How a week of extreme weather changed the lives of millions of Americans

It was a week of fire and ice. It started with millions of people across the United States shivering in days of snowstorms and frigid air, thanks to a jet stream that has frequently deviated from its normal path in recent days. Then disaster struck in California, with wind-fueled flames flaring in a landscape parched by months of drought, making it the deadliest wildfire in Los Angeles history.

To top this off, major weather monitoring organizations have confirmed that 2024 will be the hottest year in world history. Even more damning, four of the six agencies said this was the first full year that the planet exceeded warming thresholds that are important for limiting the worst effects of climate change.

Welcome to a tumultuous week in the climate crisis, scientists say. There will be more.

“For the average person, this means a lot of things we are currently experiencing, including more extreme weather events, higher costs from climate impacts, and threats to food and water security,” said Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University. “This means that the changes you are experiencing are not abnormal.” . “Unless we take action, they will become the new normal.”

“Last week’s extreme weather events are alarming,” said Natalie Mahowald, chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University. “I hope this is not a sign of things to come, because we will see very little climate change compared to what will happen unless we radically reduce CO2 emissions.”

Here’s how this week unfolds:

Monday

The cold came first.

The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world. This means that the temperature difference between the North and South poles is shrinking. The amount of heat that sea ice releases into the atmosphere is also increasing. Scientists say this means more energy bounces back, distorting and moving the polar vortex. Climate change is also affecting the jet stream around the planet.

result? Despite the global temperature increase, severe cold waves occur frequently in winter.

A Kansas State University meteorologist said the blizzard dumped more snow on some parts of Kansas than the average annual amount. Ice-covered trees destroyed power lines in eastern Kentucky, and U.S. Olympic athletes skied on the National Mall in Washington.

With rural roads impassable, farmers scrambled to move their cattle to prevent them from freezing to death and to give them food and water. Travel came to a standstill as several states warned motorists against dangerous snow and ice.

About 200 people, including homeless people, were evacuated from a roller rink in Cincinnati. The alternative was frostbite or worse from exposure to temperatures expected to go from freezing to below freezing overnight.

Tuesday

Wildfires were burning outside in the west.

The Palisades Fire started in the Santa Monica Mountains and spread quickly, riding on 160 mph Santa Ana winds, much faster than normal. The winds were so strong that planes normally used to drop water on the flames were grounded.

The fire reached near the Getty Museum, and by the end of the day several celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore, and Jhene Aiko, were homeless. Less than 72 hours later, many stars gathered to walk the red carpet at the Golden Globes.

The Eaton Fire ripped through Altadena, killing two people and closing about 10 school districts.

Climate change laid the foundation for California’s massive fires. Atmospheric rivers released large amounts of water into the area, causing a large amount of plant growth. Then a rapidly-onset drought dried them up and provided plenty of food for the flames.

Wednesday

The water system used to extinguish the Palisades Fire in Los Angeles was so overloaded in the morning without the support of fire engines that some hydrants ran dry and buckled.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power was pumping aqueduct and groundwater into the system, but demand was so high that it didn’t have enough water to refill three million-gallon tanks in the hilly Pacific Palisades. did. At least 1,000 buildings were engulfed in flames.

A Sunset Fire also occurred, threatening the Hollywood Hills and forcing mandatory evacuations in Hollywood.

President-elect Donald Trump criticized state and local officials’ water management policies. But experts said critics were linking unrelated issues and spreading misinformation during the crisis.

Thursday

By the afternoon, winds had calmed and firefighters were able to make some progress, but at least five fires were still burning, with some out of control in the Los Angeles area. .

A vision of destruction began to emerge. Recovery crews pulled a body from the rubble of a beachfront home in Malibu.

AccuWeather, a private company that provides data on weather and its effects, estimates that the total cost of wildfires could reach $57 billion, but much of the damage remains unexplored.

At the same time, another winter storm hit the South, prompting warnings and advisories for at least 20 states. Many people were experiencing the same thing just a few days ago.

Friday

Major weather monitoring agencies have announced that 2024 will be the hottest year since record-keeping began, easily surpassing 2023.

More importantly, 2024 marks the first time the global average exceeds 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the long-term warming limit since the late 1800s, set as a goal in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. It was.

Barbara Hofer, professor emeritus of psychology at Middlebury College, said extreme weather events like this week’s “are impacting many more people at once.” “The scale is increasingly changing and the losses are increasing.”

Hofer said the growing impacts could lead some people to deny, ignore or even become numb to climate change as a “way of avoiding something psychologically unpleasant.” Ta.

A week like this can also galvanize positive change, she said. But Hofer said he thinks that will become more difficult, at least in the United States, with President Trump in office. He has pledged to halt federal action on climate change and repeal existing laws targeting the issue.

“I worry about denial, misinformation and the forces that fuel that denial,” she said. “That’s what we have to deal with.”

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