Climate Point: Heatwaves are driven by climate change. Condo collapse? Less clear.

USA TODAY: Heatwaves are driven by climate change. Condo collapse? Less clear.

Thursday, July 1

Heat dome strength and heat waves June 28, 2021

Heatwaves are driven by climate change. Condo collapse? Less clear.

Plus: Biden pledges to hire more firefighters in the West — and pay them more.

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson from Palm Springs, California, where triple-digit temps are the norm.

Not so in the Pacific Northwest. On Wednesday, more than 100 deaths in Canada and Oregon were linked to historic extreme heat, and hundreds more could be due to the sweltering temperatures, authorities said. They urged friends and family to reach out to the elderly and others who might be stranded.

"Many of those who died were found alone, without air conditioning or a fan," said officials in Multnomah County, Oregon.

The small town of Lytton, British Columbia, reached 121 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, and by nightfall Wednesday, the mayor evacuated the entire town as a wildfire moved in. Seattle and Portland also had triple-digit days.

So is the unprecedented heat tied to climate change? Yes, say experts, and it will happen again. Pacific coastal mountains warmed by changing climate combined with severe drought to amp up a high pressure dome that's causing this fatal wave, explains Eric Holthaus for The Guardian.

As scientists have long warned, climate change is warming the lowest layer of the atmosphere where our weather occurs. That's particularly true in mountains, where rising temperatures melt snow and ice off slopes, warming bare soil even faster. Areas above 6,500 feet are warming about 75% faster than lower elevations, per a 2015 study.

Those hotter mountains — along with the mega-drought plaguing western North America — contributed to a stalled, high pressure "heat dome." That in turn sent dry air rushing down the mountain slopes towards the ocean, creating a literal pressure cooker of soaring temperatures.

"The big lesson coming out of the past number of days is that the climate crisis is not a fiction," said John Horgan, premier of British Columbia.

Here are other stories that may be of interest:

A person rides on a paddle board on Lake Union on June 27 in Seattle during a heat wave hitting the Pacific Northwest.

John Froschauer, AP

MUST-READ STORIES

Diving in. If, like me, you just want to plunge into a lake to cool off, your favorite water body may be headed for trouble too. More than 300 lakes worldwide are losing oxygen, according to new research. That matters, as Wired's Jennifer Clare Ball writes, not only for drinking water and recreation, but because these lakes are home to a wide variety of species. Ever notice how the water gets cooler the further you go in a lake, particularly on your toes? She gives a great explanation of why, and of the warming climate sucking the oxygen out of the deeps.

Aftermath. In the wake of ever-larger wildfires, scientists are pushing to understand if and how the landscape will recover, as Anton Delgado reports for the Arizona Republic.

"Have you ever played 52-card pickup?" asked Don Falk of the University of Arizona, who is researching burn scars north of Tucson. The card game, more a practical joke, involves throwing the deck into the air and instructing players to pick up the cards. Ecology after a megafire is just like that, said Falk.

Other pieces in the package cover a biomass facility that creates energy from wildfire scraps and using the International Space Station to predict wildfire effects.

Clogged up: Wildfires threaten urban water quality with erosion, sediment.

Bankrupt: Oil bankruptcies leave environmental cleanup bills to California taxpayers.

A member of the U.S. Forest Service's Trinity Hotshots firefighting crew carries a chain saw while hiking out of the burn zone Monday, June 28, 2021, at the Lava Fire north of Weed, Calif.

Scott Stoddard, Grants Pass Daily Courier via AP

POLITICAL CLIMATE

Fired up. With another fire season roaring in, President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the federal government will hire full-time firefighters and immediately raise their pay to a minimum of $15 an hour. He spoke with Western governors virtually on Wednesday to hear what they need, and also cited the record-breaking heat in Portland as "a wake-up call" about the realities of climate change. Recalling horrific scenes from wildfires last year, Biden said, "Orange skies look like end-of-days smoke and ash."

Hot takes. California Gov. Gavin Newsom beat a retreat on wildfire prevention spending on Tuesday, a week after an expose by Cap Radio and NPR's Scott Rood found he overstated by 690% how many forestry projects were completed last year.

Sinking feeling. Across the country, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told CNN that while "obviously, we don't know fully" if rising seas caused the disastrous Surfside beachfront condo collapse, "we know we're losing inches and inches of beach — not just in Florida." GOP commentators heaped criticism on her for suggesting a link, though experts are exploring salt water intrusion as one of several possible causes, along with faulty construction on former wetlands, per Alissa Walker with Curbed.

Incoming. Randy Moore is selected by Biden as the first African American head of the U.S. Forest Service, overseeing twice as much land as national parks.

Metro Detroit drivers had to abandon their cars after freeways were hit by heavy rains and floods on Sat., June 26, 2021.

Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

Watery bounty. In America's fruit and nut basket, water is now the most precious crop of all, writes The New York Times' Somini Sengupta. Amid a historic drought and over-pumping of aquifers, some farmers in California's Central Valley are now selling water instead of growing crops.

Do "we want to monetize the water?' No, we don't," said Seth Fiack, a rice grower on the banks of the Sacramento River, who this year sowed virtually no rice and sold his unused water. "It's not what we prefer to do, but it's what we kind of need to, have to."

By 2040, more than half a billion acres of the vast valley are expected to no longer be farmland.

Meltdown. As if Canada isn't suffering enough, flood warnings are now in effect for the river valleys below those overheated mountains, as sudden snow and ice melt has created a torrent of rushing water, says Betsy Trumpener with CBC News. Canada's glaciers are melting so fast, homes could be flooded out under clear skies.

Can't forget the Motor City. And in Metro Detroit, motorists were stranded on freeways last weekend, as rain poured onto roadways and into homes. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, touring Intestate 94, blamed climate change and a lack of political will to fund needed infrastructure. Tanya Wildt, Minnah Arshad and Christine MacDonald report.

A Scottsdale area cell tower disguised as a tree.

Jimmy Jenkins KJZZ

AND ANOTHER THING

Tik tok. They're no ordinary city tree. They're the odd-looking cell phone towers disguised — sometimes badly — as fake evergreens or palms. As Dan Miller with The Los Angeles Times explains, this unnatural flora has spread because municipalities cannot easily reject a cellular carrier's request for a new tower, but they can require it be concealed. Botanists are not amused.

That's it for now. Go knock your neighbor's door and make sure they're cool. And for more climate, energy and environment news, follow me @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.