In 2021, the Pacific Northwest experienced one of the most extreme and anomalous weather events in history: a devastating heat dome that shattered temperature records across the region. Lytton, BC, reached 121°F, and Portland, OR, hit 116°F. Tragically, more than 1,400 people lost their lives during this event.Maiya May is revisiting the weather and climate events that formed the background to PBS Terra shows how past redlining leads to heat wave deaths in the present and future and Detroit floods while the Pacific Northwest bakes in record temperatures. Those concentrated on a possible solution to the problem and pointing out how an unhealthy planet is running chills and fever. This video is the mirror image to The connections among climate change, the wobbling jet stream, and the polar vortex explained by PBS Terra and CBS News and PBS Terra's 'Weathered' examines how the wandering jet stream is making extreme weather worse, which concentrated on the wandering jet stream contributing to the polar vortex in the winter. Again, chills and fever.
Tomorrow is World Television Day. Stay tuned to see how I celebrate it.
I remember that heat wave. I had no idea it killed so many people, but I'm not surprised. People here are not adapted to such conditions. It used to be that every summer we got no more than three or four days with a high above even 100°F. People are still getting used to thinking of heat as dangerous.
ReplyDeleteI suspect you only heard about the deaths in Metro Portland or maybe Oregon, but not the Pacific Northwest as a whole, especially since crosses an international boundary. That written, you are right about your neighbors not yet used to heat being a threat. They probably still think of Oregon as a place where people don't tan, they rust.
DeleteThanks for linking to this entry at your blog and welcome to all of your readers who came here from your link!
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