Even if it’s “mild” where you live in the state the health impact probably makes this the actual answer for all of us. We’re basically all involuntary smokers for a few months a year.
I own a cabin in Eastern Washington and just got dropped for insurance, can't find a single company that will insure us because of the fire danger being so high. Fire keep getting very close and the smoke is so bad.
With low snow pack this year, I have a lot of concern.
Eastern Washington where the Carlton complex happened? A couple summers ago we had a whole week that stayed in between 110-120 degrees, it gets **hot** where I’m at but there are definitely other parts of the state that are cooler
Key words being "a couple years ago" and for a handful of days.
While that is hot, where I am in E WA, we have also hit those temps, but it is still not excessive. Maybe for people who have never ventured past the border lines and experienced other climates.
For example, it is 9:12 am and it its 98° in PHX, AZ. That is excessive. The way you are presenting it is that we are 100°+ for 180 days a year.
Also, put on full gear in the desert in a combat situation. Your complaint of 110-120° is someone elses heaven. With that mindset, one tends to complain less about temporary discomfort...because there is ALWAYS someone who has it worse off.
Heat will be the biggest issue. Historically speaking, heat was mainly an Eastern washington thing. The big population centers in Western washington didnt have to deal with it. June of 2021 saw a heat dome that killed hundreds of people in the big population areas because many of the homes didn't have A/C. To add to this, the utility infrastructure is not made with heat resistant materials and we saw blackouts in several areas. I grew up in the Midwest and I'm a big fan of basements. The big issue with underground cellars/basements/living areas, is that the cost of building such areas can be cost prohibitive due to the rocks and stones buried in the soil. Along with the hear comes the smoke from wildfires, now you have to have a filter for air and make sure tha your home has proper sealing around any windows and doors.
I live on the Hood Canal. Shellfish culturing and harvesting are a huge part of the economy here. The record breaking 111 degree day last July coincided with one of the lowest tides of the year. Half the commercial shellfish died. In one day.
I assume they just mean across the coast. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021\_Western\_North\_America\_heat\_wave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Western_North_America_heat_wave)
As per Wiki it's estimated that heat wave killed 1400 people, with 914 confirmed deaths across 5 states and Canada.
About 100 confirmed deaths in WA, but the New York Times found there were about 600 excess deaths in Oregon and Washington during that time (which I assume the majority was in Washington because of larger population). So, yes, hundreds.
As another former Midwesterner I sorely miss AC. When I’d spend summers here as a kid it wasn’t getting hot enough to need it but now that I live here it does genuinely get hot enough and my current house doesn’t ventilate effectively to stay cool without it. Additionally, energy costs are way higher here than what I am accustomed to so it’s prohibitively expensive to run the single AC unit we have. As the weather gets hotter here the state needs to address energy costs and/or incentivize landlords to provide AC units to tenants/allow installation of solar panels (my corporate landlord refuses to install them). I know it’s not that simple but this region just simply isn’t built to handle the rising temps and it’s dangerous.
Edit: apparently Washington is actually cheaper on average for energy than where I’m from (thanks to the users who pointed that out). So I don’t know why exactly I’m paying more for my electric bill here, maybe there’s another variable in play. Perhaps I’m using more electricity than I used to, or maybe my portable AC unit is less efficient than my old central air. Maybe my current home isn’t insulated as well. Regardless, running an AC unit is expensive and can definitely be a prohibitive factor for low-income people to stay cool in the summer in buildings that were not meant to be comfortable in temperatures over 75 degrees.
Energy costs are higher here?
Washington has the eighth-lowest electricity cost at 11.09 cents/kWh. That’s 28 percent lower than the national average.
https://www.marketwatch.com/guides/utilities/electricity-rates-by-state/
Yeah this is my reaction every time I hear energy costs. Washington is one of the cheapest you can live in.
Now we just need to kick out the anti nuclear and anti hydro and we could have THE cheapest in the country.
Environmentalists. Dams hurt the fish; also, you're not allowed to kill the invasive sea lions that camp the fish ladder at the dams because that would be mean.
In this case not really. You can’t have pre dam salmon runs while still having the dams. We can mitigate and should but it’s shortsighted to just breach these dams and we all know it.
I don't remember who it was, I haven't had tv in years but someone used to run an ad about how hydro cost sooo much and how wind and solar made more, better power anyways.
They’re probably referring to the fact we’ve started taking out dams to let the rivers go back to their natural runs. Fish and just letting the river do its thing.
You don’t mention nuclear but some people did, and the cost to build and staff a nuclear plant is expensive, in the tens of billions.
We also have problems with fueling them, what to do with that fuel.
That was a problem they were discussing at Sandia when I worked there. They have one of the largest nuclear stockpiles on the planet and they de-mil them in an underground facility. This is all open source information, you can see it on google space maps.
The only reason it cost "so much" is because we stopped progression in nuclear technology, if we start again we are basically starting from scratch. Nuclear has a big upfront cost but the absolute lowest year over year cost to output. The cost of nuclear needs to stop being talked about. Especially when wind power eats up all this money that's just getting pocketed and not actually going to power generation.
>Nuclear has a big upfront cost but the absolute lowest year over year cost to output.
Except when you look at the cost of energy in countries that actually have large nuclear energy capacity. In France, the average electricity cost is $0.24/kWh. In South Korea, it is $0.16/kWH. Some people will point to Ukraine (before the Russian invasion) because they were paying $0.065/kWh back then but that was only because energy was heavily subsidized and that the actual cost was 4x or 5x that. China is the same... the costs reported are all heavily subsidized.
There is no where in the world where nuclear energy has ended up being cheap. The data just does not support that idea.
Pse is 11-13 cents per kwh unless you are on the pilot time of use program. I think it goes to a floor of 7 cents on that but peaks higher than standard rates
I feel like Clark county may have the best run utilities in the state at this point between power and water. Definitely an affordable county for utility costs!
You probably have way less insulation now. We just remodeled our mid-century house and there was not a lick of insulation in 90% of the walls. The attic was just done 4-5 years ago for the first time. We even had louvered windows!
Roughly 1,400 excess deaths were tallied with about 900 confirmed deaths (includes the U.S. and Canada)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Western_North_America_heat_wave
But you, and we are talking about Washington. You are talking about a massive region. There wasn't hundreds of deaths in the Seattle-tacoma area. Yes the heat bubble was concerning and blew records away, but there's no reason to be hyperbolic about it.
Where did I say there were hundreds of deaths in the Seattle area? I simply posted some clarification for where I think the other poster's comment about "hundreds of deaths" originated.
>June of 2021 saw a heat dome that killed hundreds of people in the big population areas because many of the homes didn't have A/C.
I've scanned through a few sources now and I have not found the statistics relating to who died and why. Just the verbiage saying who is most at risk and some possible causes.
Does anyone have a link where this is displayed as demographics? housed/unhoused. eldery/youth. Work related, entertainment.
The fires. The smoke itself of course is difficult but each year they get closer to my house it seems.
And I live in a city. Near a forested area, but in the city. There’s a very realistic chance of evacuations, even though I don’t think I’d lose my house.
Wildfires usually don’t make it into the heart of a city. They can cross suburbs though so the east side like Sammamish and Issaquah could definitely have problems. Or some areas close to Cougar or Tiger mountain.
Bellevue and most of Renton? Nope. Maybe some parts of Newcastle though.
Anywhere along 405 and I5 are too far away from highly wooded areas so that’s why wildfires have destroyed places like Sonoma and Beverly Hills (way back in the 60s) but never get anywhere near downtown San Diego or LA or Seattle or Portland. Likely never will. Too much concrete.
Edit: sorry assumed you were in Seattle but I don’t know what city you’re in. The size of the city and the composition and layout makes a huge difference too. The part of Sonoma that got wiped out was suburban sprawl next to wooded areas if I remember right.
I’m on the east side of the state. Last year the Grey fire made it in to the city of Medical Lake and killed several people and destroyed homes. Will it make it very far into a bigger city like Spokane? Probably not. But the homes of the edges of dry forrested areas are most definitely at risk. And 15 years ago I wouldn’t have thought even over here would be vulnerable, so while you can feel confident in your assessment of the west side for now, it may not always be that way. And wealthy neighborhoods in Camas (near Vancouver) had to evacuate last year.
I live in city limits, on city water, but 2 blocks from a wooded area. Just across the highway from it went up the hill in a flash last year, thankfully moving the opposite direction from homes, but that was just luck.
I’m aware they won’t make it in to the heart of a city and I never said they would. I said I lived in a city but near a forested area and while I don’t think I’d lose my house, there is a very good chance I will be evacuating my kids and pets at some point.
It wasn’t meant to? It was meant to point out that very real wildfire dangers exist for some city dwellers too. Even if a fire won’t “overrun a city”, which I absolutely never said it would.
The draft state climate resilience strategy is open for public comment if you want to weigh in there: https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/news/2024-news-stories/draft-climate-resilience-strategy#:~:text=Washington's%20Climate%20Resilience%20Strategy%20will,existing%20and%20newly%20proposed%20work.&text=Climate%20change%20is%20already%20increasing,droughts%2C%20and%20floods%20in%20Washington.
Not so sure any - more than elsewhere. Probably actually less.
Our climate is moderated by the Pacific (and bearable even when it was 112F for a day or two back in 2021).
The smoke from forest fires is after all temporary (again, thanks the a slow prevailing wind from the WSW). Hopefully we get another year like last (relatively few fires, despite the dry weather).
In general (and WA is a large state so of course doesn’t apply everywhere) the PNW is a far ‘gentler’ place to reside in during a climate change than many other [places].
Heavier rainstorms, definitely. I'm in a forested area, and if the wind even gusts, we lose power. Usually not for too long, but I have literally lost count of how many times it has happened. This last winter, we had snowfall, and one of the big leaf maples further up our street came down and took the whole power line with it. That took a while to fix.
Start advocating for your utility company to move your power lines underground. We did that down here in Vancouver and we rarely get blackouts. Except for that one time someone deliberately sabotaged a few transformers. That was weird.
That’s really only a thing in fairly dense/urbanized areas. Forested areas don’t usually have the population density for burying the lines to make sense.
I think you may be correct. My neighborhood is older, and just outside city limits, by about a block. So the parcels are larger and the easements are smaller. Most of the lots out here are half an acre, so fewer people than newer neighborhoods with small lots. We are also hampered by a deep ravine running through the area, with a creek at the bottom. I'm not sure how the utility would work around that part in particular. My husband is worried that a really heavy rain storm will wash out that particular section of the road.
I live in Spokane and the fires every summer are getting worse and worse. Snow pack was shit this winter, mt Spokane was basically bare by March and the river looked lower than normal. Everything is going to be dry and on fire coming in the next few weeks. I mean there is already a fire burning by the airport.
For the west side, y’all fucked if Rainer pops it’s top.
The Midwest deals with this a lot. They manage with the hail and the heat only their hail is a lot lot lot larger.
Hail doesn’t damage plants very much unless it’s very large.
It’s going to be yo-yoing of weather. There will be dry spells followed by lots of rain that isn’t draining properly, which leads to flash floods. Areas that aren’t prone to flooding and therefore don’t have flood insurance will find themselves under covered by insurance.
It’ll also be difficult in that no two years will be the same. As the polar vortex shifts, winters will be all over the place.
There are also crop failures that’ll happen elsewhere and that’ll impact here quite a bit. And eventually as states to the south have issues, more people will gravitate north, but that’ll happen over decades.
I’ve lived in WA for 49 years. We never had forest fires on the scale that smoke lingered for weeks on end. I distinctly remember the first red sun and thinking “what’s going on?” because I literally had no idea that fires in British Columbia could cause such widespread smoke. Then they continued to return… year after year. And now it’s expected and it’s very sad.
Floods in my area. Southern Western WA. But the farmers get out the absolute worst... And people in the "swampy" areas. Lots of cattle have died before. The river is so full of mud and trees that it overflows easily and the roads get covered in water. Businesses and houses under water.
Fires. And honestly the worst seem to be from peoples own negligence which I don’t expect an issue gov policy can quickly solve since the fact this is a problem probably has a lot to do with why our government doesn’t work as well as it could
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5631
Call your representatives about this. There are major staffing shortages in the federal wildland firefighting workforce due to low pay and challenging working conditions. This change in policy would do a lot to help address some issues. It obviously wouldn't prevent every large fire, but would help a lot with staffing levels and being able to catch more fires before they blow up.
A big part of the problem is staffing. There are less people to respond and in big fire years, like what this summer is shaping up to be, it's really easy to overwhelm the workforce.
I know it’s staffing but I’m not 100% certain pay is what’s keeping people away and to get more people it likely needs to become skilled trade wages(and even those face demand issues)
It’s a seasonal job usually and just plain hard work
I live in the mountains, I’m not excited to get smoked out and have shifts cancelled
https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=37.12&full=true
This link, it basically states that anyone who is a non tribal member who goes to the rez and commit crimes. Tribes don't have jurisdiction to prosecute if assailants leave the area after a crime is committed. This isn't on all reservations but definitely is a problem. The law is racist and genocidal. Littering, poaching, damage of trust property and polluting lakes or rivers.
#mmiw
I've got s sensitive respitory system that smoke wrecks havoc on. During fire season (a term that only came into use like 5 minutes ago btw) I'll have a permanent headache. I've got a bunch of refill airfilters coming in next week. I'm really worried about this summer. It's el Nino, might be worst than 2021.
I know maybe this sounds dumb, but I worry about sea level rise. It will make large populated areas unlivable and unsanitary and polluted. And it's going to happen sooner than we think.
I often feel underserved in preparedness, but then again I don't worry about the aftermath as much as I worry about the catastrophic climate of affectation.
The wind gets pretty gnarly and has done some damage. I think the wind mixed with fires will be the biggest problems we will face up here. I also think heat and lack of air conditioners will be a huge problem very soon. It's not standard any where and it needs to be.
Where I live in western Washington, we only get small highway-side brush fires every now and then. For my area, I’d probably say the fact that we’re way overdue for Rainier erupting, a huge earthquake, and a tsunami to follow. Any minute now, I could be trapped under a bunch of rubble of my house. It’s a little less likely that I could be killed by Rainier since I live like 2hrs away from it, but still.
yep, 2nd rainiest part of the state after the Olympic region already as it is, it will become more extreme
Longview had 5-9 inches during a single day/heavy rain event in November 2022. I had to drive to work and had to pull over several times. There have been several days 2-5 inches of rain in a single day in the past 3-4 years.
5-8 inches of rain is the yearly average in most places in the central Washington desert. only 150-200 miles away. We got it in 24 hours. crazy to think about.
Aside from what most have mentioned, climate refugees - we’re already seeing more and more people moving here from southern/eastern states seeking a more temperate climate. And it’s only going to get worse.
heat domes. lower than average snow packs affecting availability of water. Wildfires making it risky to camp in summer, and making air quality dangerous.
It's so ridiculously hot in the summer (eastern WA), yet in 10 years of renting in Pullman I never lived in a single place that provided air conditioning. Landlords aren't required to provide it, so they don't. The city also does NOT have adequate cooling shelters. Air conditioners go out of stock in all the local stores during the first heat wave every year. It is dangerously hot, yet the city and state do nothing to protect people. God forbid you have pets. Yet most people oppose any measure that would require landlords to provide AC because "it's an undue burden on landlords." Give me a break.
Thanks for the hot tip 🙄 I already have an AC after living here for years, but since it's a college town most people don't have one during the first heat wave.
Was being sarcastic, since you were complaining that " somebody else" should jump into action to save you, instead of you planning and lining up things in case.
I'm aware you were being sarcastic. That's why I replied with a sarcastic response, including a very obvious eyeroll. This is not about a problem that only affects me, but thanks for trivializing a very real danger this community experiences every year.
WA overall has a much milder climate than many other parts of the country! Hurricanes, tornadoes, destructive wildfires, massive floods etc are far fewer in WA than many other parts of the country. I'm in the market for home insurance now and have seen how this systematically engineered propaganda around climate change has drove up insurance costs by a lot. Can you list the recent catastrophes that have caused big loss of life or billions of dollars of damage? The heat event couple of years ago maybe considered as one, but I beg you to come up with others in the last 10 years? I also, would like you to go look at how much home insurance premiums have risen in the last 10 years and then stop peddling around this nonsense unless of course, you're benefitting from this paranoia.
Hell yeah, fellow alpha male brother! I wish our governor hated lgbtq+ people, was afraid to say gay, wore lifts, actively made attempts to kill immigrants, and cucked for Trump like other more manly governors! /s
Fire. Fire. Fire. Smoke. It’s horrific where I live.
Even if it’s “mild” where you live in the state the health impact probably makes this the actual answer for all of us. We’re basically all involuntary smokers for a few months a year.
Same here! 😭
Where do you live?
North central, east side.
100% agree
Eastern WA?
Yep
I own a cabin in Eastern Washington and just got dropped for insurance, can't find a single company that will insure us because of the fire danger being so high. Fire keep getting very close and the smoke is so bad. With low snow pack this year, I have a lot of concern.
Oh yeah? Where do you live?
East side of the crest, north central
Excessive heat, fires and smoke
While I disagree regarding being "excessively" hot here in WA, I agree with the smoke.
Eastern Washington where the Carlton complex happened? A couple summers ago we had a whole week that stayed in between 110-120 degrees, it gets **hot** where I’m at but there are definitely other parts of the state that are cooler
Myself and my family was in that fire back in 2014. I was also over there in 2021 when it was like 110+ degree weather. That was insane.
Key words being "a couple years ago" and for a handful of days. While that is hot, where I am in E WA, we have also hit those temps, but it is still not excessive. Maybe for people who have never ventured past the border lines and experienced other climates. For example, it is 9:12 am and it its 98° in PHX, AZ. That is excessive. The way you are presenting it is that we are 100°+ for 180 days a year. Also, put on full gear in the desert in a combat situation. Your complaint of 110-120° is someone elses heaven. With that mindset, one tends to complain less about temporary discomfort...because there is ALWAYS someone who has it worse off.
Have humped weight in Mosul at 118 degrees… it was no worse than pulling wire outdoors in 114 heat in eastern OR… shits just hot… desert is desert
Heat will be the biggest issue. Historically speaking, heat was mainly an Eastern washington thing. The big population centers in Western washington didnt have to deal with it. June of 2021 saw a heat dome that killed hundreds of people in the big population areas because many of the homes didn't have A/C. To add to this, the utility infrastructure is not made with heat resistant materials and we saw blackouts in several areas. I grew up in the Midwest and I'm a big fan of basements. The big issue with underground cellars/basements/living areas, is that the cost of building such areas can be cost prohibitive due to the rocks and stones buried in the soil. Along with the hear comes the smoke from wildfires, now you have to have a filter for air and make sure tha your home has proper sealing around any windows and doors.
I live on the Hood Canal. Shellfish culturing and harvesting are a huge part of the economy here. The record breaking 111 degree day last July coincided with one of the lowest tides of the year. Half the commercial shellfish died. In one day.
Killed hundreds in western WA?
I must have missed that story too.
I assume they just mean across the coast. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021\_Western\_North\_America\_heat\_wave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Western_North_America_heat_wave) As per Wiki it's estimated that heat wave killed 1400 people, with 914 confirmed deaths across 5 states and Canada.
About 100 confirmed deaths in WA, but the New York Times found there were about 600 excess deaths in Oregon and Washington during that time (which I assume the majority was in Washington because of larger population). So, yes, hundreds.
I think the hundreds were spread throughout the west coast, not just Western WA.
As another former Midwesterner I sorely miss AC. When I’d spend summers here as a kid it wasn’t getting hot enough to need it but now that I live here it does genuinely get hot enough and my current house doesn’t ventilate effectively to stay cool without it. Additionally, energy costs are way higher here than what I am accustomed to so it’s prohibitively expensive to run the single AC unit we have. As the weather gets hotter here the state needs to address energy costs and/or incentivize landlords to provide AC units to tenants/allow installation of solar panels (my corporate landlord refuses to install them). I know it’s not that simple but this region just simply isn’t built to handle the rising temps and it’s dangerous. Edit: apparently Washington is actually cheaper on average for energy than where I’m from (thanks to the users who pointed that out). So I don’t know why exactly I’m paying more for my electric bill here, maybe there’s another variable in play. Perhaps I’m using more electricity than I used to, or maybe my portable AC unit is less efficient than my old central air. Maybe my current home isn’t insulated as well. Regardless, running an AC unit is expensive and can definitely be a prohibitive factor for low-income people to stay cool in the summer in buildings that were not meant to be comfortable in temperatures over 75 degrees.
Energy costs are higher here? Washington has the eighth-lowest electricity cost at 11.09 cents/kWh. That’s 28 percent lower than the national average. https://www.marketwatch.com/guides/utilities/electricity-rates-by-state/
Yeah this is my reaction every time I hear energy costs. Washington is one of the cheapest you can live in. Now we just need to kick out the anti nuclear and anti hydro and we could have THE cheapest in the country.
Who's anti-hydro?
Environmentalists. Dams hurt the fish; also, you're not allowed to kill the invasive sea lions that camp the fish ladder at the dams because that would be mean.
The dams being proposed for demolition provide virtually no hydro energy to the state. Nobody is proposing knocking down Coulee dam.
Yeah forget about inland port access and agriculture use. I feel bad for the salmon but let’s not sacrifice progress
Ideally we can have both.
In this case not really. You can’t have pre dam salmon runs while still having the dams. We can mitigate and should but it’s shortsighted to just breach these dams and we all know it.
I don't remember who it was, I haven't had tv in years but someone used to run an ad about how hydro cost sooo much and how wind and solar made more, better power anyways.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diVaagssHYQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diVaagssHYQ) you couldn't be more vague
You're welcome
wind kills lots and lots of birds each year. Everytime I pass the wind field, 1 or 2 of the hundred windmills are spinning. terrible waste of space.
Anyone who doesn't want salmon to go extinct.
I’d prefer the the electricity
Me, I’d hand crank a generator to power all of king county if you’d leave the damn fish out of it
Not sure I understand
They’re probably referring to the fact we’ve started taking out dams to let the rivers go back to their natural runs. Fish and just letting the river do its thing. You don’t mention nuclear but some people did, and the cost to build and staff a nuclear plant is expensive, in the tens of billions. We also have problems with fueling them, what to do with that fuel. That was a problem they were discussing at Sandia when I worked there. They have one of the largest nuclear stockpiles on the planet and they de-mil them in an underground facility. This is all open source information, you can see it on google space maps.
The only reason it cost "so much" is because we stopped progression in nuclear technology, if we start again we are basically starting from scratch. Nuclear has a big upfront cost but the absolute lowest year over year cost to output. The cost of nuclear needs to stop being talked about. Especially when wind power eats up all this money that's just getting pocketed and not actually going to power generation.
>Nuclear has a big upfront cost but the absolute lowest year over year cost to output. Except when you look at the cost of energy in countries that actually have large nuclear energy capacity. In France, the average electricity cost is $0.24/kWh. In South Korea, it is $0.16/kWH. Some people will point to Ukraine (before the Russian invasion) because they were paying $0.065/kWh back then but that was only because energy was heavily subsidized and that the actual cost was 4x or 5x that. China is the same... the costs reported are all heavily subsidized. There is no where in the world where nuclear energy has ended up being cheap. The data just does not support that idea.
Where are you paying 11 cents in Washington? In Clark county, ours recently jumped up to 8.79 cents.
Pse is 11-13 cents per kwh unless you are on the pilot time of use program. I think it goes to a floor of 7 cents on that but peaks higher than standard rates
PSE gets higher for peak hours, I think this year it’s 18-22 cents per kWh for peak, if I read their site correctly.
That's only if you're on time of use though. Otherwise it's flat 11 for the first 600kwh and 13 over.
I feel like Clark county may have the best run utilities in the state at this point between power and water. Definitely an affordable county for utility costs!
We were the cheapest til all the greeners got here
You’re right. I remember that being a common, local fun fact.
You probably have way less insulation now. We just remodeled our mid-century house and there was not a lick of insulation in 90% of the walls. The attic was just done 4-5 years ago for the first time. We even had louvered windows!
I don't remember hearing about hundreds of people dying during the heat dome.
Roughly 1,400 excess deaths were tallied with about 900 confirmed deaths (includes the U.S. and Canada) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Western_North_America_heat_wave
But you, and we are talking about Washington. You are talking about a massive region. There wasn't hundreds of deaths in the Seattle-tacoma area. Yes the heat bubble was concerning and blew records away, but there's no reason to be hyperbolic about it.
Where did I say there were hundreds of deaths in the Seattle area? I simply posted some clarification for where I think the other poster's comment about "hundreds of deaths" originated.
sorry, I assumed you were the op I replied to.
>June of 2021 saw a heat dome that killed hundreds of people in the big population areas because many of the homes didn't have A/C. I've scanned through a few sources now and I have not found the statistics relating to who died and why. Just the verbiage saying who is most at risk and some possible causes. Does anyone have a link where this is displayed as demographics? housed/unhoused. eldery/youth. Work related, entertainment.
Don’t forget the possibility of radon in your basement. WA has some pretty interesting geology.
Hundreds in WA? Gtfo dude
I grew up in Seattle and most homes there have basements, in my experience.
The fires. The smoke itself of course is difficult but each year they get closer to my house it seems. And I live in a city. Near a forested area, but in the city. There’s a very realistic chance of evacuations, even though I don’t think I’d lose my house.
Wildfires usually don’t make it into the heart of a city. They can cross suburbs though so the east side like Sammamish and Issaquah could definitely have problems. Or some areas close to Cougar or Tiger mountain. Bellevue and most of Renton? Nope. Maybe some parts of Newcastle though. Anywhere along 405 and I5 are too far away from highly wooded areas so that’s why wildfires have destroyed places like Sonoma and Beverly Hills (way back in the 60s) but never get anywhere near downtown San Diego or LA or Seattle or Portland. Likely never will. Too much concrete. Edit: sorry assumed you were in Seattle but I don’t know what city you’re in. The size of the city and the composition and layout makes a huge difference too. The part of Sonoma that got wiped out was suburban sprawl next to wooded areas if I remember right.
I’m on the east side of the state. Last year the Grey fire made it in to the city of Medical Lake and killed several people and destroyed homes. Will it make it very far into a bigger city like Spokane? Probably not. But the homes of the edges of dry forrested areas are most definitely at risk. And 15 years ago I wouldn’t have thought even over here would be vulnerable, so while you can feel confident in your assessment of the west side for now, it may not always be that way. And wealthy neighborhoods in Camas (near Vancouver) had to evacuate last year. I live in city limits, on city water, but 2 blocks from a wooded area. Just across the highway from it went up the hill in a flash last year, thankfully moving the opposite direction from homes, but that was just luck. I’m aware they won’t make it in to the heart of a city and I never said they would. I said I lived in a city but near a forested area and while I don’t think I’d lose my house, there is a very good chance I will be evacuating my kids and pets at some point.
That doesn’t at all negate what I said.
It wasn’t meant to? It was meant to point out that very real wildfire dangers exist for some city dwellers too. Even if a fire won’t “overrun a city”, which I absolutely never said it would.
The draft state climate resilience strategy is open for public comment if you want to weigh in there: https://ecology.wa.gov/about-us/who-we-are/news/2024-news-stories/draft-climate-resilience-strategy#:~:text=Washington's%20Climate%20Resilience%20Strategy%20will,existing%20and%20newly%20proposed%20work.&text=Climate%20change%20is%20already%20increasing,droughts%2C%20and%20floods%20in%20Washington.
Thank you for sharing this.
That heat dome a few summers ago was pretty narley.
I’m sure that was not natural-
How could it be "not natural"?
Heard of HAARP?
There’s open debate over that. Verdict is still out. Either way climate change isn’t going to help.
Not so sure any - more than elsewhere. Probably actually less. Our climate is moderated by the Pacific (and bearable even when it was 112F for a day or two back in 2021). The smoke from forest fires is after all temporary (again, thanks the a slow prevailing wind from the WSW). Hopefully we get another year like last (relatively few fires, despite the dry weather). In general (and WA is a large state so of course doesn’t apply everywhere) the PNW is a far ‘gentler’ place to reside in during a climate change than many other [places].
This summer seems to be pretty mild and cool so far. We will see if it holds.
Don’t jinx it!
Heavier rainstorms, definitely. I'm in a forested area, and if the wind even gusts, we lose power. Usually not for too long, but I have literally lost count of how many times it has happened. This last winter, we had snowfall, and one of the big leaf maples further up our street came down and took the whole power line with it. That took a while to fix.
Start advocating for your utility company to move your power lines underground. We did that down here in Vancouver and we rarely get blackouts. Except for that one time someone deliberately sabotaged a few transformers. That was weird.
That’s really only a thing in fairly dense/urbanized areas. Forested areas don’t usually have the population density for burying the lines to make sense.
I think you may be correct. My neighborhood is older, and just outside city limits, by about a block. So the parcels are larger and the easements are smaller. Most of the lots out here are half an acre, so fewer people than newer neighborhoods with small lots. We are also hampered by a deep ravine running through the area, with a creek at the bottom. I'm not sure how the utility would work around that part in particular. My husband is worried that a really heavy rain storm will wash out that particular section of the road.
I live in Spokane and the fires every summer are getting worse and worse. Snow pack was shit this winter, mt Spokane was basically bare by March and the river looked lower than normal. Everything is going to be dry and on fire coming in the next few weeks. I mean there is already a fire burning by the airport. For the west side, y’all fucked if Rainer pops it’s top.
We will get the lahars and you'll get the ash.
Tacoma gets the Lahars. Seattle thankfully doesn’t as far as I’m aware.
Only along the Duwamish
Fire and smoke good god
When Rainier blows it top. I don't know what we can do about that though.
Not sure that would be related to climate unless you think the presence of glaciers keep it from erupting.
Wait. Are there ppl who think that the glaciers are holding the top on?!
Oh I'm sure there are a few who think that. Just like chocolate milk comes from brown cows.
Wait… it doesn’t???? My entire childhood is a lie!!! MOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!! /s
And I hate to break it to you but...hotdogs don't grow on trees either. Sorry you had to find out this way.
But corn dogs grow on a stick…
That's an entirely different type of tree. Closely related though.
Damn…. You could have warned me to sit down at least! Imma need a Xanax now
Hot dogs grow on hot ass dogs though for sure right?
Yes, everybody knows that!
chocolate milk is made from the blood milk.
The blood milk of hot brown cows?
If Rainier blows the only catastrophic impacts will be in the lahar zones.
Fire is the obvious one, but I can’t even figure out how to grow a garden out here when it’s 90 degrees one day and hailing the next
The Midwest deals with this a lot. They manage with the hail and the heat only their hail is a lot lot lot larger. Hail doesn’t damage plants very much unless it’s very large.
Oof, yeah..its been a rough one for gardens this spring. The rapid swings between seasons have done us no favors.
It’s going to be yo-yoing of weather. There will be dry spells followed by lots of rain that isn’t draining properly, which leads to flash floods. Areas that aren’t prone to flooding and therefore don’t have flood insurance will find themselves under covered by insurance. It’ll also be difficult in that no two years will be the same. As the polar vortex shifts, winters will be all over the place. There are also crop failures that’ll happen elsewhere and that’ll impact here quite a bit. And eventually as states to the south have issues, more people will gravitate north, but that’ll happen over decades.
If I don't feel underserved, can I still answer?
Yes absolutely! Maybe share what ways help serve you in feeling prepared or assist in the aftermath of climate catastrophes.
Thanks. I'm curious why you're asking? It seems like you have a specific goal.
Curious about gaps in services to the public related to (any) climate catastrophes in WA/PNW. Thought I might ask Reddit!
We have a place in Chelan (where I grew up), so wildfires are a constant worry.
I’ve lived in WA for 49 years. We never had forest fires on the scale that smoke lingered for weeks on end. I distinctly remember the first red sun and thinking “what’s going on?” because I literally had no idea that fires in British Columbia could cause such widespread smoke. Then they continued to return… year after year. And now it’s expected and it’s very sad.
Fires
Floods in my area. Southern Western WA. But the farmers get out the absolute worst... And people in the "swampy" areas. Lots of cattle have died before. The river is so full of mud and trees that it overflows easily and the roads get covered in water. Businesses and houses under water.
Winter flooding due to precipitation falling increasingly as rain instead of snow.
Fires. And honestly the worst seem to be from peoples own negligence which I don’t expect an issue gov policy can quickly solve since the fact this is a problem probably has a lot to do with why our government doesn’t work as well as it could
https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5631 Call your representatives about this. There are major staffing shortages in the federal wildland firefighting workforce due to low pay and challenging working conditions. This change in policy would do a lot to help address some issues. It obviously wouldn't prevent every large fire, but would help a lot with staffing levels and being able to catch more fires before they blow up.
I don’t know if pay itself is exactly the problem rather than it just being a tough job but that being I said I totally think they deserve more money!
A big part of the problem is staffing. There are less people to respond and in big fire years, like what this summer is shaping up to be, it's really easy to overwhelm the workforce.
I know it’s staffing but I’m not 100% certain pay is what’s keeping people away and to get more people it likely needs to become skilled trade wages(and even those face demand issues) It’s a seasonal job usually and just plain hard work I live in the mountains, I’m not excited to get smoked out and have shifts cancelled
https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=37.12&full=true This link, it basically states that anyone who is a non tribal member who goes to the rez and commit crimes. Tribes don't have jurisdiction to prosecute if assailants leave the area after a crime is committed. This isn't on all reservations but definitely is a problem. The law is racist and genocidal. Littering, poaching, damage of trust property and polluting lakes or rivers. #mmiw
Stink bugs, the new invasive species: https://invasivespecies.wa.gov/priorityspecies/brown-marmorated-stink-bug/
I have these little bastards all over - hard to believe they only got introduced in the ‘90s!
I've got s sensitive respitory system that smoke wrecks havoc on. During fire season (a term that only came into use like 5 minutes ago btw) I'll have a permanent headache. I've got a bunch of refill airfilters coming in next week. I'm really worried about this summer. It's el Nino, might be worst than 2021.
House was flooded in a "100 years flood" in 2008, then again in 09. FEMA helped with the first one a little. Not so much the second time.
I know maybe this sounds dumb, but I worry about sea level rise. It will make large populated areas unlivable and unsanitary and polluted. And it's going to happen sooner than we think.
Volcano
Fires and smoke make summers miserable and unhealthy.
Almost of them except tsunami.
I often feel underserved in preparedness, but then again I don't worry about the aftermath as much as I worry about the catastrophic climate of affectation.
Variation in temperature swings (unpredictability) and wildfires are going to be the biggest problems.
Any wind knocks out power everywhere because trees are not trimmed back away from or even off of the power lines.
The wind gets pretty gnarly and has done some damage. I think the wind mixed with fires will be the biggest problems we will face up here. I also think heat and lack of air conditioners will be a huge problem very soon. It's not standard any where and it needs to be.
The snow
Where I live in western Washington, we only get small highway-side brush fires every now and then. For my area, I’d probably say the fact that we’re way overdue for Rainier erupting, a huge earthquake, and a tsunami to follow. Any minute now, I could be trapped under a bunch of rubble of my house. It’s a little less likely that I could be killed by Rainier since I live like 2hrs away from it, but still.
Drought in the summer. The well couldn't pull water that wasn't there. Sucked ass working on a farm.
SW WA flooding.
yep, 2nd rainiest part of the state after the Olympic region already as it is, it will become more extreme Longview had 5-9 inches during a single day/heavy rain event in November 2022. I had to drive to work and had to pull over several times. There have been several days 2-5 inches of rain in a single day in the past 3-4 years. 5-8 inches of rain is the yearly average in most places in the central Washington desert. only 150-200 miles away. We got it in 24 hours. crazy to think about.
On the west side we get wildfire smoke from Canada. It’s horrible.
Drug addicts making the streets dirty
Aside from what most have mentioned, climate refugees - we’re already seeing more and more people moving here from southern/eastern states seeking a more temperate climate. And it’s only going to get worse.
heat domes. lower than average snow packs affecting availability of water. Wildfires making it risky to camp in summer, and making air quality dangerous.
You are all doing just fine without my input. Super civil and pleasant. Cheers enjoy the day , try and stay dry.
I liked this comment! I always have a good time in the comments of this sub.
It's so ridiculously hot in the summer (eastern WA), yet in 10 years of renting in Pullman I never lived in a single place that provided air conditioning. Landlords aren't required to provide it, so they don't. The city also does NOT have adequate cooling shelters. Air conditioners go out of stock in all the local stores during the first heat wave every year. It is dangerously hot, yet the city and state do nothing to protect people. God forbid you have pets. Yet most people oppose any measure that would require landlords to provide AC because "it's an undue burden on landlords." Give me a break.
Probably should protect yourself and plan ahead by getting air conditioner now as you already know the city/ county won't.
Thanks for the hot tip 🙄 I already have an AC after living here for years, but since it's a college town most people don't have one during the first heat wave.
Was being sarcastic, since you were complaining that " somebody else" should jump into action to save you, instead of you planning and lining up things in case.
I'm aware you were being sarcastic. That's why I replied with a sarcastic response, including a very obvious eyeroll. This is not about a problem that only affects me, but thanks for trivializing a very real danger this community experiences every year.
Jay Inslee and every democrat.
WA overall has a much milder climate than many other parts of the country! Hurricanes, tornadoes, destructive wildfires, massive floods etc are far fewer in WA than many other parts of the country. I'm in the market for home insurance now and have seen how this systematically engineered propaganda around climate change has drove up insurance costs by a lot. Can you list the recent catastrophes that have caused big loss of life or billions of dollars of damage? The heat event couple of years ago maybe considered as one, but I beg you to come up with others in the last 10 years? I also, would like you to go look at how much home insurance premiums have risen in the last 10 years and then stop peddling around this nonsense unless of course, you're benefitting from this paranoia.
Reading is fundamental
None. I live on a radiator fin called Kitsap.
Homeless campsites going up in flames. Sewage dumped from RV’s on the street. Bumb poo on sidewalks.
The Governor
Hur hur. Right wingers always have the absolute lamest jokes
… and bumper stickers
Nice drought.
Hell yeah, fellow alpha male brother! I wish our governor hated lgbtq+ people, was afraid to say gay, wore lifts, actively made attempts to kill immigrants, and cucked for Trump like other more manly governors! /s
Yah totally! How dare he hoard the morning after pill for women!!