Smoke from wildfires in the western US has drifted as far east as New York and Washington DC, with residents there observing hazy skies and unusual sunrises.
Skies above the US capital have taken on a hazy din. New York Metro Weather predicted that murky air seen in New York City this week would become more even pronounced throughout Tuesday.
New York Metro Weather (@nymetrowx)
That’s exactly what it is! In fact, smoke is expected to be even more noticeable tomorrow. You can see the smoke on satellite —> pic.twitter.com/73erjttVXN
Smoke from the fires has spread across the country and around the world, with reports of haze as far away as Canada and Europe, while images captured by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing smoke being pulled into a cyclone far out in the Pacific Ocean.
The unprecedented wildfires, which have burned some 4.5m acres (1.8m hectares) as of Tuesday, have torn through towns in Oregon while also devouring forests in California, Washington and Idaho. The resulting blanket of ash and smoke has made the region’s hazardous air quality among the worst in the world.
Hardest hit is Oregon, where tiny bits of smoke and ash known as particulates have reached the highest levels on record in Portland, Eugene, Bend, Medford and Klamath Falls, the state’s department of environmental quality said on Tuesday.
Air quality in five major cities in Oregon was the worst on record as the state continues to be blanketed by thick smoke, state environmental officials said.
Air this week in all five cities was rated “hazardous” according to air quality standards, and in Bend, the air quality index topped 500, exceeding the air quality scale altogether, the department said.
In Seattle, a two-game series between the San Francisco Giants and Mariners in Seattle that was scheduled to start Tuesday was postponed due to air quality. The smoke prompted Alaska Airlines, along with its regional carrier Horizon Air, to suspend all flights in and out of Portland, Oregon, and Spokane, Washington, and several smaller airports until Tuesday afternoon.
A growing body of research paints a bleak picture of the effects of wildfire smoke on the human body. “Wildfire smoke can affect the health almost immediately,” Dr Jiayun Angela Yao, an environmental health researcher in Canada, told the Guardian earlier this month. Yao co-authored a study for the University of British Columbia this summer showing that, within an hour of fire smoke descending upon the Vancouver area during recent wildfire seasons, the number of ambulance calls for asthma, chronic lung disease and cardiac events increased by 10%.
However, smoke over the east coast may not necessarily be affecting air quality, said John Simko, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Generally, such particles are carried high on the wind and may not come close enough to earth to do so.
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Joe Biden said he’s worried about President Trump’s talk of “insurrection” after President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to quell racial injustice protests across the country.
“What is worrying is the way he talks about ‘insurrection’ and people taking up arms. Have you ever heard a Democratic president of the United States speak like this?” Biden said during an interview with Telemundo’s José Díaz Balart.
But in the case of intense rioting in Portland, the “law and order” White House cited 40 U.S. Code 1315, which gives DHS the ability to deputize officers in any department or agency “in connection with the protection of property owned or occupied by the federal government and persons on that property.”
In the Telemundo interview, Biden said “I don’t take anything for granted,” on his chances of winning the Hispanic vote. “I’m going to work really hard for every vote.”
Biden told reporters as he headed to Florida this week that his mission in the state would be to court Spanish-speaking voters.
“I will talk about how I am going to work like the devil to make sure I turn every Latino and Hispanic vote,” Biden said when asked by reporters what his message would be in the country’s largest traditional general election battleground state.
Polls in Florida have tightened up to a virtual tie between Biden and President Trump as Biden plans his trip to the Sunshine State. Recent surveys have indicated that Biden is underperforming with Latino voters amid a bunch of negative headlines regarding his outreach to Spanish-speaking voters in the state.
When asked about his poll numbers among Hispanic voters, Biden said they were “much higher than [Trump’s]. But they gotta go higher.”
A month ago, Biden held a four-point advantage over the president in an average of the latest surveys in the state compiled by Real Clear Politics. Now it’s down to 1.6 points.
And among likely Latino voters in Florida, recent polls from NBC News/Marist and Quinnipiac University indicate the president with a slight edge over Biden. (A Monmouth University survey of Florida released on Tuesday indicated Biden with a large lead over Trump among Latino voters). That’s a significant switch from four years ago, when 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton crushed Trump by more than 25 points among Florida’s Latino voters, according to exit polls. The exit polls indicated that Latinos made up 19% of the state’s electorate.
But Trump narrowly carried the state, winning Florida’s prized 29 electoral votes, helping him capture the White House.
Jennifer Molina, Biden campaign’s Latino outreach director, emphasized that “the Hispanic vote will be a deciding factor and we are not taking it for granted.”
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
The massive fires raging in California are being blamed squarely on climate change. Alongside ominous photographs of orange skies, the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times blared: “California’s Climate Apocalypse.” Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom says the cause is climate change. Anyone who thinks differently, he insists, is in denial.
The governor is right that climate change is real, man-made and something we need to deal with smartly. But the claim that the fires are caused by climate change is grossly misleading. Translated into policy, it would steer the state to the worst way to help future Californians.
To understand why, it helps to know that California wildfires used to be much bigger. This past decade, California has seen an average burnt area of 775,000 acres. Before 1800, however, California typically saw between 4.4 and 11.9 million acres burn every year.
In other words, up to 12 percent of the entire area of the state — had its modern boundaries existed in the 18th century — burned every year. Old newspapers across the country were filled with descriptions of terrible fires. Back then, “skies were likely smoky much of the summer and fall in California,” as one academic paper noted. Elsewhere in the country in 1781, “the smoke was so dense that many persons thought the day of judgment had come,” The New York Times reported a century later.
This all changed after 1900, when fire suppression became the norm, and fire declined precipitously. In the last half of the 20th century, only about 250,000 acres burned annually.
But because most fires were stopped early, this left ever more unburnt fuel in the forests. According to one estimate, there is now five times more wood-fuel debris in Californian forests than before Europeans arrived.
Clearly, then, we used to have much more fire before global warming. Even this year’s record-breaking 2.3 million burnt acres is about half the lower end of a typical year in earlier times.
And the main reason we are now seeing more and bigger fires is because our century of fire suppression has left what researchers call a “fire deficit” — all the fuel that should have burnt but didn’t. It is now waiting to burn even hotter and fiercer.
Newsom is right that climate plays a part. It does create a more favorable fire environment by increasing hot and dry conditions. But experts estimate this plays a minor role. The much more important factor is the way we manage forest lands and develop our landscape.
When we keep suppressing fire, we ask for bigger and more terrible future fires. And we know how to fix this. We simply have to make many more prescribed burns that eliminate the built-up fuel. This is doable and smart. It would help reduce fire risks in just a few years. Unfortunately, it is also unpopular, because of increased smoke and risks from uncontrolled fires.
One prominent study published in Nature Sustainability this year estimated that California will have to burn about 20 percent of its area to get rid of all the excess fuel. But owing to popular opposition, legal challenges and regulatory limits, California manages prescribed burns for less than one-thousandth of that.
Instead of focusing on more prescribed burns, Newsom focuses on climate change as the overarching source of his state’s fires. He suggests that the answer is to speed up California’s transition to 100 percent renewable energy sources.
But any realistic climate solution will achieve next to nothing. A Californian change of policy will have virtually no impact on global climates. But even if the entire United States were to cut all its emissions tomorrow and for the rest of the century — an incredibly fanciful and enormously expensive assumption — temperatures would still climb, just 0.3°F less.
Fire would still get worse, only slightly less.
Californian fires are slowly coming back to their prehistoric state because of the enormous excess fuel load. Putting up solar panels and using biofuels will be costly but do virtually nothing to fix this problem. Prescribed burns will. What we choose depends on the information we get.
Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. His new book is “False Alarm: How Climate-Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor and Fails to Fix the Planet.”
Smoke from the wildfires devastating California and Oregon has made its way across the U.S., causing hazy skies in New Jersey that will last for days, forecasters said Tuesday.
While millions of burning acres have caused air quality to plummet in the West, the smoke over the Northeast is so high in the atmosphere that it should not harm health, said Bill Goodman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s New York office.
“We’re seeing it 25,000 to 30,000 feet up, so there’s no impact on ground level, which is a good thing for us,” Goodman said.
The fires have killed at least 36 people and burned through an area larger than the state of Connecticut. That has produced smoke so pervasive that it was carried 3,000 miles by prevailing winds across the Northern Plains and Great Lakes into the New York region.
It was first noticeable Monday evening in New Jersey, where the sun appeared much dimmer, with a hazy halo surrounding it.
That should last until late Thursday, when a cold front from Canada is expected to push the smoke south, Goodman said.
“We should see blue skies on Friday and into the weekend,” he said.
The lack of smoke at ground level is welcome news in New Jersey, which has some of the worst air quality in the nation. North Jersey continually receives an F for high ozone levels every year from the American Lung Association. More than 700,000 New Jerseyans are estimated to have asthma.
State residents nonetheless enjoyed some of the cleanest air of their lives during the height of the pandemic this spring as car traffic and electricity demands plummeted. Two major pollutants — nitrogen oxides that form unhealthy ozone and microscopic exhaust particles — dropped significantly from March through May.
Those levels were expected to increase as the state slowly opened over the summer and into autumn.
Scott Fallon covers the environment for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news about how New Jersey’s environment affects your health and well-being, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
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Six months after emergency medical worker Breonna Taylor was shot dead by police in her home, the city of Louisville has agreed to a major settlement with Taylor’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit. The settlement includes a $12 million payout for the family along with an array of police reforms, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced at a press conference Tuesday.
“I cannot begin to imagine Ms. Palmer’s pain, and I am deeply, deeply sorry for Breonna’s death,” Fischer said, referring to Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer.
Taylor was shot multiple times as Louisville officers executed a search warrant at her home March 13 in search of illegal drugs. No drugs were found. The lawsuit, filed in April, accused police of negligence and excessive force.
The death of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was among several police shootings across the country that have galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement and a nationwide push for police reform and racial justice.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump called the $12 million settlement “historic,” but also called for the officers involved in Taylor’s death to be held criminally accountable.
“We won’t let Breonna Taylor’s life be swept under the rug,” Crump said.
Breonna Taylor was shot and killed during a police search in Louisville, Kentucky.
Protesters have for months demanded that the officers be charged, and several celebrities have joined their calls for justice. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron is investigating the officers’ actions, but has declined to offer a timeline for a potential charging decision.
Speaking Tuesday, Tamika Palmer called for the officers involved to be charged.
“As significant as today is, it’s only the beginning of getting full justice for Breonna,” Palmer said.
Attorney Lonita Baker called the settlement “tremendous,” but called it only a portion of a “multi-layered” push for justice for Taylor. She said the financial settlement would have been “non-negotiable” without significant police reform, “and that’s what we were able to do here today.”
Fischer said the reforms call for the department to retain social workers to aid officers on certain response calls; require officers to be randomly drug tested once a year; and include measures to incentivize officers to live and volunteer in the communities they serve.
Fischer also announced changes to the search warrant process, saying that commanding officers will now be required to review applications for search warrants before officers seek judicial approval. He also announced updates to the internal investigations process and the implementation of an early warning system that will track use-of-force incidents, citizen complaints and investigations to identify officers in need of assistance or training.
“Justice for Breonna means that we will continue to save lives in her honor,” Palmer said in a statement. “No amount of money accomplishes that, but the police reform measures that we were able to get passed as a part of this settlement mean so much more to my family, our community, and to Breonna’s legacy.”
Fischer said the city is not admitting wrongdoing under the agreement.
Baker called the settlement “the first mile in a marathon” and said the family will continue to push for the officers to be held criminally accountable.
Two of the officers involved in the case have been placed on leave and one, Brett Hankison, has been fired. In a scathing June letter announcing the launch of termination proceedings, interim Louisville Metro Police chief Robert Schroeder said Hankison “wantonly and blindly fired 10 shots into the apartment of Breonna Taylor.”
“I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” Schroeder wrote. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion.”
Police say they knocked and identified themselves before the raid, but according to the suit, Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker said officers never said they were police before battering in the door. Walker, a licensed gun owner, said he opened fire in self-defense because he thought someone was trying to break in, the suit says. One officer was shot in the leg. Louisville police say officers were “immediately met by gunfire” and returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times, but the suit accuses three officers of blindly firing into the apartment.
The lawsuit accuses police of using flawed information when they obtained the “no knock” warrant related to a drug investigation into a former boyfriend of Taylor’s. The former boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover, was arrested on the same night about 10 miles away. No drugs were found in Taylor’s home and neither Taylor nor Walker had any criminal history, according to the suit.
The center of Hurricane Sally as seen from NOAA hurricane hunter aircraft “Miss Piggy” (N43RF) on Monday morning, September 14, 2020. No eyewall was present on the side of the storm photographed here. (Image credit: James Carpenter, NOAA)
Hurricane Sally weakened overnight to a category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds, but the slow-moving storm is expected to bring historic flooding to the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle on Tuesday through Thursday. A widespread area of 10 – 20 inches of rain is expected, with some pockets of 30 inches, accompanied by coastal storm surge flooding of four to seven feet.
Despite its category 1 ranking, Sally is extremely dangerous
At 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, September 15, Sally was centered 105 miles south of Mobile, Alabama, headed northwest at 2 mph with top sustained winds of 80 mph and a central pressure of 982 mb. Wind gusts as high as 94 mph were observed late Tuesday morning at the VK 786/Petronius (Chevron) oil rig offshore from Mobile, Alabama (elevation 525 feet). On Monday, the site measured sustained winds of 100 mph, gusting to 117 mph.
Figure 1. Radar image of Hurricane Sally at 12:33 p.m. EDT Tuesday, September 15, 2020. Sally was struggling to close off an eyewall, with the southern side incomplete. (Image credit: Mark Nissenbaum/Florida State University)
Data from the Hurricane Hunters, satellite, and radar showed no significant changes to Sally’s organization over the 18 hours ending at 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The hurricane was well-organized, but was having difficulty establishing a complete eyewall in the face of moderately high wind shear of 20 – 25 knots from upper-level winds out of the west. Sally was bringing heavy rains to the Florida Panhandle, Alabama, and Mississippi coasts on Tuesday. Radar-estimated rainfall amounts of 2 – 3 inches had fallen in the Florida Panhandle near Pensacola as of 2 p.m. EDT, with 1 – 2 inches common along the coast of Alabama.
Figure 2. GeoColor visible satellite image of Sally as of 12:30 p.m. EDT Tuesday, September 15. (Image credit: RAMMB/CIRA/Colorado State University)
Forecast for Sally
Sally is caught in a region of very weak steering currents, and is expected to move very slowly at less than 5 mph until landfall occurs, which could be any time Tuesday night through Wednesday night. The exact location of Sally’s landfall will not matter that much with respect to its chief threats, which are rainfall and storm surge. A swath of the coast including Mississippi, Alabama, and the extreme western Florida Panhandle will receive the worst of Sally’s rains and storm surge regardless of the exact track of the center. Wind damage, however, will be of greatest concern near and to the right of where Sally’s center moves ashore.
Figure 3. Predicted landfall wind speed (colors) and sea level pressure (black lines) from the 12Z Tuesday, September 15 run of the HWRF model. The model predicted that Sally would make landfall near Mobile, Alabama, near 2 a.m. EDT (6Z) Wednesday as a category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds. (Image credit: Tropical Tidbits)
Sally has just about run out of time to build a complete eyewall and embark upon a period of rapid intensification. Increasing wind shear, upwelling of cool waters from below, and interaction with land will all be present between now and landfall to potentially put the brakes on any significant intensification burst that might occur; Sally’s landfall intensity is likely to be between 65 mph and 95 mph.
Figure 4. Rainfall forecast for the four days from 2 a.m. EDT Tuesday, September 15, to 2 a.m. EDT September 20, from the 6Z Tuesday run of the experimental HAFS-B model. Rainfall amounts in excess of 15 inches (yellow colors) were predicted in four states: Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. (Image credit: NOAA/AOML, with thanks to Andy Hazelton)
Rainfall and storm surge: the two main concerns with Sally
Regardless of its landfall intensity, the primary damage from Sally is likely to result from the slow-moving storm’s torrential rains. Sally is expected to move at 5 mph or less through Thursday, leading to rainfall measurements in feet rather than in inches.
Figure 5. Observed water levels in Mobile, Alabama. Sally has already brought a storm surge near the threshold for minor flooding during the past two high tide cycles, and is predicted to bring a peak storm surge of 4 – 7 feet. (Image credit: NOAA/AHPS)
NOAA’s Weather Prediction Center has placed portions of the Gulf Coast in its “High Risk” category for excessive rainfall. It warned of rainfall rates of up to three inches per hour, and a large corridor of 10 – 20 inches of rain near the coasts of Mississippi, Alabama, and the extreme western Florida Panhandle, with isolated amounts up to 30 inches. There will be a sharp western cutoff to the heaviest rains, as shown in Figure 4, but the exact placement of that cutoff is still uncertain.
It’s not out of the question that an all-time state precipitation record for a tropical cyclone could fall, though these are tough to beat. The current records along Sally’s path are:
Sally’s storm surge is also a major threat, with 4 – 7 feet of surge predicted to the east of where the center moves ashore. Mobile Bay is of particular concern given the high population density along the coast. The surge in the bay is not expected to approach that of Hurricane Katrina of 2005, which brought a storm tide 10.29 above the high tide mark, but flooding may exceed that of Hurricane Nate in October 8, 2017, which brought a storm tide of 5.22 feet.
Tidal range in Mobile, Alabama, is about two feet between low and high tide. The new moon occurs Thursday, and this helped bring one of the higher tides of the month during the 11:37 a.m. CDT Tuesday high tide. Subsequent high tides this week will be progressively lower, bottoming out on Friday about five inches lower than Tuesday’s high tide. High tide Wednesday is at 1:01 p.m. CDT, and at that time Mobile could see its greatest storm tide flooding. Storm tide is the combination of the storm surge and the tide.
Trabus Technologies maintains a live storm surge tracker for Sally. As of 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, the peak surges measured at NOAA tide gauges from Sally were:
4.8 feet at Shell Beach, Louisiana (east-southeast of New Orleans)
3.8 feet at Pilottown, Louisiana (near the mouth of the Mississippi River)
3.2 feet at Waveland, Mississippi
3.2 feet at New Canal Station, Louisiana
2.7 feet at Apalachicola, Florida
A storm surge of approximately 3.5 feet had moved up the Mississippi River to New Orleans as of 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, and it is predicted to peak at about 4.5 feet on Tuesday afternoon – a height about 10 feet below the tops of the levees.
Figure 6. GeoColor visible satellite image of the hectic Atlantic at 12 p.m. EDT Tuesday, September 15. (Image credit: RAMMB/CIRA/Colorado State University)
Paulette headed out to sea after a direct hit on Bermuda
Hurricane Paulette scored a direct hit on the island of Bermuda on Monday, with the hurricane’s 40-mile-wide eye encompassing virtually the entire island at 5 a.m. EDT. At landfall, Paulette was a category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds. The hurricane’s winds increased to 90 mph while Bermuda was in the eye; at 9 a.m. EDT, when the rear eyewall was pounding the island, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Paulette to a category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds. A weather station in Wreck Road, Bermuda, reported a sustained wind of 80 mph and a gust to 107 mph around 10 a.m. EDT Monday.
Paulette knocked out power to 25,000 of the 36,000 customers on Bermuda on Monday morning. By Tuesday morning, power had been restored to all but 6,000 customers, according to The Royal Gazette. No deaths or serious injuries were reported, though roads were blocked by debris and roof damage occurred.
At 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Paulette was a category 2 hurricane with 105 mph winds, speeding to the northeast at 29 mph into the open Atlantic. Paulette has a chance to become a major category 3 storm with 115 mph winds on Tuesday night before increased wind shear and cooler waters induce a weakening trend on Wednesday.
Tropical Depression Rene gives up the ghost
Dry air and high wind shear finally destroyed Tropical Depression Rene on Monday afternoon, in the waters several hundred miles to the southeast of Bermuda.
Tropical Storm Teddy in the central Atlantic nearing hurricane strength
Tropical Storm Teddy, which formed in the central Atlantic on Monday, was headed west-northwest at 13 mph at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday with top sustained winds of 65 mph.
Teddy is expected to turn to the northwest on Tuesday night, well before reaching the Lesser Antilles Islands. Large swells generated by Tropical Storm Teddy are expected to reach the Lesser Antilles and the northeastern coast of South America on Wednesday. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.
Conditions for intensification will be very favorable this week, and Teddy is predicted to be a major hurricane by Thursday night. Bermuda and the Canadian Maritime provinces should keep an eye on Teddy, as the storm could potentially affect them next week.
Tropical Storm Vicky in the Eastern Atlantic expected to dissipate
Tropical Storm Vicky formed on Monday in the eastern Atlantic, about 350 miles west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. Prior to formation, the tropical wave that spawned Vicky brought deadly flooding to Praia, capital of the Cabo Verde Islands, where three inches of rain fell on September 12. The floods killed one person and caused substantial damage to infrastructure and agriculture.
At 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday, Vicky was headed west-northwest at 9 mph, with top sustained winds of 50 mph. Vicky will have highly unfavorable conditions for development through Wednesday, with sea surface temperatures near 26 Celsius (79°F) and extremely high wind shear of 45 – 60 knots. Vicky is expected to be a remnant low by Wednesday night and is not a threat to any land areas.
Figure 7. Track forecast for 98L from the 6Z Tuesday, September 15, run of the GFS ensemble forecast. The black line is the mean forecast from the 21 member forecasts. Several of the thin lines (color-coded by pressure) from the individual members predicted a potential threat to the Lesser Antilles Islands by the middle of next week. (Image credit: Tropical Tidbits)
Eastern Atlantic tropical wave 98L has high potential to develop
A tropical wave that emerged from the coast of Africa on Monday was designated 98L by the National Hurricane Center. This wave has favorable conditions for development this week, with moderate wind shear of 10 – 20 knots predicted, along with warm ocean temperatures of 27.5 – 28.5 Celsius (82 – 83°F) and a moist atmosphere. The system has modest model support for development, and is predicted to move west to west-northwest at about 10 – 15 mph, reaching the Lesser Antilles Islands around Tuesday, September 22. It is too early to tell if 98L will affect the islands yet.
In its 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday Tropical Weather Outlook, the National Hurricane Center gave 98L two-day and five-day odds of development of 50% and 70%, respectively. The next name on the Atlantic list of storms is Wilfred, which is the last name on the list.
Keeping an eye on Gulf of Mexico disturbance
The National Hurricane Center on Tuesday was monitoring an area of interest over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico, which was producing a few disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Some slow development is possible while this system meanders over the Gulf of Mexico this week. Dry air and high wind shear of 20 – 25 knots are likely to keep this system from developing, but this disturbance did have greater model support for development from Tuesday morning’s cycle of model runs than on previous days. In its 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday Tropical Weather Outlook, the National Hurricane Center gave the disturbance two-day and five-day odds of development of 10% and 20%, respectively.
A new northeast Atlantic threat area for Portugal to watch
A non-tropical low-pressure system was located on Tuesday afternoon over the far northeastern Atlantic, several hundred miles northeast of the Azores. This low was designated 99L by the National Hurricane Center and is forecast to move south-southeast during the week, approaching Portugal on Saturday.
This low has marginal conditions for development into a subtropical cyclone, with high wind shear of 20 – 40 knots predicted this week, along with cold ocean temperatures of 19 – 22 Celsius (66 – 72°F). In its 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday Tropical Weather Outlook, the National Hurricane Center gave 99L two-day and five-day odds of development of 10% and 20%, respectively.
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Caputo told staff that he is scheduled to meet with HHS Secretary Alex Azar later Tuesday, the people with knowledge of the meeting said.
President Donald Trump — a close ally of Caputo who helped install him as HHS’ communication head this year — is also expected to be involved in any decision about Caputo’s next steps.
Three people with knowledge of Caputo’s decision-making confirmed that he was mulling stepping aside as the department’s assistant secretary for public affairs to take medical leave. One former HHS official told POLITICO that Caputo, a former Trump campaign official, has long complained of the stress caused by having been mentioned in the special counsel’s investigation on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
During the meeting with his staff on Tuesday, Caputo made allusions to the fact that HHS had functioned for a long time in the past without a permanent top communications official, said one HHS official.
Caputo also disputed anonymous White House criticism about his mental health — saying that some of his comments have been taken out of context — and concluded the meeting by encouraging his staff to listen to music by the Grateful Dead.
HHS declined to comment.
The meeting came in the wake of a tumultuous week for Caputo that has prompted calls from multiple Democrats for his resignation.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a call for Azar’s ouster as well, accusing him of allowing political appointees to interfere with the department’s public health work being “almost entirely silent about the chaos and mismanagement in his own agency.”
Caputo joined HHS as its top communications official earlier this year, in a White House-backed attempt to exert greater control over the health department’s messaging.
But in recent weeks, Caputo has been at the center of multiple episodes of political meddling with the department’s Covid-19 response, including POLITICO reports that he and top adviser Paul Alexander tried to influence key CDC scientific bulletins. Alexander, a personal friend of Caputo who was hired in the spring to be his science adviser, also pushed infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci to downplay the virus’ risk to children.
Alexander’s fate is likely tied to Caputo’s next steps, said one current HHS official. “He’s not someone who would have been hired if Caputo hadn’t brought him in,” said the official, noting that Alexander — a part-time professor at McMaster University in Canada — was an unusual fit in the press shop. “If we need scientific advice, there’s a whole government full of scientists we can call,” the official added.
Caputo had separately clashed with career officials at the Food and Drug Administration after tapping another ally, John “Wolf” Wagner, to head communication at the agency. Wagner was reassigned after just two months in the role, amid criticism from former administration officials and health experts over the politicized messaging coming from the FDA.
Caputo has spent days battling with critics who attacked him and Alexander for pressuring government scientists to shift their messages. In a tweet on Caputo’s since-deleted personal account after the CDC report, he wrote “I’m Effective,” the tweet reads. “Get used to it.” Caputo’s personal account disappeared Monday.
On Sunday, Caputo took to Facebook Live to level a series of wild and false accusations that warned of an armed insurrection after the election and asserted without evidence that public health officials were trying to undermine Trump’s reelection bid.
Several people inside and outside the administration subsequently raised concerns to Azar and the White House about the Facebook Live video.
Firefighter Cody Carter battles the North Complex Fire on Monday in Plumas National Forest in California.
Noah Berger/AP
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Firefighter Cody Carter battles the North Complex Fire on Monday in Plumas National Forest in California.
Noah Berger/AP
Wildfires in the Western U.S. continue to blaze, with much of the activity centered in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
In Oregon and Washington, 28 large fires are burning across 1.5 million acres. But the Bureau of Land Management noted that growth has slowed for a number of the major fires. The large Beachie Creek Fire east of Salem, Ore., had recorded no new growth in the previous day.
About 8,500 firefighters have been deployed in the two states, but smoky conditions have hindered the use of aircraft or helicopters to fight the blazes.
Rain should help the effort to contain the fires, though major precipitation isn’t expected. Showers are forecast in northwest Oregon and along the Cascades, and the increase in relative humidity should improve conditions, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Smoke rises from the ground Sunday in a neighborhood destroyed by wildfire in Talent, Ore.
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Smoke rises from the ground Sunday in a neighborhood destroyed by wildfire in Talent, Ore.
David Ryder/Getty Images
But critically dry conditions are expected to continue across eastern Oregon, California, Nevada and western Montana, joined by gusty winds.
Alaska Airlines temporarily suspended its flights in Portland, Ore., and Spokane, Wash., due to wildfire smoke.
In California, more than 16,600 firefighters are battling 25 major wildfires. Wildfires have burned over 3.2 million acres in the state since the beginning of the year. Fire activity in the state increased in mid-August and has caused 25 deaths and destroyed more than 4,200 structures, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
The August Complex Fire, which started nearly a month ago, has burned through more than 755,000 acres in Mendocino and Humboldt counties. It’s now 30% contained.
The North Complex Fire, near Chico, has destroyed at least 723 structures and killed 15 people. Now burning for 27 days, it’s 39% contained.
Shayanne Summers holds her dog Toph on Sunday after several days of staying in a tent at an evacuation center at the Milwaukie Portland Elks Lodge in Oak Grove, Ore.
John Locher/AP
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John Locher/AP
Shayanne Summers holds her dog Toph on Sunday after several days of staying in a tent at an evacuation center at the Milwaukie Portland Elks Lodge in Oak Grove, Ore.
John Locher/AP
The Creek Fire, in Fresno County, has burned more than 220,000 acres and is 16% contained. The Dolan Fire, about 10 miles south of Big Sur, is 40% contained and has burned nearly 120,000 acres.
Scientists have linked an increasing prevalence and intensity of wildfires to climate change, and residents of Western states are grappling with the dread that severe fire seasons are the new normal.
Five of the largest wildfires in California history have occurred this year.
Wildfire smoke can irritate lungs, cause inflammation, affect the immune system and increase the possibility of lung infections, including the virus that causes COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions.
The National Weather Service warns that cloth face coverings for COVID-19 do not protect against wildfire smoke.
Instead, it suggested: “Stay inside and close windows and doors. If you’re running an air conditioner, keep the fresh-air intake closed and clean the filter to prevent outdoor smoke from getting inside.”
“You can imagine if I’m a subscriber to Scientific American, and a Republican, I might say, ‘Well, see, maybe I shouldn’t vote Republican this time around,’ ” Beck said.
“It’s important to know here, a financial settlement was non-negotiable without police reform,” Lonita Baker, an attorney for the Taylor family, said at a joint news conference with Fischer on Tuesday. “Justice for Breonna is multi-layered. What we were able to accomplish … is tremendous, but is only a portion of a single layer.”
She added that she was “horrified” to see pictures from the day before of about 100 Trump supporters packed into a ballroom in Arizona, mostly maskless, for an event billed as a roundtable by a campaign.
“People will die because of these types of events and that’s from the president of the United States,” she asserted. “And you look at folks that might not be wearing masks or aren’t taking this seriously and you understand how that’s the case.”
Despite Biden generally approving of the diplomatic breakthrough being commemorated at the White House on Tuesday, she said Trump “continues to just suggest that we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic and it’s really problematic, but so emblematic of his lack of leadership and what we are going to continue to stay focused on.”
The president began holding rallies again in June, when he sought to pack a Tulsa, Okla., arena with supporters who his campaign required to agree wouldn’t sue the campaign if they contracted coronavirus at the event. A few weeks later, the county saw a spike in cases that the head of the city’s health department said were “more than likely” connected to the rally and recent protests.
Less than two weeks after attending the Tulsa rally and being photographed with no mask on, Herman Cain, one of Trump’s top Black surrogates, was hospitalized with coronavirus, though it is unknown where he contracted the virus. He died from complications with Covid-19 several weeks later.
The Trump campaign has repeatedly defended its resumption of campaign rallies amid the pandemic, with thousands of fans packing airplane hangars for the events in recent weeks, mostly eschewing safety precautions like masks and physical distancing.
The campaign has argued that it is a voter’s choice to attend Trump’s rallies — which O’Malley Dillon described as “superspreader” events for the coronavirus — and that rallygoers are offered free hand sanitizer and face masks and required to have their temperatures checked.
Biden, on the other hand, has been criticized for his relatively light campaign schedule throughout the pandemic, opting for entirely virtual events up until the last month or so. He has since resumed campaign traveling, with smaller events where masks and social distancing are ubiquitous.
While the former vice president has been ridiculed by Trump and his allies, who have joked that Biden is “stuck in his basement,” O’Malley Dillon embraced the two candidates’ differing pandemic campaign styles.
“I think that contrast between how the vice president is approaching campaigning in a pandemic versus Donald Trump is stark, and is certainly part and parcel to the leadership difference here,” she said, noting that the campaign is “very comfortable that we’re reaching out to voters, we’re having the conversation we need to have with voters” without putting them, Biden, or his staff in harm’s way.
The National Hurricane Center on Tuesday morning was tracking seven disturbances, including four named storms, in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.
Hurricane Sally is stalled in the Gulf of Mexico, but it is expected to turn north and make landfall Wednesday near the Mississippi/Alabama state line. The storm is expected bring storm surge and rain to southeast Louisiana, but most of the hazards will be east of Louisiana.
Grand Isle remains under a tropical storm warning.
Forecasters also are tracking Hurricane Paulette, Tropical Storm Teddy and Tropical Storm Vicky. These storms are not expected to pose a threat to Louisiana.
Tropical Depression Rene dissipated Monday, but not before setting a meteorological record: It was the first time since 1971 that five or more tropical cyclones have existed together in the Atlantic.
Plus, another tropical depression is likely to form this week in the Atlantic. It if strengthens into a tropical storm, it will be named Wilfred – the last available name of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. It’s too early to tell where this system will go.
Once Wilfred is used, forecasters will use the Greek alphabet for naming storms this season.
Here’s what to know Tuesday morning about the tropics.
Tropical Storm Sally in the Gulf
Hurricane Sally is expected to make landfall near Mississippi and Alabama, forecasters said. (Image via National Hurricane Center)
As of 10 a.m. Tuesday, Hurricane Sally was about 55 miles east of the mouth of the Mississippi River and about 110 miles southeast of Mobile, Ala.
It’s moving northwest at a mere 2 mph, forecasters said.
Hurricane Sally weakened overnight and now has winds of 85 mph, which is a Category 1 hurricane.
It’s expected to turn north Tuesday afternoon and then slowly northeast Tuesday night.
On the forecast track, the center of Sally will pass near the coast of southeastern Louisiana later Tuesday, and make landfall in Mississippi or Alabama Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
Hurricane Paulette on Tuesday morning was moving northeast through the Atlantic.
It was about 570 miles northeast of Bermuda and is not expected to hit land. However, swells generated from the storm are creating rip currents in parts of Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles and the U.S. East Coast.
It has winds of 105 mph and some strengthening is possible Tuesday, forecasters said. Rapid weakening is expected Wednesday.
Forecasters were tracking a broad area of low pressure over the southwest Gulf of Mexico.
Any development that occurs will be slow while the disturbance meanders over the Gulf of Mexico over the next several days, forecasters said.
The shaded area on the graphic is where a storm could develop and is not a track. The National Hurricane Center releases a track when a system develops or is about to develop into a tropical depression.
The disturbance has a 20% (low) of development in the next five days.
Tropical depression likely to form
image via National Hurricane Center
A tropical depression is likely to form during the next few days from this system in the Atlantic, forecasters said.
On Tuesday morning, it was a few hundred miles southeast of the Cabo Verde Islands and was becoming better organized. It’s expected to move west at 10 to 15 mph.
It has a 70% chance (high) of developing into a tropical depression. If it strengthen into a tropical storm, it will most likely be named Wilfred.
Disturbance in north Atlantic
image via National Hurricane Center
An area of low pressure is in the northeast Atlantic several hundred miles northeast of the Azores, forecasters said.
It has a 20% chance (low) of development within five days.
(CNN)The city of Louisville, Kentucky, has agreed to pay $12 million to the family of Breonna Taylor and institute a series of police reforms to settle the family’s wrongful death lawsuit.
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