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By: EFE Posted Aug 22, 2023, 15:39 pm EDT
More than 103 million people in the United States are currently living under extreme weather alerts which are becoming more frequent due to climate change, the Union of Conscious Scientists (UCS) indicated on Tuesday.
Those conditions include floods, high temperatures, tropical storms and situations conducive to forest firesadded the organization, which advocates for scientific solutions to global problems.
“Among the population groups that experience the most damage from extremely high temperatures are outdoor workers,” Kristina Dahl, principal climate scientist at UCS, told EFE.
“They are the ones who must work outdoors and we know that among these workers, Latinos are disproportionately represented. Also the elderly are susceptible to heat disorders,” he added.
Dahl noted that other segments of the population hard hit by extreme heat include those who “don’t have access to or can’t afford air conditioning,” as well as “people of color who live in low-income communities.”
The map, which UCS updates daily, shows flood alerts from eastern California to Nevada, southwestern Utah, western Oregon, central and western Idaho, and southwestern Texas.
This Tuesday the tropical storm Haroldformed in the Gulf of Mexico last night, made landfall on South Padre Island, Texaswith maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (85 km / h), reported the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
It is expected that in the next few hours the area is subjected to heavy rains and strong windsbut the weakening of Harold will become constant as it moves over Texas and northern Mexico and it will become a tropical depression today.
Harold is expected to produce rainfall of 2 to 4 inches (50 to 101 mm) and up to 6 inches (152 mm) at some pointacross South Texas through early Wednesday, with a possibility of flash flooding.
The favorable conditions for the forest fires identified by UCS extend through southern Texas and on the border of Colorado and Kansas.
The extreme heat conditions they cover counties in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinos, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.
“28% of the population currently facing warnings live in areas designated as disadvantaged,” said UCS, which identifies “danger season” as the period between May and October, when North America experiences the worst climate impacts.
“Since May 1, 96% of the US population has experienced at least one extreme weather alert,” the organization noted. “Climate change makes weather events more extreme.”
Dahl said that “partly because of climate change, extreme weather conditions are becoming more and more frequent, and until we act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions this will continue to get worse.”
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