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2025 Los Angeles Wildfires: is the worst still to come?

During a field trip, some colleagues from UC Berkeley watched the Palisades Fire getting started
yesterday morning around 10:30am (Photo: Palisades fire viewed from Sepulveda dam, Los Angeles on
January 07, 2025 / Matt Kondolf...Read more about 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires: is the worst still to come?

It’s been an honor to participate in the 35th Meeting of the EU Common Implementation Strategy’s Working Group on Floods. During two days in Brussels we learned about the recent floods in Europe, gaining insights on what happened and why, and that this occurrence will not be unique in coming...Read more about 35th Meeting of the EU Working Group on Floods

Following Hurricane Helene and now in the midst of Hurricane Milton, the New York Times has posted several articles that point to the limits on U.S. capacity to respond to multiple disasters.

On October 7th, the Times reported that only 9% of...Read more about U.S. Disaster Response Capacity

UC Berkeley's Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research recently sponsored an Interdisciplinary Climate & Equity Seed Grant program to "support the formation of interdisciplinary teams to prepare for external funding opportunities to advance innovative and...Read more about CCRM Members Receive Grant for Flood Risk Management Project

A New York Times article ("Fighting Fire with Fire in California") investigates how prescribed fires can reduce fire risks in the state of California. By burning off excess fuel built up over decades, "beneficial fires" can reduce the size and intensity of wildfires.

However...Read more about Prescribed Burns Reduce Fire Risk

A New York Times article ("Extreme Weather is Increasing Risk of Collapse for U.S. Bridges,") writes that extreme weather is putting U.S. bridges under greater pressure, with extreme heat and increased flooding adding stress to bridges already at risk due to aging. These bridges, the...Read more about U.S. Bridges and Extreme Weather

CCRM is pleased to announce that we have receive a planning grant from the National Science Foundation under the Centers for Research and Innovation in Science, the Environment and Society (CRISES) Program.

The CCRM project is entitled Catastrophic Risk and System-Scale...Read more about CCRM Receives NSF CRISES Planning Grant

The New York Times writes today about the challenges of collecting data on heat deaths ("Heat Kills, but It's Hard to Say How Many"). Accurate data is important for targeting preventive measures, but reliable data is not easily obtained. Essentially, the problem is that heat can exacerbate other...Read more about Heat Deaths can be Hard to Determine

The New York Times reports today on a recent simulation study that reevaluates the speed of melting and collapse of Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier ("New Study Re-evaluations 'Worst Case' Scenario for Antarctica's Thwaites Glacer"). Estimates depend on how melting exposes unstable ice...Read more about Antarctica's Ice Sheet and Sea Level Rise

According to an article by the New York Times ("'Window is Closing' to Halt the Outbreak of Bird Flu"), H5N1 infections have been reported in nearly 200 cattle herds in 13 U.S. states. Genetic studies indicate that this outbreak resulted from a "spillover of the virus from birds into...Read more about Concerns about Bird Flu in U.S. Cattle

A recent article in PLOS Climate calls for the development of a global early warning system for extreme heat. The paper notes that one of the chief barriers to developing such a system is that there is not currently an agreed upon definition of extreme heat. Such a definition is difficult to...Read more about Early Warning Systems for Extreme Heat

The Park Fire north of Chico, California, has burned 428,744 acres as of August 9, according to Cal Fire. (https...Read more about The Park Fire: Northern California

A recent article in the journal Nature reports that "Coral Sea heat extremes in 2024, 2017 and 2020 (in order of descending mean SST anomalies) were the warmest in 400 years..," causing "mass coral bleachings." These extreme temperatures pose an "existential threat" to the Great Barrier...Read more about The Great Barrier Reef and High Surface Temps

In "Experiment Traces Bird Flu Spread in Cows to Milking Machines", New York Times author Carl Zimmer reviews recent research on how bird flu spreads in dairy herds. Prior research has indicated that the virus is not spread as a respiratory infection. Instead, new, and as yet...Read more about Research Suggests Bird Flu Spreads Via Milking Machines

In the New York Times, Joseph Goldstein investigates New York City's preparations for a potential bird flu outbreak. While the H5N1 virus has not been found to spread between people, it has been found in dairy cattle (though not in New York). Although the article suggests that H5N1 is...Read more about Preparing for Bird Flu

in "Aging Dams Decay Storms Increase Danger," New York Times writer Mitch Smith discusses some of the broader challenges exemplified by the near failure of the Rapidan Dam in southern Minnesota, which occurred as the result of recent near-record flooding on the Blue Earth River.

...Read more about Aging Dams and Flooding

The New York Times continues its coverage of heat waves around the world.

In "Failing to Heed Threat of Heat," Damien Cave and Somini Sengupta write that there is a "dangerous cultural lag" as heat rises. Referring to recent heat-related deaths in Saudi Arabia and India, the...Read more about More on Heat Waves

As reported by Erich Wagner in Government Executive ("Senate Bill Aims to Streamline How Agencies Respond to Wildfires"), two bipartisan bills addressing wildfire risks are advancing in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Both bills are responses to...Read more about Wildfire Bills Advance in Congress

Rachel Nuwer, in the New York Times ("In a Surprise, Monkeys React To a Disaster By Being Nicer") reports on a recently published study of primate behavioral change after a disaster. The disaster was Hurricane Maria, a category 5 hurricane that devasted the northeastern Caribbean,...Read more about Primate Cooperation After Disaster

The New York Times continues its coverage of heat waves around the world.

An article by Soomini Sengupta ("Well Beyond the U.S., Heat and Climate Extremes Hit Billions"), reports on an estimate by the World Metreological Organization that 489,000 people have died of extreme heat...Read more about Heat Waves Continued