Disasters

"It’s among the wettest places on the planet, but shifts in rainfall, invasive grasses and a housing shortage are driving a wildfire spike on the islands."

"Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said Sunday that too many people in the state died during the unprecedented heat wave that settled over the Pacific Northwest last week, warning the climate change-fueled temperature extremes were only a “harbinger of things to come.”"

"The hellish blaze that erupted in gulf pipeline operated by Mexican state oil firm Pemex was reportedly extinguished after several hours."

"An oil pipeline fire in the Gulf of Mexico was reportedly brought under control and extinguished after a hellish scene of massive flames erupting directly from roiling waters Friday.

The blaze west of the Yucatan Peninsula broke out at an underwater pipeline that connects to a platform operated by Mexican state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) at its flagship Ku Maloob Zaap oil development in the southern gulf, Reuters reported.

"Emergency responders in Canada are currently battling more than 180 wildfires in British Columbia amid an intense heat wave that has left hundreds dead in the Pacific Northwest."

"As Tropical Storm Elsa closed in on Cuba early Monday morning, tropical storm warnings were expanded across Florida ahead of the storm's projected U.S. landfall around midweek. Tropical storm warnings are in effect across the Florida Keys and along the west coast of the peninsula from Flamingo northward to Englewood."

"Fireworks bans are being enacted throughout the drought-stricken West as officials worry about wildfires—but in Utah, the situation is complicated by a law as murky as the air after a pyrotechnics display."

"On the heels of one of the worst wildfire years on record, the federal government is struggling to recruit and retain staff as firefighters grapple with low wages, trauma and burnout from increasingly long and intense fire seasons."

"Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery."

"In the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, soil repels water across the burn scar of the 2020 Bighorn Fire. Steep slopes and an imminent monsoon mean the hydrophobic ground is ripe for erosion."

"A rapidly-developing feature in the Atlantic has set a new record for the earliest E-named storm in the basin's recorded history."