SUMMARY: Although a candidate just entered the 2020 presidential race with a platform centered on climate change, some experts say Americans aren’t fully aware of the scope and seriousness of global warming. Among them is David Wallace-Wells, who argues in a new book that the severity of the climate crisis has not yet been acknowledged, let alone addressed. He sits down with William Brangham to discuss.
SUMMARY: More than 100 tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma last year, and a new multi-million-dollar grant to four universities in the heart of Tornado Alley may lead to better information about where and when severe weather may strike. NewsHour's Stephen Fee reports from Oklahoma.
Cold booms? Frost quakes? A winter-time meteorological phenomenon has scientists debating whether blasts heard across North America are, indeed, cryoseisms. Most agree that the loud, inexplicable booms are associated with cold, rainy conditions.
These ice booms have rattled houses in Georgia, caused the earth to shake in Montreal, and led law enforcement from several Oklahoma counties on an unfruitful search to locate the ruckus.
"It was this very loud boom that happened all of a sudden," Marjorie in Idaho, who asked that her last name be withheld, told RT. "My son and I went to look to see where it came from. It sounded like a door slamming very hard or something big falling down on the patio. But we couldn’t find anything. We watched the news later to see if anyone knew what it was, but no one did.”
“It was so loud the house shook. My kids ran in yelling, ‘what was that mommy?’” Tracy Walker, of Kennesaw County, Georgia, told WAGA.
Residents in these areas thought the booms could be fireworks, gun shots, or blown transformers. But meteorologists have offered a less threatening, more fascinating explanation.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Finally tonight, new indications that the planet is warming, especially in the frozen north. Scientists have been tracking Arctic thawing for decades, and they have seen a dramatic increase since 2000.
When holes opened up in the earth recently in Siberia, a wave of speculation was set off as to their cause. Scientists now think warming is the culprit.
To help us understand all this, we welcome back Tom Wagner. He directs studies of the polar regions for NASA.
And it’s good to have you on the program again.
TOM WAGNER, NASA: Thanks for having me back.
JUDY WOODRUFF: So, just for those folks who don’t follow the polar region so closely on a regular basis, like you do, remind us, what is the Arctic made out of and how are you seeing it change?
TOM WAGNER: Yes, so the top of the Arctic is an ocean covered by sea ice, but all around it are the lands of Russia and Alaska and things. And that’s frozen ground, ground like in your backyard, but it’s frozen solid.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And what have you been observing, you and other scientists, in terms of the change?
TOM WAGNER: Well, in general, the Arctic has warming.
We know there’s been less sea ice. We also know snow melts earlier and things like that. But this recent story from Siberia took everybody by surprise, because literally holes the size of a football field just opened up in the ground.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): The U.S. government released today its most comprehensive report on climate change yet, and the forecast is far from sunny.
GARY YOHE, Lead Author, National Climate Assessment: What keeps me up at night is a persistence across the population not to recognize that the old normal climate is broken, and we don’t know what the new normal climate is going to be.
GWEN IFILL: The Obama administration sought to show today that global warming is no longer an issue for the distant future, but instead the here and now.
Gary Yohe is lead author of the government’s new National Climate Assessment.
GARY YOHE: That lack of recognition and the inability of this community and decision-makers to communicate those risks to individuals unnecessarily puts economic assets at risk, unnecessarily puts human lives at risk, unnecessarily puts ecosystems at risk.
GWEN IFILL: The U.N. has already issued dire warnings about the negative effects worldwide of failing to reduce carbon emissions.
The new assessment zeroes in on damage within the United States. The report describes how results will be felt in eight regions across the country, from stronger storms in the Northeast, to wildfires and drought in the Southwest, to rising dangers from more powerful hurricanes in the Southeast.
The assessment also finds heavy rainfall has increased across the Eastern United States in the last half-century, and by 70 percent just in the Northeast.
Kathryn Sullivan, who runs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said there’s an urgent need to act.
KATHRYN SULLIVAN, Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: We can, as we must, bring this assessment to life, really make sure it gets off the page, out of the ether, and into the policies, the plans and the practices that are adopted across our nation.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The new U.N. report on climate change is full of serious warnings and predictions of what’s to come. But it’s also especially sobering about what’s already happening around the globe. It was written by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, a group of hundreds of scientists and other experts, the latest in a series of reports being released this year.
Intense heat waves that feed fires, wiping out forests and homes, prolonged droughts that damage food and water supplies for billions of people, and sharply higher costs for farmers, consumers and businesses alike, it’s all laid out in today’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, meeting in Yokohama, Japan.
RAJENDRA PACHAURI, Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: The one message that comes out very clearly is that the world has to adapt and the world has to mitigate. And the sooner we do that, the less the chances of some of the worst impacts of climate change being faced in different parts of the world.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The authors say, absent that action, the effects of global warming may get out of control. The IPCC is pressing for a global agreement next year on curbing carbon emissions.
And in a statement yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry endorsed that idea. “Unless we act dramatically and quickly,” he said, “science tells us our climate and our way of life are literally in jeopardy. Denial of the science is malpractice.”
Even so, there are a few voices urging restraint. Dutch economist Richard Tol removed his name from the document last week, saying it paints too stark a picture.
RICHARD TOL, Professor of Economics, University of Sussex: But what the report forgets to say is that even though climate change may reduce crop yields by 2 percent per decade, at the same time crop yields are going up by 10 percent, 15 percent, 20 percent per decade, due to technological change, so it’s not the case that climate change will cause life-threatening famine. Instead, climate change will mean that crop yields will go up more slowly.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The Obama administration has moved to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and autos, but faces an uphill battle in Congress, and among the American public, if it tries to implement a broader climate agenda.
Separate polls last year, by the Pew Research Center, found more than two-thirds of Americans believed the Earth is getting warmer. But only one-third saw government action as a priority.
SUMMARY: A UN report warns that the effects of climate change -- flood, drought and food shortages -- have already caused harm, and will worsen quickly if we don’t take immediate action. Judy Woodruff takes a closer look at the global implications with two people who worked on the report: Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University and Patricia Romero Lankao of the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): Rescue teams are continuing a difficult, hazardous and grim hunt this evening for survivors in a large mudslide in Washington State. More than 100 people are unaccounted for, although the precise number of people missing is uncertain. At least eight are confirmed dead.
The huge slide has prompted many questions about the cause — the cause of this.
Jeffrey Brown explores that part of the story.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): The mudslide destroyed some 30 homes and occurred about 55 miles northeast of Seattle, near the town of Oso right off state Route 530. Just before 11:00 a.m. Saturday, a wall of mud and debris slammed into the former fishing village, covering an area about one-square-mile wide and 15-feet deep in some places.
David Montgomery is a geologist at the University of Washington. And he joins us now with more.
Well, thanks for being with us. So what can we say so far? What appears to have happened to cause this mudslide?
DAVID MONTGOMERY, Geologist, University of Washington: Well, the proximal cause is that we had one of the wettest months of March on record. That region had something north of seven inches of rain, as I understand it, in the last month.
It’s been very wet out here lately. But that slide — that slide had actually slid before. This is a reactivation of a prior slide that was actually a reactivation of a much older prior slide. So the hill had failed before, so it was prone to weak — it had been weakened by the act of sliding in the past.
And the material that forms that hill is glacial sediments. It’s fairly weak material for such a tall cliff. And so you had a naturally unstable exposure that received an awful lot of rainfall lately. And there’s this other factor of a river that’s been cutting into the toe of the slide for the past few decades.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): ....... This brutally cold winter has created an icy wonderland on the surface of the Great Lakes.
Special correspondent Elizabeth Brackett of WTTW Chicago ventured out to see it.
ELIZABETH BRACKETT, WTTW Chicago: The sun is just beginning to rise over Chicago’s ice-clogged harbor.
Docked at Navy Pier, the Coast Guard’s ice cutter, the Biscayne Bay, starts gearing up for a long day. Breaking a track through the harbor ice, the Biscayne Bay heads out to clear shipping lanes in Lake Michigan. The ship is based in Northern Michigan near the Straits of Mackinac. It’s rare that the icebreakers are needed in the southern half of the lake.
LT. J.G. PAUL JUNGHANS, Coast Guard: This is actually our first time this winter down to the south end of Lake Michigan, so I can’t say what it’s been like down here, but in the straits, it’s been — this has been the worst winter in 25 years.
---
ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Great Lakes haven’t seen this much ice since 1979. The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory reports that 91 percent of all the Great Lakes have been covered with ice this winter.
SUMMARY: The latest round of storms in the South and Northeast may be over, but places that have spent much of the winter digging out or bundling up are also feeling an economic bite. Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics joins Jeffrey Brown to discuss how cold, snow and serious drought have disrupted employment, retailers, housing and automakers, all still recovering from the recession.
SUMMARY: California is in bad shape water-wise. Despite some relief in early February, the rainy season is half over and reservoirs are still far below capacity, putting the state's agricultural production in jeopardy. Special correspondent Spencer Michels visits Sonoma County, a region known for its dairies, winemaking and breweries, to learn how communities are preparing for their worst-case scenarios.
SUMMARY: A winter storm that brought freezing temperatures and dumped a few inches of snow had a major impact on some southern states. In Atlanta, thousands of people were stranded trying to get home, including one woman who gave birth on an interstate and hundreds of children who spent the night on school buses. Jeffrey Brown reports.
SUMMARY: Emergency responders continued to help clear drivers stranded after a heavy snow storm hit areas of Georgia on Tuesday. Gov. Nathan Deal assured Jeffrey Brown that roads are close to being clear and all of the students who were stranded at their schools are now with their families.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): It's well-known that California has its share of disasters and troubles with extreme weather. But the severe drought that's hitting the state is having a deep and widespread impact. It's even bringing back bad memories of similar problems during the '70s.
Jeffrey Brown has the story.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): While the Midwest and East face a fierce winter and heavy snowfall, there's an entirely different climate concern in California: a record-breaking dry spell that's been building for three years.
GOV. JERRY BROWN, D-Calif.: I'm declaring a drought emergency.
JEFFREY BROWN: Last week, Governor Jerry Brown formally announced the state may be facing its worst drought since record-keeping began some 100 years ago. He returned to the subject today in his state of the state address.
JERRY BROWN: Among all of our uncertainties, weather is one of the most basic. We can't control it. We can only live with it. And now we have to live with a very serious drought of uncertain duration.
JEFFREY BROWN: Precipitation is below 20 percent of normal this winter, and, as a result, river flows are low, snowpacks are much smaller than normal and reservoirs are shrinking.
NARRATOR: Water in L.A. is limited. Every drop is precious.
JEFFREY BROWN: The dry conditions are also feeding wildfires, as vegetation that typically rehydrates during the winter dries out instead.
California's huge agriculture industry is likewise threatened, raising prices for produce and raising concerns among farmers. And the drought has raised new regional tensions. Some in Northern California demand the drier south conserve more, while water suppliers insist they already are.
TERRY ERLEWINE, state water contractors: There's been a huge amount of water conservation implemented in Southern California.
JEFFREY BROWN: Several California Republicans in Congress and House Speaker John Boehner announced emergency legislation today to stop restoration of the San Joaquin River aimed at bringing back salmon to let farmers tap water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
They spoke in Bakersfield.
REP. DEVIN NUNES, R-Calif.: We're not asking for anything more. We're just asking for the original contract of water. That is what allowed this valley to bloom. So if we would just get the water that we were allocated and that we have been promised by the government, all these people would be working.
JEFFREY BROWN: Today, Gov. Brown called for everyone across the state to save water.
JERRY BROWN: We need everyone in every part of the state to conserve water. We need regulators to rebalance water rules and enable voluntary transfers of water. And we must prepare for forest fires. As the state water plan action lays out, water recycling, expanded storage and serious ground water management must all be part of the mix.
JEFFREY BROWN: If the drought continues, Brown warned, mandatory measures may be imposed. And the lack of water will begin to affect surrounding states as well.
SUMMARY: The record drought in California is not only likely to decrease the state's agricultural yield and affect food prices, it could also wreak severe economic consequences for rural communities. To discuss the impact on farming and for consumers, Jeffrey Brown talks to Karen Ross of the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
SUMMARY: A cyclone of arctic air known as a polar vortex stretched from the Dakotas to the deep South, bringing wind chill warnings on the heels of near-blizzard conditions in some regions. Several Midwest states shut schools and urged everyone to stay inside, while airlines canceled thousands of flights. Gwen Ifill reports.
SUMMARY: Gwen Ifill talks to Minneapolis Mayor Betsy Hodges and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay about the precautions they are taking in their cities and what special help they offer for citizens like the elderly and the impoverished who may be in greater danger during this winter chill.
SUMMARY: The polar vortex held its grip over the U.S., bringing frigid winds to places accustomed to cold winters and even sending ice and snow into the Deep South. The record negative temperatures caused some towns in Indiana to lose power and stranded train passengers near Chicago. Judy Woodruff reports.
SUMMARY: The strong winds that normally keep the masses of very cold air contained near the North Pole weakened this week, allowing frigid temperatures to reach down into the United States. Judy Woodruff talks to Andrew Freedman of Climate Central about the science behind the polar vortex.
As the snow continued to fall early Thursday, forecasters said some northern Illinois communities could get another eight inches of lake-effect snow that could extend as far west as Joliet.
Another four to six inches of snow was expected in Chicago on Thursday.
Drivers returning to work after the New Year’s holiday were greeted with a slick and snowy morning commute Thursday, as a pair of weather systems continued dumping snow across the Chicago area.
The storm that arrived on New Year’s Eve dropped 5.1 inches of snow at O’Hare International Airport by midnight Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
The wintry wallop came courtesy of a second weather system that moved in overnight, weather service meteorologist Matt Friedlein said, making roads icy and visibility poor during the drive to work.
A lake-effect snow warning is in effect until Thursday afternoon for Cook and Lake counties in Illinois and Lake County in Indiana.
Chicago’s full fleet of 287 snow plows and salt spreaders was deployed Tuesday afternoon and, since the snowfall has been almost constant, has been continuously working to clear main and arterial roadways, said Molly Poppe, spokeswoman for the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
Many residential streets have yet to be plowed though, as the city’s trucks work to keep pace with the falling snow.
“We’re focusing on main streets right now,” Poppe said. “We’ll move to side and residential routes once our main roads are cleared... It’s obviously all contingent on when the snow stops.”
The city’s 26 smaller four-wheel drive plows will be dispatched once the city starts clearing side streets, she said, warning that residents should drive with caution as the roads are likely slippery in areas.
More than 635 flights were canceled Wednesday at O’Hare and another 275 were canceled by early Thursday morning, according to the city’s Department of Aviation. At Midway International Airport, observers reported 4.6 inches of snow and flights were delayed at least 25 minutes Thursday.
As of 6 a.m. Thursday, 10.1 inches of snow had fallen in north suburban Niles, and at least 9 inches had accumulated in some northwest suburbs including Richmond and Cary, meteorologists said. Nearly 8 inches had piled up in Norridge.
Elk Grove Village, Elgin and Niles all saw more than 7 inches of snow as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.
But once the snow finally stops falling by Friday morning, NWS meteorologist Charles Mott said there will be more bad news.
“Then we’re going to get cold,” Mott said.
The most optimistic forecast predicts Monday’s high temperature will be 0 degrees.
Good morning and happy New Year.
A snowstorm could bring near-blizzard conditions and frigid temperatures tonight and on Friday, testing our newly inaugurated mayor.
Here’s what you need to know:
• Snow is falling and may mix with freezing drizzle during the day. But significant accumulations are likely only after 7 p.m.
• Accidents snarled some roadways this morning. New Jersey Transit is cross-honoring bus and train tickets systemwide.
• The evening commute could be treacherous. Consider leaving work early.
• Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo warned that some suburban highways might close this afternoon. He advised commuters to use mass transit to get home. “We are looking at a serious storm situation,” Mr. Cuomo said.
• The city has issued a hazardous travel advisory for late tonight and Friday.
• Public schools in the city are open. Some suburban schools are closing early or closed altogether.
• Alternate side of the street parking is suspended in the city.
• The forecast — a winter storm warning is in effect — calls for six to eight inches of snow by Friday, with the bulk of it falling overnight.
• Heavier snow is expected on Long Island, where a blizzard warning is in effect from 6 o’clock tonight to 1 p.m. Friday.
• Temperatures will hover around freezing today, with a high of 32, dropping to the teens overnight and staying there through Friday. Friday night could get down to single digits.
• That, combined with winds gusting to 30 miles an hour, will make it feel as if it’s below zero. Wear long johns.
• A coastal flood watch is in effect tonight.
• Track the progress of city plows here.
• Advice from the Red Cross on preparing for winter storms.
GWEN IFILL (Newshour): They searched for victims and tallied the damage today, after a barrage of tornadoes hit the Midwest on Sunday. At least eight people were killed, and scores more were hurt. The most powerful storm cut a path roughly an eighth-of-a-mile-wide, clear across one Illinois town of 16,000 people.
Terrified townspeople watched and prayed as the giant funnel ripped through Washington, Illinois, Sunday. Winds of almost 200 miles per hour tore at trees and blasted homes to bits.
MAN: This is what my house looks like after a tornado came through.
GWEN IFILL: In a matter of minutes, it was all over. Then, residents surveyed the damage, up to 500 homes damaged or destroyed and cars crushed into mangled metal.
Today, an emotional Mayor Gary Manier vowed, his town will recover.
GARY MANIER, mayor of Washington, Ill.: That is what this community is about. We love our neighbors, and we're going to bounce back from this. And I want to thank the surrounding communities that have reached out in droves of people. We looked like a parking lot last night, so many people trying to get into our community to help us. And we had to finally shut the community down and say, no more. We can't have any more help.
GWEN IFILL: Deadly storms from the same weather front raged across the Midwest throughout the day on Sunday, pulling trees out of the ground and flipping cars.
DAVID FRAWLEY, tornado survivor: It's hard. I couldn't even walk out here last night. I kept wanting to be inside. You kind of get like a little depression mode. So I don't have that drive just of yet to, let's go and rebuild again.
GWEN IFILL: Illinois Governor Pat Quinn ultimately declared disasters in seven counties. He too visited the town of Washington today.
GOV. PAT QUINN, D-Ill.: It's very, very important that at this time, we finish our search-and-rescue efforts all across our state to make sure there is no one in harm's away. But, upon completion of that, our mission now is to recover. And we will recover. We will prevail over these -- these tornadoes.
GWEN IFILL: In addition to Illinois, twisters and damaging winds hit a dozen states. In this image from the National Weather Service, red dots symbolize more than 80 tornado reports across the region. The blue dots stand for high winds from thunderstorms.
Those storms knocked down power lines in town after town, and 800,000 homes and businesses were still in the dark this morning. Forecasters have sounded an early alert, but it was still highly unusual to see that many storms with that much power this late in the year. With winter quickly approaching, the focus is now on cleaning up and making neighborhoods livable, as the mayor of Washington pointed out.
GARY MANIER: The unfortunate thing is, this thing hit in November. November is not the construction season that we build homes in this part of our state and part of our country. So it's going to be a longer process than if it happened in March.
GWEN IFILL: For now, though, police are keeping people out of the worst-hit areas until they are declared safe.
SUMMARY: The string of storms that devastated the Midwest over the weekend was very rare for the timing, both time of year and time of day. Gwen Ifill talks to Howard Bluestein of the University of Oklahoma about the special conditions that triggered the deadly tornadoes.
Starting next month, NASA will remotely pilot two high-flying aircraft into the Atlantic Ocean's hurricane nursery to track tropical cyclones from birth.
The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (H3) research mission, now in its second of five years, is part of an effort to reveal the environmental and internal factors that control storm growth, and thus improve hurricane prediction. The twin Global Hawk drones will fly over and around tropical storms and hurricanes from the storms' source in the East Atlantic Ocean until the cyclones collapse weeks later in the western part of the basin.
Thanks to the drones, "we can get the storms we normally couldn't get," Scott Braun, the mission's principal investigator and a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., said during a Google+ hangout today.
Hurricanes in this region arise from tropical storms that form in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Warm, moist air evaporating from the ocean creates a circular flow, sparking a rotating storm.
Until the Global Hawks were added to NASA's arsenal, research planes from the United States couldn't reach the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. There, many hurricanes are born when disturbances move off the west coast of Africa and out over the ocean. NASA's unmanned aircraft can fly for up to 30 hours, depending on how much weight they carry, and are piloted in shifts by controllers back on the ground.
Researchers are especially interested in how hot, dry and dusty Saharan air affects budding storms, Braun said. Data collected by the drones last summer suggests the arid air may suppress storm formation, but other studies indicate the strong winds heading east from Africa may give swirling storms an extra kick.
"The dry air coming off Africa is a huge mystery," said Brian McNoldy, a weather researcher at the University of Miami, who is not involved in the mission. "Being able to get wind fields from storms in the far Eastern Atlantic is something we've never been able to do," McNoldy said during the hangout.
The Global Hawk drones will join manned research planes flown by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Air Force in monitoring hurricanes, Braun said. "We plan to collaborate with them to fly together or fly in series, so we can maintain as continuous a coverage of a storm as we possibly can," he said. In 2010, six planes from NASA, the NOAA and the Air Force flew together to track Hurricane Karl.
One of the upcoming remotely piloted planes will release dropsondes, disposable weather recording devices that send back real-time data for forecasting. Another will carry a detector to look for gamma-ray bursts, the electrical discharges known as dark lightning. Other instruments will track rainfall, wind speed, temperature, humidity and more.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Investigators on the ground in Arizona are still trying to determine why so many firefighters died in Sunday's tragedy, even as other crews are struggling to slow the blaze.
The morning brought calmer winds in Yarnell, Ariz., today. But the deadly fire that started Friday remained largely uncontained. Fire spokeswoman Karen Takai warned afternoon thunderstorms and winds today could bring more threats to the parched landscape.
KAREN TAKAI, Southwest Incident Management Team Spokesperson: There's not a lot of large timber, but the vegetation out there, that mesquite is extremely oily. And once that starts, an ember gets into those extremely dry fuels, that fire is going to rip. And it's very difficult to control that at that degree, especially with the winds that we're having out here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The dangerous conditions which claimed the lives of 19 Prescott, Ariz., firefighters Sunday. They died when the raging fire, fueled by sudden and changing wind gusts, overcame the crew.
Last night, fellow firefighters paused to remember their fallen comrades.
MAN: Andrew Ashcraft, 29.
MAN: Anthony Rose, 23.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And more than 1,000 people grieved the community's loss in a Prescott gymnasium.
The city's mayor paid tribute to the crew.
MAYOR MARLIN KUYKENDALL, Prescott, Ariz.: The city of Prescott, you and I, we lost 18, 19 wonderful individuals, family men, and it was like that.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Elsewhere, family members of those killed spoke of their loved ones. Kevin Woyjeck was recalled by his sister as a third-generation firefighter who wanted to follow in his father's footsteps.
WOMAN: My parents lost a son. My brother lost his best friend, and I lost my guardian angel. And it's never going to be forgotten.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And Andrew Ashcraft, who leaves four children, was mourned by his wife.
WOMAN: We celebrated their dad and the hero that he is and will always be. And he's an angel for us now.
JUDY WOODRUFF: An investigative team is being deployed to the area where the firefighters died.
Takai underscored, this fire is part of a larger trend.
KAREN TAKAI: We are in a long-term drought. And that keeps on being repeated. But that's what we're seeing with these mega-fires, that it's throughout the Southwest. It's not only here. It's other areas.
JUDY WOODRUFF: In addition to the Yarnell Hill blaze, 15 other major wild fires continue to burn in the Western United States.
SUMMARY: How do weather conditions, land use and forestry practices play a role in sparking wildfires nationwide? Judy Woodruff speaks to author and journalist Michael Kodas ,who has been covering the deadly wildfire in Prescott, Ariz., about fire risks and whether the latest fatalities will affect firefighting policy in the future.
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Finally tonight, chasing storms, science, and risk.
The National Weather Service said Friday's deadly tornado near Oklahoma City was stronger than initially reported. Meteorologists now classify it as an EF-5, the strongest ranking possible, with winds of 295 miles per hour. It was also the widest twister ever recorded, 2.6 miles. The storm and subsequent flooding killed 18 people.
Ray Suarez has more.
MAN: Tornado on the ground. Large tornado on the ground.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): A storm chaser sounded the alert Friday evening as the enormous black funnel filled the dark sky just west of Oklahoma City.
Three of those killed were storm chasers themselves, Tim Samaras, 54, his son Paul, 24, and Carl Young, who was 45. They were working for the Discovery Channel. This was all that remained of their truck after it was caught in the open.
A colleague says escape was all but impossible.
BEN MCMILLAN, Storm Chaser: It was a really wild tornado. It was rapidly evolving. There was multiple tornadoes that turned into one larger tornado. And then the larger tornado went one way and then switched directions very quickly and went another way. It was just a really hard storm to track.
RAY SUAREZ: Indeed, this Weather Channel vehicle was picked up by the same storm and hurled 200 yards. Only one of its chase team of three was seriously hurt. It was all testimony to how inherently dangerous this profession is. But another colleague says Tim Samaras was known for his caution.
PAUL STOFER, Storm Chaser: He really knew what he was doing. He didn't chase for the notoriety or the television or selling video. He chased because he genuinely wanted to learn more about severe weather.
RAY SUAREZ: The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., says the men killed Friday appear to be the first scientific researchers to die in pursuit of tornadoes.
SUMMARY: The death of three storm researchers in Oklahoma helps spotlight the risks involved in studying extreme weather. Ray Suarez talks with Howard Bluestein of the University of Oklahoma for more about chasing storms, dangers for both amateurs and professional scientists and some unexpected challenges (like traffic jams).
SUMMARY: In Moore, Okla., residents of the town devastated by a powerful tornado began surveying damage and assessing losses. Rescue crews combed through rubble through the night, searching for survivors in a disaster that has so far claimed 24 lives. Gwen Ifill reports on the grueling efforts to recover after the storm.
SUMMARY: A monster tornado nearly flattened the town of Moore, Okla. Jeffrey Brown gets reaction from Time Magazine's Jay Newton-Small, Sgt. Jeremy Lewis of the Moore Police Department, and Bob Henson from the National Center for Atmospheric Research about the devastation, the latest rescue efforts and the science behind the mighty storm.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): The damage caused by major weather events in recent years has often been enormous, costly, and led to bigger problems, cities and towns flooded by Superstorm Sandy, electrical power grids taxed beyond their capacity during extreme heat waves, and the flooding caused by both Hurricane Katrina and the levees themselves that were not adequately designed for the storm.
Scientists say no one disaster linked with climate change, but they also say some may be linked with climate change and the rise in greenhouse gases. Last week, the government reported that carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, has reached its highest levels in human history.
Now the Rockefeller Foundation is hoping to spur cities to create new plans to better adapt to the times and to make them more resilient when disaster does strike. The program will allocate $100 million dollars to 100 cities around the world over the next three years.
We look more closely at that with Judith Rodin, the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and Miami's Mayor Tomas Regalado.
For the record, the Rockefeller Foundation has been a NewsHour underwriter.
JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Now the floods along the Mississippi and other Midwest rivers, creeks and streams.
This week, communities are coping with rising waters, heavy rain and increasing damage, with no immediate end in sight. The scope of the problem keeps growing, with flooding along the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers. Towns and cities from North Dakota to Arkansas have felt the brunt, with its biggest impact so far in Illinois and Missouri.
Ray Suarez has the story.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): The rain-swollen Mississippi River neared its crest today near Saint Louis, after days of rising waters.
Muddy river waters covered the tops of trees and street signs, and a boat was the best way to get around in some areas. The unruly river caused more than 100 barges to break free earlier this week. A handful of them hit a Saint Louis County bridge. The Coast Guard says at least 10 barges sank.
Meanwhile, floodwaters on the Illinois River crested at 29 feet. That's the highest it's risen in 70 years. The waters began falling today. Volunteers worked steadily to throw up tens of thousands of sandbag barriers to stop flooding. But, for some houses, the waters couldn't be stopped. Many stood partially submerged yesterday. Buildings on the floodplain, like this one, were suddenly in the middle of the river.
Meanwhile, in the north of the state, the water receded enough in some areas to allow residents to start their cleanup. In Des Plaines, west of Chicago, the streets are lined with the unsalvageable.
