May to October has become known as the “danger season” — when the US is most at risk of experiencing back-to-back climate disasters like heat waves, wildfires, drought and storms.
As summer in the US approaches peak wildfire and hurricane seasons, with above-normal activity predicted for the latter, experts worry that persistent heat waves can pack a deadly one-two punch as they coincide with extreme storms and severe droughts.
Such a threat played out in August 2020, when a heat wave blanketed Louisiana right after Hurricane Laura hit, leaving residents in 100-degree Fahrenheit weather without power. Of the 31 storm-related deaths reported, eight were “heat-related” and nine were due to carbon monoxide poisoning, likely from a generator. Then in October, as parishes were barely recovering in the sweltering heat, Hurricane Delta came barreling up the Gulf Coast.
These days, disasters seldom happen in isolation, even as most response and aid programs still treat them as one-off events. Events are overlapping, and hitting cities one right after another. The period between May and October, dubbed “danger season” by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), is when extreme weather hazards are most likely to collide. Senior scientist Juan Declet-Barreto at UCS worries that the slow start to this year’s Atlantic hurricane season could mean a pile-up of severe storms over the next two months.
Bloomberg CityLab
By Linda Poon
August 25, 2022