Currently in Chicago — September 27, 2023: Thunderstorms and rain continue

The showers and scattered thunderstorms we saw Tuesday will continue overnight and all through Wednesday, with a high of 68 and a low of 63. With up to an inch of new rainfall over the next 48 hours, keep an eye out for flooding (better yet, be a mensch and use your leaf rake to clear your block’s storm drain). Here’s a little bright spot for a gloomy day: if yesterday’s discussion of Green New Deal projects in schools gave you hope, you should know about Chicago’s Space to Grow program: they’ve transformed paved lots into green areas for over 30 local schools — nominate your neighborhood school!

— Katje Sabin

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:

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