikes did help prevent damage in some areas along the flooded rivers. 

ARIZONA

Flash flooding is also common in Arizona in mid to late summer, as monsoon moisture flows into the state, setting off intense desert thunderstorms. 

The state was looking forward to this year's monsoon season, as the area was deep in severe drought and monsoons in recent summers have been lackluster at best.  

Now, Arizona is getting too much of a good thing. 

Deep in drought, Arizona welcomed a more robust monsoon season this month which has dumped rain on the parched state. But suddenly, parts of Arizona are getting too much of a good thing. 

Flash flooding has really become a serious issue out there. You might have seen the video of the Prius being swept away in a dramatic Flagstaff, Arizona flash flood last week, for instance. The city of Flagstaff has declared a state of emergency because of the flooding. 

It's going to get worse today. NOAA's Weather Prediction Center says there's so much moisture pooling in Arizona that rainfall rates could reach two to four inches per hour in the worst thunderstorms.  This would cause some pretty extreme flash flooding in a part of the nation where an inch of rain can set off pretty big floods and debris flows.

A weather disturbance moving westward from Texas will help intensify today's desert rains. 

The flash floods that have already hit the Flagstaff area were made much worse by debris flows from areas hit by flooding. 

Today, the areas at biggest risk are in and near where large wildfires burned this year and last. Massive debris flows are likely. 

Floods have always occurred and will always occur.  But in general, they're generally worse than in the past because of climate change. 

Warmer air can hold more moisture. That means, if other factors come together to produce storms, chances are the rainfall rates will be higher than if climate change were not a factor. 

For us Vermonters watching all this bad news, at least we have nothing exciting coming up in the next few days.  It might rain, especially Saturday night and maybe Sunday, but no flooding is in the forecast.

 

 

August In May: 90 Degree Vermont Heat, Subtropical Storm, Western Wildfires

Subtropical Storm Ana spinning northeast of Bermuda
this morning. It's the seventh year in a row with a 
pre-season tropical system in the Atlantic

 Typically in August, we get bouts of near 90 degree heat here in Vermont.  August is also the time of year we keep a close eye on the tropics for potential tropical storms and hurricanes. Late summer is also when wildfires really start to blossom out West.  

All this is happening now, which is really weird for this time of year. Welcome to August in May. 

Here in Vermont, Burlington reached 90 degrees Friday for the second day in a row. It wasn't quite a record high, but still impressive for this time of year. 

Montpelier did manage a record high for the date on Friday. It got up to 89 degrees, besting the old record of 86 degrees set in 1977.

It'll be quite warm again today, but not quite as toasty as the past two days.  There's increased cloud cover, so that will hold temperatures down a bit.  

Still, most of us should make it into the 80s this afternoon. There will be a few hit and miss showers and rumbles of thunder today, but most of us will stay dry. 

A pretty strong cold front tomorrow will flush out the hot air and return us to seasonable conditions for a couple days anyway. A small percentage of Sunday's storms might reach severe limits with gusty winds, especially in southern and eastern Vermont, and over in New Hampshire, Maine and southern New England. 

More heat might briefly return to Vermont midweek.

But our August in May theme goes on elsewhere. The official tropical storm and hurricane season doesn't begin until June 1, but there's already a subtropical storm out there. 

Subtropical Storm Ana formed overnight northeast of Bermuda.  It's considered subtropical because it has characteristics of both a tropical storm and a regular old storm. Still, a subtropical storm is unusual in May.

Less unusual than in the past, though.  Every once in while, a tropical or subtropical storm would form in the Atlantic, but it was rare.  But with Ana forming overnight, this is now the seventh consecutive year a tropical or subtropical storm has formed in May over the Atlantic.

This particular subtropical storm is no real threat.  It won't strengthen much beyond its current 45 mph top winds, and should dissipate in the next couple of days. 

Another system that threatened to form into another tropical storm overnight in the Gulf of Mexico failed to get its act together. Still, this wannabe system will spread unwanted, heavy downpours into flooded eastern Texas.

Flooding sure isn't the problem out West.  As of earlier this month, 18 square miles of California had already burned so far this year.  That's ahead of the pace of last year, which turned out to be the worst wildfire season in that state's history. 

Multiple wildfires have already broken out in Arizona, well before the peak of their usual fire season. 

All of this strange May weather I described above might be the main feature, and not bugs of the rest of the summer and early fall. 

Long range forecasts are often unreliable but for what it's worth, the Climate Prediction Center forecasts a hotter than normal summer for most of the United States, including here in Vermont and the rest of New England. 

Also, most experts expect a busier than normal 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, though it won't be as extreme and hectic as the record season last year.

And, with drought widespread across the western third of the United States, the wildfire season out there is sure to be a humdinger, perhaps on par with last year's devastating season. 

The month of May doesn't always hold clues as to what the rest of the summer will bring, but warning signs do seem to be flashing toward a very interesting summer in the weather department.