ST. PAUL, Minn. — A number of Twin Cities drivers had their morning commute delayed, due to pigs on the freeway.
Around 8 a.m., a semi hauling a trailer full of pigs overturned in Little Canada, stopping eastbound traffic on Interstate 694. Some of the pigs died, and those that did survive made their way onto the interstate. Luckily, no people were hurt in the crash.
The common reaction from drivers who were heading eastbound on I-694 Friday morning often matched that of Ethan Knox: “Oh wow, really?”
Many knew there was a crash near 35E, but they didn’t know why. Asked if he’d ever been delayed because of livestock on the loose, Knox said, “No, it’s kind of a shock.”
“No, never. First time. I’ve lived here for 27 years,” said another driver.
The Minnesota State Patrol said the semi-trailer full of pigs was the only vehicle involved in the rollover. Unfortunately, some of the pigs died, But those that didn’t had time to roam a small part of I-694.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation’s traffic cameras captured some of the chaos.
“That’s not good,” Uber driver Horatius Thomas said.
Thomas had to take a detour to get around the accident, and due to backed-up traffic, he had to tell someone he was picking up that he was going to be late.
“Yes, I had to do that. And I had to get off because I was just burning gas just being in traffic. Very frustrating,” he said.
The scene was cleared by lunchtime.
The State Patrol said it’s investigating what caused the rollover.
The State Patrol is investigating a single-vehicle rollover crash, involving a semi and trailer (carrying livestock), eastbound 694 to northbound 35E in Little Canada. There are no injuries at this time. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Find an alternative route. pic.twitter.com/I3OYW1qY5b— State Patrol PIO (@MSPPIO) June 9, 2023
Pedestrians walk amid heavy haze from wildfire smoke on the Brooklyn Heights promenade in New York on Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (Photo: The New York Times)
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Written by Somini Sengupta
It’s not officially summer yet in the Northern Hemisphere. But the extremes are already here.
Human-caused climate change is a force behind extremes like these. Although there is no specific research attributing this week’s events to global warming, the science is unequivocal that global warming significantly increases the chances of severe wildfires and heat waves like the ones affecting major parts of North America.
Scientists are also warning that before the end of the year a global weather pattern known as El Niño could arrive, potentially setting new heat records.
Taken together, the week’s extremes offer one clear takeaway: The world’s richest continent remains unprepared for the hazards of the not-too-distant future. A sign of that came Wednesday when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government may soon create a disaster response agency in order to “make sure we’re doing everything we can to predict, protect and act ahead of more of these events coming.”
The recent fires have also punctured the notion that some places are relatively safe from the worst hazards of climate change because they’re not near the equator or they’re far from the sea. Almost without warning, smoke from faraway fires upended daily life.
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So much wildfire smoke pushed through the border that schools in Buffalo, New York, canceled outdoor activities. Detroit was suffocated by a toxic haze. Flights were grounded at airports in the Northeast.
“Wildfires are no longer a problem just for people who live in fire-prone, forested areas,” said Alexandra Paige Fischer, a professor who studies fire adaptation strategies at the University of Michigan.
In the United States, more people are already living with wildfire smoke. A 2022 study by Stanford researchers found that the number of people exposed to toxic pollution from wildfires at least one day a year increased 27-fold between 2006 and 2020.
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The two countries experiencing these extremes, the United States and Canada, are major producers of oil and gas, which, when burned, produce the greenhouse gases that have significantly warmed the Earth’s atmosphere. The average global temperatures today are more than 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than in the preindustrial era.
Park Williams, a geologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, pointed out that eastern Canada and northern Alberta are actually projected to get wetter in the coming years, according to climate models. But that wasn’t the case this year. It was an unusually dry year across much of Canada. Then came the heat.
The boreal forests of western Canada offered ready fuel. The trees and grasses of eastern Canada turned to tinder. “Under warmer temperatures, those dry years will cause things to dry out and become flammable more quickly than they would have otherwise,” Williams said.
By Wednesday, more than 400 fires were burning from west to east in Canada, more than half of them out of control.
Other parts of the world have felt the scorch this year. Vietnam broke a heat record in May, with temperatures soaring past 44 degrees Celsius, or 111 Fahrenheit. China broke heat records in more than 100 weather stations in April. The boreal forests of Siberia are also burning.
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As in the North American boreal forests, climate change is making the Siberian fire season longer and more severe. It has also increased lightning ignitions, said Brendan Rogers, a boreal forest fire expert at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. There are different conditions in different years, to be sure, he said in an email, but “the common denominator is warm / hot and dry conditions that prime the ecosystems for burning.”
Where does all that excess heat in the atmosphere go? Much of it is absorbed by the oceans, which is why ocean temperatures have been steadily rising for the past several decades, reaching records in 2022.
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But this spring, something strange happened. Scientists announced with uncharacteristic alarm that ocean temperatures were the hottest they had been in 40 years.
Scientists haven’t settled on a reason, though some say that increase could signal the coming of El Niño. That weather pattern, which typically lasts several years, brings heat up to the surface of the eastern Pacific Ocean. We have been living with its cooler cousin, La Niña, for the past few years.
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Jeff Berardelli, a meteorologist at WFLA, a television station in Tampa Bay, Florida, warned on Twitter of the double punch of El Niño in a world already warming because of climate change. “We should expect a stunning year of global extremes,” he wrote.
Puerto Rico was feeling it already this week, with record temperatures and high humidity that brought the heat index to 125 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 52 degrees Celsius) in parts of the island.
Puerto Rico endured temperatures that felt as hot as125degrees Fahrenheit this week, according to the National Weather Service, as the U.S. territory experiencesexcessive heat conditionsthat will continue for another week.
The tropical island already experienced record-breaking minimum and maximum temperatures for this time of year onMondayandTuesday, when it jumped to 95 degrees. But theheat index, which measures how temperatures feel like to the human body,surpassed 120degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday in parts of Puerto Rico, evenpeaking to 125in the northern towns.
High temperatures in Puerto Rico and surrounding islands on June 7, 2023. (NOAA)
The combination of a low-pressure system near Florida and a high-pressure system just east of Puerto Rico has essentially formed a “heat dome” that has remained stuck in the…
Experts ona research expedition estimate they saw from 10 to 13 of the tiny, shy, elusive porpoises during nearly two weeks of sailing in the gulf last month.
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June 8, 2023, 1:43 AM PDT/Source:Associated Press
ByThe Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — Against all odds, the remaining handful of Mexico’s endangeredvaquita porpoisesare holding on in their only habitat in the Gulf of California, according to a new research expedition report released Wednesday.
Experts onthe expeditionestimate they saw from 10 to 13 of the tiny, shy, elusive porpoises during nearly two weeks of sailing in the gulf last month.
That is a similar number to those seen in the last such expedition in 2021. Because they are so small and elusive, many of the sightings through powerful binoculars are categorized as probable or likely. The…
The Global Technology Leadership Act comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other members of Congress have made addressing artificial intelligence a key target.
The Global Technology Leadership Act would establish an office to analyze how competitive the country is in critical technologies like AI in comparison to rivals such as China.Al Drago / Bloomberg via Getty Images
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June 8, 2023, 4:00 AM PDT
ByLiz Brown-Kaiser
WASHINGTON —A bipartisan group of senators will introduce legislation on Thursday aimed at managing the rise of artificial intelligence and its use by U.S. adversaries.
The new bill comes as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has vowed to make addressing AI a priority and members of both parties areeyeing Big Tech, andAI in particular, as key focuses for this Congress.
DUGGER, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – Lonnie Bedwell enjoys the warmth of an 80-plus degree day outside his home in Dugger.
“I’ll take this, yeah, big time,” Lonnie Bedwell laughed.
Lonnie Bedwell climbing Mt. Everest. Photo Courtesy: Bryan Hill
The blind Sullivan County veteran spent more than a month climbing to the top of the world’s tallest peak, Mt. Everest. Temperatures on Everest remain below freezing and often are in negative numbers. Just one of the potentially deadly encounters climbers face.
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“Here were these guys carrying this one lady,” Bedwell said. “She didn’t know where she was at. She was limp, incoherent.”Bedwell trains to climb Mt. Everest
And while Bedwell is an experienced climber, he says there were still times he wanted to turn around, but did not share those thoughts with…
Early morning hikers rest before walking down Piestewa Peak, a city park in Phoenix, Ariz. El Niño drives even hotter, drier weather in the Southwest United States, on top of growing heat risk from human-caused climate change.
Ryan Kellman/NPR
El Niño is officially here, and that means things are about to get even hotter. The natural climate phenomenon is marked by warmer ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific, which drives hotter weather around the world.
“[El Niño] could lead to new records for temperatures,” says Michelle L’Heureux, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.
The hottest years on recordtend to happen during El Niño. It’s one of the most obvious ways that El Niño, which is a natural climate pattern, exacerbates the effects of climate change, which is caused by humans burning fossil fuels…
Two people at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming harassed a bison calf, the National Park Service said Thursday.
They were seen approaching and touching the baby bison at the southern end of Elk Ranch Flats on Sunday around 1 p.m., officials said. Interaction with people can cause wildlife to reject their children.
“In this case, fortunately, the calf was successfully reunited with its herd, but often these interactions result in euthanizing the animal,” authorities said. “Approaching wildlife can drastically affect their well-being and survival.”
The National Park Service says two people harassed a bison calf at Grand Teton National Park. / Credit: National Park Service
In a recent incident at Yellowstone National Park, a bison calf needed to be euthanized after a man disturbed it. The bison had been separated from its mother on May 20 when a herd crossed a river. A park visitor spotted the struggling calf and pushed it onto the roadway. Park rangers failed to reunite the bison with the herd. Officials euthanized the calf because it had been abandoned and was causing a hazardous situation.
In another incident, tourists picked up a baby elk and put it in their car at Yellowstone over Memorial Day weekend. They drove the newborn elk to West Yellowstone, Montana, Police Department, park officials said. The calf “later ran off into the forest” and its condition was unknown.
The National Park Service has urged visitors to stay away from animals.
“It’s important to view wildlife safely, responsibly and ethically. Treat all wildlife with caution and respect as they are wild, unpredictable and can be dangerous,” officials said in a Thursday news release. “The safety of visitors and wildlife depends on everyone playing a critical role in being a steward for wildlife by giving them the space they need to thrive – their lives depend on it.”
Park officials have asked visitors to follow guidelines around animals to prevent future problems. They suggest all visitors stay at least 25 yards away from most wildlife, including bison, elk and deer. Visitors are required to remain at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves.
It’s illegal to feed, touch, tease, frighten or intentionally disturb wildlife at National Parks. In the case of the bison that was euthanized, the park visitor pleaded guilty to one count of feeding, touching, teasing, frightening or intentionally disturbing wildlife. The visitor was ordered to pay a $500 fine, along with a $500 community service payment to Yellowstone Forever Wildlife Protection Fund, a $30 special assessment and a $10 processing fee, the park service said.
Oregon’s snowpack has gone from above average to below average across most of the state
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Like water melting from a frozen peak and running into a stream, Oregon’s snowpack has been sliding downhill for the past several weeks.
The Willamette region had snowpack levels at or above 189% of median levels on April 10, 2023.The Umatilla/Walla Walla/Willow region was at 155% of median levels.
Ukrainian service members of the 55th Separate Artillery Brigade fire a Caesar self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 31, 2023.Viacheslav Ratynskyi/ReutersCNN—
Ukrainian forces have suffered losses in heavy equipment and soldiers as they met greater than expected resistance from Russian forces in their first attempt to breach Russian lines in theeast of the countryin recent days, two senior US officials tell CNN.
One US official described the losses – which include US supplied MRAP armored personnel vehicles as “significant.”
Ukrainian forces managed to overrun some Russian forces in the east around Bakhmut. However, Russian forces, armed with anti-tank missiles, grenades and mortars, have put up “stiff resistance,” with their forces dug into defensive lines that are several…
Pedestrians walk amid heavy haze from wildfire smoke on the Brooklyn Heights promenade in New York on Wednesday, June 7, 2023. (Photo: The New York Times)
