Climate Point: Get ready for fall foliage

As summer transitions into fall this weekend, talk turns to pumpkin spice and colorful leaves. But heat, wildfire and tropical weather systems are still very much a concern in some parts of the nation.

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to news about climate, energy and the environment. I’m Dinah Voyles Pulver with Paste BN’s national team.

Fall foliage has begun to transform, and it’s not too early to check out the predictions for this transition across the country and start planning a road trip or weekend getaway. This drone video gives you a bird’s eye view of the color change beginning in Vermont.

Ever wondered what makes leaves change color? If so, another Paste BN video and a story explain the chemicals at work that shift green leaves to orange, yellow and red. The story also includes a list of the 10 top spots for a fall getaway.

For Phoenix, a hint of fall arrived when its latest record for consecutive days above 100 finally ended. After 113 days of triple digit temperatures, the max high temperature plunged, hitting only 93 degrees on Tuesday, 7 degrees below normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Chances are now 97% that 2024 will be the warmest year on record globally, the National Centers for Environmental Information reported. It’s been the warmest year on record so far in New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia.

Meteorological summer, which ended on the last day of August, rather than traditional summer which ends Saturday, was another one for the record books. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported:

• It was the hottest summer on record in the northern hemisphere, 2.74 degrees above average
• The southern hemisphere saw its warmest winter on record, 1.73 degrees above average
• Globally, sea ice extent was its second smallest in the 46 years since records began. The 8.32 million square miles of sea ice was more than a million acres lower than the 1991-2020 average.
• Deadhorse, Alaska broke its all-time record high temperature in August, besting the previous 85 degree-record by four degrees.

The Paste BN Fact Check team published two stories setting the record straight on temperature records. The first addresses social media posts about the heat in August 1983 and another examines the misinformation swirling around temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, which are coming down from an all-time record high.

Record-setting wildfires in Northwest

Warm temperatures continue to drive a busy wildfire season in the West and a rising drought. By September 17, nearly 36% of the contiguous U.S. was in drought, with conditions expanding or intensifying across the Deep South, Great Plains and the Great Basin and California.

The Pacific Northwest has set a modern record for most acres burned in a season at more than 2.1 million, reports the Statesman Journal, a Paste BN Network newspaper in Salem, Oregon. That exceeds the historic 2020 wildfire season’s 1.98 million acres in Oregon and Washington, according to the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. The record was fueled by Oregon's grassland megafires, which led to a state record of 1.8 million acres burned.

“It’s been an extremely stressful season for firefighters,” Oregon Department of Forestry wildfire spokeswoman Jessica Neujahr said. They've seen too many fires and "not enough people to attack them as aggressively as we normally would.”

A compelling story by the Statesman Journal's Zach Urness tells a dramatic tale of backpackers escaping from wildfires, a situation that's becoming more common.

Wildfires also have been burning in Portugal since Sept. 14, breaking records for emissions of carbon and other harmful pollutants.

Climate change on the campaign trail

Anyone hoping to hear a discussion about climate change during the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump likely left disappointed.

Climate change came across almost as an afterthought, wrote Joan Meiners with the Arizona Republic. The only direct question addressing the topic came up 92 minutes into the debate. For those who view climate action as a priority, there was little mention of climate change amidst talk of the economy and immigration, and the story said both candidates also introduced misleading information about climate threats.

Controversial transports draw lawsuits

In Iowa, landowners, legislators, counties and environmental advocates are appealing the decision of the Iowa Utilities Commission to approve an $8 billion carbon capture pipeline. A group of about 40 legislators filed a petition first, insisting the plan was unconstitutional. They were joined by the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter, nine counties and roughly 100 landowners, who echoed that claim and challenged the weight given to other issues, including eminent domain and whether the project serves the public interest.

In Michigan, several local governments filed suit to halt shipments of radioactive waste to a local hazardous waste landfill, according to a story by the Detroit Free Press. A judge issued a temporary restraining order stopping Wayne Disposal from shipping materials from a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers clean up site in Lewiston, New York.  From 1944 to 1952, the site received radioactive wastes associated with uranium extraction for the Manhattan Project’s atomic bomb development. Melissa Quillard, a spokeswoman for Wayne Disposal, owned by Republic Services, said the Michigan landfill has received and safely managed elevated radioactivity wastes for years, and its "management of this material poses no risk to the community,” Quillard said.

Laying the groundwork for offshore wind

The back-and-forth continues over efforts to boost wind energy production off the Northeastern United States. In Delaware, Gov. John Carney signed a bill that creates a framework for the state to solicit and build offshore wind projects along its coastline.

In North Carolina, where two wind farms have been proposed for about 20 miles offshore, a wind energy coalition is waiting to hear if the North Carolina Utilities Commission “is going to green light offshore wind as part of the state’s electricity mix in the coming years,” said Katharine Kollins, president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition. However, concerns about the impact of the offshore turbines on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale loom large. Pregnant female whales, accompanied by assorted other right whales, migrate along the Atlantic Coast each winter from Maine and Nova Scotia to the coast of Florida and Georgia for a calving season.

Read on for more, including a look at Florida's endangered panthers and a story about why osprey chicks around the Chesapeake Bay face an uncertain future. Some stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to eNewspapers in the Paste BN Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here.