About 180 Million Americans Threatened by Smoke, Heat or Floods

Smoke from massive wildfires in Canada reduce visibility and cast a haze over the Capitol in Washington on July 17. Photo by Finn Gomez /Photographer: Finn Gomez/Getty I

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(Bloomberg) — At least 178 million Americans are breathing in smoky air, enduring high heat or contending with catastrophic flooding. That’s more than half of the US population.

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About 151 million people living from the northern Rockies to the Mid-Atlantic and down to the Gulf Coast are again experiencing high heat Friday, according to Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster for the US Weather Prediction Center.

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Yellow-tinged wildfire smoke from Canada has blanketed a large swath of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, affecting the air quality of about 87 million Americans on Friday, he said. About 70 million people are experiencing smoke and heat concurrently.

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About 10 million people in Texas, meanwhile, are under flood watches Friday. And then there are the Americans affected by strong gusts and wildfires in the dry US West.

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July’s extremes add to a growing list of wild weather events globally this year, from blistering heat in Europe to Super Typhoons ravaging the Pacific.

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As the climate warms, the chances of more intense storms, droughts and fires have been rising. A hotter world, driven by human-caused warming, has led to the atmosphere holding more moisture, prompting catastrophic flooding, as was seen in Texas a year ago; it’s also contributed to significant levels of evaporation that’s ushered in years-long droughts, including in the US Southwest earlier this century.

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Some scientists say this is just the beginning of even more severe weather during both summer and winter that will threaten commerce and populations globally.

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“The impacts that we’re seeing this summer are completely consistent with what we’ve been expecting to see for a long time now,” said Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

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This week’s weather events have been influenced by a “very persistent jet stream pattern” that is responsible for a heat dome, fire conditions and storms in Texas, she said.

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The impacts of this week’s weather crises have varied. At least two people have died in south-central Texas and some communities in Hill Country have issued mandatory evacuation orders. Chicago’s air quality is hazardous. Masks have again become common sights across the Northeast and Midwest this week. Sporting events and concerts have been postponed.

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“It’s very likely that we’re going to see a lot more cases where you’ve got multiple types of extremes happening at the same time because they’re all connected to this particular jet stream configuration,” Francis said.

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—With assistance from Brian K Sullivan.

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