Weather

In California, wildfires continue to burn and destroy homes and property. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes as strong winds and dry conditions fan fires to ever greater intensities. Planned blackouts, designed to reduce the risk of fire due to faulty electrical equipment, have also put millions of people in the dark.

Towns in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland are in the midst of one of Australia’s most devastating droughts (Reuters, September 27, 2019). Many towns are now counting down to “day zero”—the day each town will completely run out of water. For most, this terminal date will fall in mid- to late-2020.

Just over two weeks ago, the Category 5 hurricane Dorian devastated the northern islands of the Bahamas. “Dorian was the most powerful hurricane on record to hit the Bahamas… with wind gusts topping 320 kph (200 mph)” (Deutsche Welle, September 7, 2019). Recent reports indicate some 50 people have died, and that number is expected to rise.

Spring of 2019 brought a “bomb cyclone” in March that flooded a significant portion of the American Midwest (AccuWeather.com, April 11, 2019). Since that devastating event, storms have continued to inundate the region with rains and flooding. While many farmers stored record amounts of corn and soy beans in an effort to wait out low prices, the recent flooding caused much of that stored crop to be lost—U.S.