California Is Running Out of Safe Places to Build Homes Due to Fires, Rising Seas
Much of the land best suited for new housing — wind-swept, grassy hills surrounding the state's major cities — now faces an extreme threat of wildfire, brutally illustrated by the Los Angeles-area blazes in January that killed 30 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Fires have also leveled entire towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills, often considered an affordable place to buy a home. With California's peak fire season on the way, the state's main firefighting agency recently updated its maps showing the places at risk, and the danger zone now encompasses an area the size of Georgia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Here are all the places in the US that you can see the northern lights tonight
People in some parts of the U.S. may be able to see the northern lights this evening. Weather permitting, residents of more than a dozen states could hit the jackpot, according to the most recent forecast from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center - Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, and New York. For the best chance to catch the phenomenon, skywatchers should head to areas away from light pollution at around 2 a.m. local time. However, auroras can be fickle, showing up in areas other than where they are expected. The dazzling display is caused by an incoming coronal mass ejection: a burst of plasma and solar material released by the sun and headed our way. The result of this celestial event is often a geomagnetic storm, which is triggered when the eruption travels through space and interacts with Earth's magnetic field. 'A G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm watch has been issued for 02 Jul (UTC day) due to the arrival of a CME that left the Sun on 28 Jun,' the center said in a post on social media. Geomagnetic storms are what create the aurora borealis, which is light produced when particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere centered on Earth's magnetic pole. A G1 geomagnetic storm is the weakest on the scale of storms, which goes up to G5. In this minor storm, weak power grid fluctuations can occur, and a minor impact on satellite operations is possible. Stronger solar flares and coronal mass ejections can lead to radio blackouts and more severe spacecraft operation impacts, such as problems with orientation and tracking satellites. A radio blackout was observed earlier this month thanks to a strong flare. The sun is in what is known as its solar maximum period, meaning an increase in solar activity that has led to the most intense solar storm in decades and stunning displays of the northern lights across the country. Scientists have warned there may be 'much bigger' and disruptive storms en route in the coming years.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Temporary Vehicle Restrictions on Grayton Beach
WALTON COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – Driving on Grayton Beach will be prohibited starting from 10 p.m. until 8 a.m. during turtle nesting season. According to a news release, this will be the third year that the Walton County Code office has assisted the South Walton Turtle Watch Group by restricting vehicle access to the area. This rule applies on July 4 as well. Foot traffic access to the beach is not restricted, only vehicle access during the overnight hours until 8 a.m.. If the morning nesting survey period is completed before 8 a.m., vehicle access onto the beach may be granted. Grayton Beach restricts vehicle access on July 4th for turtle nesting survey The only exception for this rule is for vehicles launching or recovering boats. All vehicles launching boats must be parked in the designated parking areas to prevent obstruction to other beachgoers. Officials say that headlights must be dim when driving between dusk and 10 p.m., and must only be used when in motion. Headlights must have red filters over them, and light wavelength with red filters should be less than 560 nm. There will be Code officers at the access very early on the morning of July 4 to assist SWTW with the morning nesting survey. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hurricane forecasters are losing 3 key satellites ahead of peak storm season − a meteorologist explains why it matters
About 600 miles off the west coast of Africa, large clusters of thunderstorms begin organizing into tropical storms every hurricane season. They aren't yet in range of Hurricane Hunter flights, so forecasters at the National Hurricane Center rely on weather satellites to peer down on these storms and beam back information about their location, structure and intensity. The satellite data helps meteorologists create weather forecasts that keep planes and ships safe and prepare countries for a potential hurricane landfall. Now, meteorologists are about to lose access to three of those satellites. On June 25, 2025, the Trump administration issued a service change notice announcing that the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, DMSP, and the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center would terminate data collection, processing and distribution of all DMSP data no later than June 30. The data termination was postponed until July 31 following a request from the head of NASA's Earth Science Division. I am a meteorologist who studies lightning in hurricanes and helps train other meteorologists to monitor and forecast tropical cyclones. Here is how meteorologists use the DMSP data and why they are concerned about it going dark. At its most basic, a weather satellite is a high-resolution digital camera in space that takes pictures of clouds in the atmosphere. These are the satellite images you see on most TV weather broadcasts. They let meteorologists see the location and some details of a hurricane's structure, but only during daylight hours. Meteorologists can use infrared satellite data, similar to a thermal imaging camera, at all hours of the day to find the coldest cloud-top temperatures, highlighting areas where the highest wind speeds and rainfall rates are found. But while visible and infrared satellite imagery are valuable tools for hurricane forecasters, they provide only a basic picture of the storm. It's like a doctor diagnosing a patient after a visual exam and checking their temperature. For more accurate diagnoses, meteorologists rely on the DMSP satellites. The three satellites orbit Earth 14 times per day with special sensor microwave imager/sounder instruments, or SSMIS. These let meteorologists look inside the clouds, similar to how an MRI in a hospital looks inside a human body. With these instruments, meteorologists can pinpoint the storm's low-pressure center and identify signs of intensification. Precisely locating the center of a hurricane improves forecasts of the storm's future track. This lets meteorologists produce more accurate hurricane watches, warnings and evacuations. Hurricane track forecasts have improved by up to 75% since 1990. However, forecasting rapid intensification is still difficult, so the ability of DMPS data to identify signs of intensification is important. About 80% of major hurricanes – those with wind speeds of at least 111 mph (179 kilometers per hour) – rapidly intensify at some point, ramping up the risks they pose to people and property on land. Finding out when storms are about to undergo intensification allows meteorologists to warn the public about these dangerous hurricanes. NOAA's Office of Satellite and Product Operations described the reason for turning off the flow of data as a need to mitigate 'a significant cybersecurity risk.' The three satellites have already operated for longer than planned. The DMSP satellites were launched between 1999 and 2009 and were designed to last for five years. They have now been operating for more than 15 years. The United States Space Force recently concluded that the DMSP satellites would reach the end of their lives between 2023 and 2026, so the data would likely have gone dark soon. Three other satellites in orbit – NOAA-20, NOAA-21 and Suomi NPP – have a microwave instrument known as the advanced technology microwave sounder. The advanced technology microwave sounder, or ATMS, can provide data similar to the special sensor microwave imager/sounder, or SSMIS, but at a lower resolution. It provides a more washed-out view that is less useful than the SSMIS for pinpointing a storm's location or estimating its intensity. The U.S. Space Force began using data from a new defense meteorology satellite, ML-1A, in late April 2025. ML-1A is a microwave satellite that will help replace some of the DMSP satellites' capabilities. However, the government hasn't announced whether the ML-1A data will be available to forecasters, including those at the National Hurricane Center. Satellite programs are planned over many years, even decades, and are very expensive. The current geostationary satellite program launched its first satellite in 2016 with plans to operate until 2038. Development of the planned successor for GOES-R began in 2019. Similarly, plans for replacing the DMSP satellites have been underway since the early 2000s. Delays in developing the satellite instruments and funding cuts caused the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System and Defense Weather Satellite System to be canceled in 2010 and 2012 before any of their satellites could be launched. The 2026 NOAA budget request includes an increase in funding for the next-generation geostationary satellite program, so it can be restructured to reuse spare parts from existing geostationary satellites. The budget also terminates contracts for ocean color, atmospheric composition and advanced lightning mapper instruments. The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, is forecast to be above average, with six to 10 hurricanes. The most active part of the season runs from the middle of August to the middle of October, after the DMSP satellite data is set to be turned off. Hurricane forecasters will continue to use all available tools, including satellite, radar, weather balloon and dropsonde data, to monitor the tropics and issue hurricane forecasts. But the loss of satellite data, along with other cuts to data, funding and staffing, could ultimately put more lives at risk. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Chris Vagasky, University of Wisconsin-Madison Read more: Hurricane forecasts are more accurate than ever – NOAA funding cuts could change that, with a busy storm season coming Forecasters expect a busy 2025 hurricane season – a storm scientist explains why and what meteorologists are watching Hurricane hunters fly through extreme storms to forecast intensity – here's what happens when the plane plunges into the eyewall Chris Vagasky is a member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association.
