National Weather Forecast

It’ll be a wet, stormy Labor Day in parts of the Northern Rockies and Northern Plains – not the best weather for the unofficial end of summer. Storms will also be possible in southern Florida and parts of the mid and lower Mississippi Valley. Hot weather is expected in the Plains and Upper Midwest squeezed between the two areas of storms in the central United States.

The heaviest rain through Labor Day and Tuesday will be in parts of the Northern Rockies to Northern Plains, where some areas could see over 3” of rainfall the next few days.

_______________________________________________

Idalia rapidly intensified ahead of landfall. Expect more of the same in a warming world.

More from Yale Climate Connections: “In the 24 hours before it made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, Hurricane Idalia underwent what Yale Climate Connections meteorologist Jeff Masters described as “a very impressive burst of rapid intensification.” The storm’s winds increased from 75 mph to 130 mph, exponentially increasing its potential to wreak havoc to property and people’s lives. That intensification is “to be expected with hotter ocean temperatures,” Masters told NBC News.

Electrifying your home is about to get a lot cheaper

More from Grist: “Making homes more efficient and more electric is critical to combating climate change. But the undertaking can be expensive and beyond the financial reach of many families. Help, however, is on the way. Residential energy use accounts for one-fifth of climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. President Biden’s landmark climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, takes aim at this issue by allocating $8.8 billion to home energy efficiency rebates primarily for at low- and moderate-income households.

Renewables are on track to keep getting cheaper and cheaper

More from Canary Media: “Renewable energy already beats fossil fuels on cost globally — and according to analysts, the gap is only going to grow. By 2030, technology improvements could slash today’s prices by a quarter for wind and by half for solar, according to the authors of a recent report from clean energy think tank RMI. (Canary Media is an independent affiliate of RMI.) These remarkable and ongoing cost declines have made clean energy so attractive that it now outcompetes fossil fuels for new investment: 62 percent of global energy investment is expected to flow to clean energy technologies this year.”

_______________________________________________

Follow me on:

Thanks for checking in and have a great day!

– D.J. Kayser