Code Maroon Smoke In Midwest, Heat Roars Across Points South - Summer 2023, Continued

[hatrack]

EDIT

An exceptionally rare Code Maroon was recorded in Decatur, Ill., during the midday. This is the worst level on the scale and considered hazardous. Chippewa, Ohio, was also reporting Code Maroon conditions. Cities seeing Code Purple air quality Wednesday — very unhealthy, with an increased health risk for the general public — included Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Cedar Rapids in Iowa.

Forecasts for the smoke were changing, sometimes rapidly. After lingering in Code Orange territory on Wednesday, D.C., Maryland and Virginia were looking at more-dangerous Code Red conditions for Thursday, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments said on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon. Between the wildfire smoke and the heat, “You get to pick your poison,” said Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University. “They’re different things, but the common factor is climate change,” Dessler said. “Heat waves occur naturally, as do fires, but climate change makes the heat waves more intense and the fires more intense.”

EDIT

Relief from the wildfire smoke and the Southern heat wave was on the horizon, but not for another several days. The National Weather Service in Houston warned that heat indexes above 108 threatened into the weekend. “If you’ve been thinking to yourself, ‘Self, it’s felt like a raging inferno for awhile … ’ Well, here’s some reassurance that it has indeed been feeling spicy for what seems like an eternity. Heat Indices have been in the triple digits for most of June,” the agency said Tuesday night on Twitter.

According to tracking by The Washington Post, 59 million people in the United States were at risk of being exposed to dangerous heat on Wednesday, mostly in Texas and other Southern states, including Florida.

EDIT

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/06/28/extreme-heat-wave-texas-southern-states/

[Blues Heron]

1. this is a month old

[hatrack]

3. You're right - I read the date wrong - thx.

By Erica Werner
,
Dan Stillman
and
Kate Selig
Updated July 25, 2023 at 7:38 p.m. EDT|Published June 28, 2023 at 1:31 p.m. EDT

[Think. Again.]

4. And yet nothing has improved...

[Blues Heron]

6. There is a big improvement on the east coast at least. Due to southerlies

[Think. Again.]

2. The National Weather Service...

...seems to be taking all of this very lightly:

“If you’ve been thinking to yourself, ‘Self, it’s felt like a raging inferno for awhile … ’ Well, here’s some reassurance that it has indeed been feeling spicy for what seems like an eternity. Heat Indices have been in the triple digits for most of June,” the agency said Tuesday night on Twitter."

Maybe "cute" official statements like that aren't the appropriate response to these life-threatening situations?

[Blues Heron]

5. 0ff topic- when did everybody start saying spicy and salty? was there a movie?

Ive noticed an uptick in those two buzzwords the last couple of years. agree for sure w yr post

[bronxiteforever]

7. Kick