Climate Point: Coast-to-coast heat wave isn't normal

It’s July, time for our collective midsummer’s night dreams, make that nightmares, as people across the country face down storms, heat waves, wildfires and flooding rainfall.

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to some of the climate, energy and environment news from around the country. I’m Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national reporter with Paste BN’s climate and environment team. 

We know it’s hot out there. It is summer after all. But experts tell us long-term temperature records show this heat isn’t “normal” and neither are the effects we see around us, from the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record to brutal heat waves and rising sea levels. 

'Heat is on'

As many head to vacation destinations across the country, it’s hard to miss the impacts of the warming climate. A team with Paste BN described the changes being seen in some of the nation's more popular vacation locations. Along California’s scenic Pacific Coast Highway, the landscape is crumbling and on the opposite coast in North Carolina, a coastal highway is often over washed by waves and storms. In Washington D.C., a few of the iconic cherry trees have been temporarily removed for a project to hold back rising tides. 

In some locations this summer, triple-digit temperatures well above normal have set records and caused deaths. Across the West, heat has been named as the suspected culprit in connection with at least 30 deaths this month, writes Christopher Cann at Paste BN.

The heat has prompted warnings in some vacation destinations. A motorcyclist died on a trip through Death Valley National Park. A Paste BN graphic explains which national parks are the hottest and safety tips for navigating visits to these and other parks while on vacation.

Northwest. In Oregon's Willamette Valley, a record was tied for the most consecutive days above 100 degrees, matching a record set in Portland in July 1941. "Historically a long-term heat event like this was extremely rare, something that happened or came close to happening once every 40 years," State Climatologist Larry O'Neill told Zach Urness at the Statesman Journal. "But now they've become a lot more common — it wasn't as long but we had extreme heat in 2021 and 2023 as well." Temperatures also set records in Montana.

Wisconsin. Climate change is bringing more uncomfortably hot summer nights, wrote Madeline Heim at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She cited a new report by the non-profit Climate Central that found "countries around the world are seeing a growing number of nights" when temperatures don't fall below 68 degrees.

Savannah. Climate Central also found that triple-digit heat index readings in this Georgia city are three times more likely to occur because of climate change. Heat-trapping pollution also likely plays a role, writes John Deem at the Savannah Morning News.

Arizona. In Phoenix, one of nation's more notorious hot spots, Joan Meiners at the Arizona Republic found the city is breaking new ground in an effort to "address the soaring impact of intensifying heat." Scientists attribute about half the increase in local temperatures to human-caused climate change and the other to the heat-trapping results of sprawling development, Meiners wrote.  Even as regional research, awareness and mitigation initiatives ramp up, efforts to enact statewide heat protections for workers have repeatedly failed. Now a new federal government proposal could add safety measures to protect workers from threats.

Consumer tips. Reporters also offered tips for wise use of your air conditioner and what to know about the potential for geothermal heating and cooling in your home or business.

Stinky sea. Soaring temperatures and sticky weather can combine to produce potentially unsafe levels of hydrogen sulfide for residents near California's largest lake, the Salton Sea, wrote Janet Wilson at the Desert Sun. Even safe levels are still distinctly smelly.

Warm Atlantic. Hurricane Beryl set records in the warmer-than-normal water across the Atlantic as it crossed the Windward Islands and moved through the Caribbean. It continued to set records as it arced across the country after a landfall on the Texas coast, prompting record numbers of tornado warnings in Shreveport and New York state.

'The tide is high'

The warming and rising ocean is of particular concern along the low-lying islands in the Florida Keys, where scenic vistas distract from the hazards the water is bringing. Just this week scientists announced that sea level rise at Key Largo triggered the demise of a rare cactus tree. The loss of the cluster of cactus trees on Key Largo — the only known population of the species in the U.S. — is now considered the nation’s first local extinction attributed to rising sea levels, said a collaborative team of non-profit and agency scientists led by the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. 

“That’s unfortunately a pattern we’re going to see a lot more, these localized extirpations,” said Wesley Knapp, chief botanist at NatureServe. “These plants near sea level have nowhere to retreat to in many cases.”

Ice loss from glaciers and icefields as a result of human-caused global warming has been shown to contribute to the rising sea levels. Doyle Rice at Paste BN covered the release of a new report that suggested glacier melt in a major Alaskan icefield has accelerated and could reach an irreversible tipping point earlier than previously thought.

The research found that of glacier shrinkage in the area were five times faster from 2015 to 2019 than from 1948 to 1979. "It’s incredibly worrying that our research found a rapid acceleration since the early 21st century in the rate of glacier loss across the Juneau icefield," stated lead author Bethan Davies, a glaciologist in the U.K.'s Newcastle University. Alaska is expected to remain the largest regional contributor to this effect throughout the rest of this century.

Water negotiations

The Yavapai-Apache Nation approved an agreement that will deliver dedicated sources of fresh water and confirm its historic irrigation rights as well as certain rights to pump groundwater, including when C.C. Cragin Reservoir levels are low, wrote Debra Utacia Krol at the Arizona Republic. The tribe also has the right to acquire future water rights under the settlement. The settlement — which will bring new water supplies to the Verde Valley and settle the tribe's decades-long water rights claims — is the latest after Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs reversed a state policy that complicated tribes' efforts to claim their rights to water, Krol wrote.

In Georgia, state environmental officials released draft permits for four wells expected to pump more than 6.6 million gallons of water per day to Hyundai Motor Company’s electric-vehicle manufacturing site near Savannah. The move comes two weeks after local agreements were finalized to draw water from the Floridan Aquifer in Bulloch County and send it to Hyundai’s complex. 

'Fins to the left, fins to the right?'

While making plans to visit the beach on vacation, shark safety may not be tops on your list but it's worth giving it some thought when looking for a safe location in front of a lifeguard, picking out a bathing suit or considering whether to take off your jewelry. Shark attacks were reported in Florida and Texas in July. The bites aren't trending up, but sometimes the incidents catch more attention than others. That's especially true when they coincide with a round of televisions specials and related news stories about sharks.

Among the other shark topics explored around the Paste BN network were tips from shark scientists on staying safe and the value of sharks in research. Other stories included: Ranking the riskiest shark species in Florida, the world's biggest shark and shark reproduction.