Currently en Puerto Rico — 27 de septiembre, 2023: Aumentan las lluvias

El miércoles será el día más lluvioso de la semana laboral a medida que una estela de humedad asociada con la muy distante tormenta tropical Phillipe llegará a Puerto Rico, a pesar de que la debilitada tormenta o depresión estaría a cientos de millas de distancia. Esto conducirá a aguaceros dispersos en el este durante la noche y primeras horas de la mañana, seguidos de aguaceros y tronadas vespertinas que serán más fuertes en el interior y suroeste debido a vientos del noreste. Este flujo de viento también contribuirá a calor excesivo en las áreas urbanas y costeras del oeste, noroeste y centro norte de Puerto Rico, aunque también hará calor en el resto de la isla. Un oleaje del noreste también generará peligrosas corrientes de resaca en las playas orientadas al norte y del Atlántico desde el miércoles hasta al menos el viernes.

—John Toohey-Morales

What you need to know, currently.

With drought affecting broad swaths of the Mississippi River valley, river levels have dropped so low that saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico is creeping upriver in the Mississippi itself. At its current rate of progression, the Mississippi will turn too salty for water treatment plants at New Orleans to produce drinking water in just a few weeks.

Since saltwater is more dense than freshwater, the saltwater is actually moving upriver along the riverbed — within the river itself. Federal engineers that maintain the river channel have built a partial dam designed to slow the saltwater’s upstream progression, and increasingly extreme measures will need to be taken once the saltwater reaches New Orleans — like transporting freshwater by barge, and hastily building a water pipeline to the city.

Similar events happened in 1988, 1999, 2012, and again last year — but this one seems especially severe.

As global warming melts ice worldwide, sea level rise will make problems like this worse not just for Louisiana, but all coastal cities worldwide.

— Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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One of my favorite organizations, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, serves as a hub of mutual aid efforts focused on climate action in emergencies — like hurricane season. Find mutual aid network near you and join, or donate to support existing networks: