{"id":3119,"date":"2024-11-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2024-11-25T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T12:00:00","slug":"mother-nature-delivers-some-drought-and-fire-risk-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/mother-nature-delivers-some-drought-and-fire-risk-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother Nature Delivers Some Drought and Fire-risk Relief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Last year, much of New York choked on the smoke from massive Canadian wildfires<\/a>, at one point turning New York City\u2019s air orange<\/a>, giving City residents\u2014temporarily\u2014the worst air quality in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past month, New Yorkers again experienced smoke from wildfires, but this time the fires were closer to home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ongoing dry conditions<\/a> since August created fire-danger conditions in the region to develop and persist, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor<\/a>. The worst drought conditions have been in large parts of Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and West Virginia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half of November was among the 20 driest such periods on record<\/a>. Temperatures were also warmer than normal, with streamflow, groundwater levels, and soil moisture continuing to decline. With that, drought and abnormal dryness expanded or persisted for much of the Northeast. Extreme drought increased across all of the Northeast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In comparison, last year during the same period New York State Forest Rangers responded to nine fires affecting 18 acres. This year saw a huge jump: 61 fires affecting almost 3,400 acres.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even areas which have seen little in the way of wildfires experienced them. New York City has experienced brush fires<\/a> in Manhattan\u2019s Inwood Hill Park, Washington Heights, Queens and Brooklyn\u2019s Prospect Park<\/a>. There have been 18 brush fires (so far) on Staten Island<\/a>. This was the first time in 22 years that New York City issued a drought warning<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rain and snow that arrived<\/a> last week aided efforts to contain these fires. According to the governor<\/a>, the worst of the fires is now 100% contained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wildfires have not been the only bizarre environmental events experienced by New Yorkers. The National Weather Service documented<\/a> that 32 tornados<\/em> touched down in New York this year. That’s the most<\/em> since tornados were first recorded in the state in 1950.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New York has suffered even more than wildfires and tornados. This year (as of November 1, 2024), there have been 10 confirmed weather\/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each<\/em> to affect New York, according to data<\/a> from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear whether increases in storm events, including tornados<\/a>, are directly<\/em> linked to climate change. But warmer temperatures have led to more energy in some storm systems and more variability in where and when storms occur. Scientists<\/a> also know that climate change is making other weather events, like heat waves and flooding, more common.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Temperatures in the Hudson River have risen two degrees<\/a> Fahrenheit in the past two decades, five times greater than the increase in ocean temperatures per decade. New Yorkers sweltered<\/a> through weeks of extreme heat this summer\u2014by mid-July this year, New York City had already experienced more 90+ degree days than the last two years combined<\/em>. Torrential rain and flash flooding<\/a> in New York City and on Long Island from Tropical Storm Debby on August 13 destroyed homes, disrupted trains, and caused major, costly damage all over Suffolk County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly the worsening climate is expected to cost New York a lot. New York is facing staggering\u2014and growing\u2014climate costs. In 2023 alone, Governor Hochul announced $2.2 billion<\/a> in taxpayer funding for climate-related infrastructure repairs and upgrades and resilience projects. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that it will cost $52 billion<\/a> just to protect New York Harbor. On top of that, another $75-$100 billion<\/a> will be needed to protect Long Island, and $55 billion<\/a> for climate costs across the rest of the state. The state Comptroller has predicted<\/a> that more than half<\/em> of local governments\u2019 costs will be attributable to the climate crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s irresponsible to not<\/em> expect a worsening climate and with that more disasters and public health threats. In these dangerous times, it only makes sense to develop a response that relies on science and accountability. And let\u2019s make sure that those responsible for the mess are on the financial hook for at least some of the costs. The Climate Change Superfund Act<\/a> will soon make its way to Governor Hochul. The Act makes Big Oil climate polluters financially responsible for the environmental damages that they have caused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first response must be to hold those responsible for our worsening disaster. Governor Hochul can do that with the stroke of her pen. Time will tell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last year, much of New York choked on the smoke from massive Canadian wildfires, at one point turning New York City\u2019s air orange, giving City residents\u2014temporarily\u2014the worst air quality in the world. This past month, New Yorkers again experienced smoke from wildfires, but this time the fires were closer to home. The ongoing dry conditions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3120,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}