Hurricane Hilary is bringing potentially "Catastrophic and life-threatening flooding" to California Sunday, prompting unprecedented tropical storm warnings for Los Angeles and San Diego, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Threat level: Veteran National Weather Service meteorologist David Roth wrote that the potential for a plume of 5 to 10 inches or more of rainfall to extend from inland areas of San Diego County northeastward into Nevada is equivalent to a Western version of Hurricanes Harvey or Florence.
Historic wildfires have forced over 50% of people living in Canada's Northwest Territories to evacuate this week and are threatening multiple cities in British Columbia's third-largest metropolitan area.
Why it matters: Thousands of people across Canada have been displaced in recent days as the severity of the country's worst wildfire season on record continued to grow.
For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency's list of priority enforcement areas for the years ahead includes climate change.
Why it matters: The inclusion, in the agency's final fiscal 2024-2027 plans, is the latest offshoot of the Biden administration's focus on global warming.
States, cities and counties across the country — led by California — are setting up "clean air centers," where residents can find respite from wildfire smoke and other airborne pollutants.
But traveling to them could expose people to the very hazards they're escaping.
The U.S. electric grid is outdated and overtaxed, and it's only growing more vulnerable under the pressures of soaring demand, extreme weather and climate change.
A "dangerous," intensifying heat wave was forecast to bring numerous daily high record temperatures in the Central and Southeast U.S. from Friday and expand to much of the Lower 48 states by next week.
The big picture: An estimated 67 million-plus people were under extreme heat alerts Friday, as the NWS' Weather Prediction Center warned the Central Plains and Texas were at greatest immediate risk of experiencing record temperatures Friday and Saturday.
Maui Emergency Management Agency's top official resigned Thursday after facing criticism over the response to Hawai'i's catastrophic wildfires that have killed at least 111 people.
Driving the news: Herman Andaya cited "health reasons" as he resigned as the agency's administrator with immediate effect, per a Maui County statement.
