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8/17/2024
WT Staff
 August 17, 2024 427 pm EDT
NWS Urgent Weather Message - dangerously hot, heat index to 112 until 7 pm tonight
URGENT Weather Message issued 123 pm August 17 by NWS New Orleans
EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING IN EFFECT until 7 PM CDT tonight, and again Sunday August 18
Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 112, Excessive hot conditions tomorrow, heat index to 120 expected for portions of southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi.
Heat related illnesses increase significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events.
Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of
the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Heat stroke is an emergency, call 9-1-1
Impacting Pointe Coupee-West Feliciana-East Feliciana-St. Helena-Washington-
Iberville-West Baton Rouge-East Baton Rouge-Assumption-St. James-
St. John The Baptist-Upper Lafourche-St. Charles-Upper St.
Bernard-Upper Terrebonne-Lower Terrebonne-Lower Lafourche-Coastal
Jefferson Parish-Lower Plaquemines-Lower St. Bernard-Northern
Tangipahoa-Southeast St. Tammany-Western Orleans-Eastern Orleans-
Northern St. Tammany-Southwestern St. Tammany-Central Tangipahoa-
Lower Tangipahoa-Northern Livingston-Southern Livingston-Western
Ascension-Eastern Ascension-Upper Jefferson-Lower Jefferson-Upper
Plaquemines-Central Plaquemines Parishes
Madison Parish DO NOT USE order issued for customers of Walnut Bayou Water Association
DO NOT USE order issued Thursday by Louisiana Department of Health for Walnut Bayou water customers following a water line break on Highway 603 near Verhagen Road. According to the LDH press statement of August 15, "The exposure occurred as a farmer was filling a tank and the low pressure in the water line created a backflow of chemicals from the tank. Some customers have reported a strong chemical smell and taste in tap water following the exposure." Paraquat is a toxin used as a herbicide, is absorbed through skin contact, hence the DO NOT USE order. This water must not be used for bathing or handwashing, let alone for drinking, preparing food or beverages or brushing teeth. Note this contamination is not resolved by boiling the water, the toxin is concentrated, made worse by boiling. Do not use.
Bottled water has been made available to area residents at the Walnut Bayou Water Association Office at 1105 Highway 602, Tallulah. Madison Parish officials are coordinating personal water delivery for those who can’t get to the pick up site. For additional support, staff can be reached at 318-574-2463. You may also reach the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office at 318-574-1833 to request water delivery.
WT HAB Tracker
from the satellite monitoring program of the NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science(NCCOS) and State sources where available
Louisiana: The latest upload from the NCCOS was captured August 16 at wind speed 7 mph. This image is clear, showing Lac des Allemands and Bayou Fortier at a new high concentration, 4 to 5 million inside the west bay shoreline and Bayou Fortier north shore. Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas are partially cloud obscured, no HAB visible. Check out the latest satellite image from NCCOS here.
Lake Erie west basin
The latest image from NCCOS was captured August 16 at wind speed 14.6, completely cloud obscured. A prior image captured Aug 15 offers a view of the southwest water between clouds. This visible part of the HAB presents with concentration 1 million cells around the North Maumee Bay to 600 thousand cells per 100 ml north of Monroe. The Aug 14 image is clear and taken at a lower wind speed, revealing the full extent of the HAB with extreme high concentration hot spots up to 6 million cells per 100 ml, see the satellite image here.
Georgia: from Coastal Health Region
No new information has been found pertaining to bluegreen algae reports in Georgia since our last update. Georgia Environmental Protection Division has not responded to our last inquiries on bluegreen, we had no response by publication time. GA EPD does accept reports from the public of suspicious algal blooms. Given the prevalence of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins all over North America, it is likely that there are HABs in Georgia as well, these may be under-reported. We encourage anyone with an observation of a suspicious algal bloom to send us an email info@wtga.us.
New York
The latest image of Lake Champlain was captured August 16, a mostly cloud obscured image at unknown wind speed. A previous image August 14 is a clear view of northeast Baie Missisquoi appears full of bluegreen algae at extreme high concentration 1 to 3 million cells per 100 ml on both sides of the international border. This bloom reaches south as far as the channel from North Hero Island to Isle la Motte, the south portion of the bloom at 900 thousand cells per 100 ml. St Albans Bay HAB is partially cloud obscured, we see the inner shoreline edge at 1 million cells per 100 ml. Lake Carmi appears clear with no HAB activity; Shelburne Pond is still rocking 2 million cells concentration in Vermont. See our latest report here.
From the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation: 168 active bluegreen algal blooms are confirmed in New York Saturday afternoon, up from 163 yesterday. First HABs of the season have been confirmed for Hemlock Lake, Barnum Pond and Lake Tonetta, to date 497 HABs have been archived in 2024, including all reports made prior to August 4. See the impacted water bodies list here.
California: WTCAL connected with Director of EPA for Big Valley Pomo Tribe for an update on Clear Lake. Sarah Ryan has been heading up the cyanotoxin surveillance program at Clear Lake, a popular tourist destination north of San Francisco. Big Valley EPA has been engaged in monitoring for the bluegreen algae, communicating observations with the local population and tourists, communicating with California Water Quality Monitoring Board and directly to the public for more than a decade.
During this time, Big Valley has been investing in regular lab testing for cyanotoxins, acquiring an astute understanding of their water body, including the resident cyanobacteria present at any given time, along with the most critical factor, the levels of various cyanotoxins present. Big Valley tests for specific liver toxins and neurotoxins based on first geno-typing the bloom itself. Access to regular toxin surveillance in Clear Lake makes this one of a very small number of sites for which we can match a visual HAB observation with a toxin level. This work is in progress, more to follow.
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