Continuing To Watch Fred And Grace – August 15, 2021

National Weather Forecast

A frontal boundary from the Central Plains to the Southeast will help spark showers and storms on Sunday. Some storms will also be possible in the Desert Southwest and Four Corners region. Eyes will also be on Fred, sitting in the Gulf of Mexico.

The heaviest rain through Monday evening is expected to fall across portions of Florida and the northern Gulf Coast, where Fred will bring the potential of at least 3-7” of rain that could lead to flooding. Heavy storms across portions of Arizona and New Mexico could bring at least 3” of rain to some locations.

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Update On Fred And Grace

We are still tracking what are now the remnants of Fred, which is expected to reorganize and become a tropical storm again on Sunday. The track has moved farther west, and it is now expected to make landfall along the northern Gulf Coast sometime late Monday or Monday Night.

Tropical Storm Grace is poorly organized, but is expected to produce heavy rain over the next several days across the Lesser and Great Antilles as the system continues to move off to the west. There are questions as to whether Grace will survive or not the journey across the Caribbean Islands – only time will tell.

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Smoke and soot from wildfires may be causing more Covid-19 cases and deaths, study finds

More from CNN: “As the coronavirus surges again in the United States, scientists have found another disaster is playing a key role in the number of people who contract severe Covid-19 cases and how many die: wildfires. A new study published in the journal Science Advances found that increases in fine particulate matter from wildfire smoke in 2020 led to a surge in Covid-19 cases and deaths in California, Oregon and Washington. ”Fine particulate matter air pollution can be an additional vehicle for spreading the virus even faster,” Francesca Dominici, co-author of the study and professor of biostatistics, population and data science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told CNN. “Considering that we are seeing an increased risk of cases from the Delta [variant] and we already have the wildfires, that’s going to be concerning.””

Big Oil’s New ‘Clean’ Fuel Is Dirtier Than They Say

More from Earther: “New research finds that blue hydrogen, touted by fossil fuel producers as a climate solution, actually has a 20% larger greenhouse gas footprint than just using natural gas. The study, published Thursday in Energy Science & Engineering, gives some important context on a much-hyped new fuel, one that happens to be the “clean energy” apple of the fossil fuel industry’s eye. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe, has a lot of promise for the energy transition: it can power cars, provide electricity to buildings, and be used to help decarbonize tough industries like manufacturing and construction. The problem with hydrogen is that it needs to be separated from other elements, which in and of itself takes a lot of energy. Hydrogen can be separated from oxygen in water via electrolysis to create what’s known as green hydrogen—an option free from any greenhouse gas emissions, but one that’s pretty expensive. It can also be harvested from fossil fuels like coal and gas, to create what’s known as gray hydrogen. This is a little cheaper than green hydrogen, but emits quite a lot of CO2 during the hydrogen extraction process.”

Overheated, Underprotected: Climate Change Is Killing U.S. Farmworkers

More from Bloomberg Green: “Florencio Gueta Vargas showed up for his usual shift at a hops farm in Toppenish, Washington, on Thursday, July 29. The father of six would never make it home. It was a sweltering day with temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) in the fields, where Gueta Vargas and others were tending to the plants used to make beer. His boss found him slumped over a tractor around 3 p.m. An hour later, he was pronounced dead of heart disease that was exacerbated by the heat. Gueta Vargas isn’t alone. More extreme weather patterns are emerging due to climate change, and the record-high temperatures sweeping over the western U.S. have led to fatalities for laborers who plant and harvest crops. While it’s difficult to track, labor union United Farm Workers has identified three potential heat deaths in recent months.”

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Thanks for checking in and have a great day! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter (@dkayserwx) and like me on Facebook (Meteorologist D.J. Kayser).

– D.J. Kayser