Heavy Rain From Mid-Mississippi To Southeast – National Weather Outlook For August 3, 2023

by | Aug 3, 2023 | Weather

National Weather Forecast

We’ll be watching at least scattered areas of rain across the country on Thursday, particularly focused near a cold front in the upper Midwest and a stationary front from the Central Plains to the Southwest. A dome of heat is in place in the South Central United States, with highs in the 100s and heat index values topping 110-115F in some locations.

Areas of over 3” of rain could fall through the end of the week from the mid-Mississippi Valley to the Appalachians and in portions of western South Dakota. This heavy rainfall could lead to flooding in these areas.

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80 Percent of People Around the World Experienced Climate Change-Induced Heat in July

More from Gizmodo: “July is supposed to be a hot summer month for the northern hemisphere, but last month was especially hot even for mid-summer. According to a new report released by science nonprofit Climate Central this week, climate change has made this July hotter for billions of people around the globe. Researchers looked at 4,711 cities around the world and found what the report calls “climate change fingerprints” in 4,019 of the locations last month. This study concluded that human activity and the fossil fuel industry made it three times more likely to be hotter this July. 6 billion people, about 80% of the world population, experienced an especially hot day last month where climate change affected the daily average temperature, the report said. This July 10 was an especially hot day. About 3.5 billion people on that day experienced temperatures that were made more likely due to climate change.”

Why FEMA doesn’t respond to heat waves

More from Grist: “If you take a look at the primary law that dictates how the United States responds to disasters, the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988, you’ll see a long list of perils that qualify for federal emergency aid. The act defines a “major disaster” as “any natural catastrophe (including any hurricane, tornado, storm, high water, winddriven water, tidal wave, tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, landslide, mudslide, snowstorm, or drought), or, regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or explosion.” The word “heat,” however, does not appear on that list — or in any other part of the act, for that matter. That simple omission has had big implications for how we respond to heat waves. In order to unlock the full resources of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, the president must declare a “major disaster” in a given area. But the Stafford Act doesn’t name heat as a qualifying catastrophe, and no president has ever made a disaster declaration over a heat wave.”

Extreme Heat Threatens the Health of Unborn Babies

More from WIRED: “In the midst of an unseasonal California heat wave last late spring, Nathaniel DeNicola, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach, had an unusual case on his hands: A patient who had been carrying a perfectly healthy pregnancy for 32 weeks was going into early labor. It didn’t make sense; nevertheless, the baby was coming. The patient’s waters had broken, the baby’s heartbeat was dropping fast, and the child was in the breech position. The mother had an emergency C-section. After spending a couple of weeks in the neonatal intensive care unit, the baby was allowed to go home.After the scramble to deliver the baby, DeNicola searched for reasons that might explain the premature arrival. Sometimes there are obvious causes for the early rupturing of membranes, like a chlamydia infection or a condition called cervical insufficiency, in which the cervix starts to dilate on its own. But those explanations didn’t fit DeNicola’s patient. Struggling, he settled on a different explanation: the searing heat. “I can’t prove that that was because of extreme heat; it’s very tough to assign that,” he says. But from his research, he knew that heat can trigger preterm births. And in his 12 years as a clinician, he has often seen more obstetric emergency visits during heatwaves.”

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– D.J. Kayser