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Hurricane Idalia Hits the U.S. With Heavy Rain, Strong Winds and a Record-Setting Storm Surge; Architects Using Drones to Map Hot Spots in Our Cities; Herd of Goats Got a Hero`s Welcome in Chicago. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired August 31, 2023 - 04:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up sunshine, Happy Friday Eve. It`s Thursday, August 31st, a great day to be brave, to be better, to believe.

And most importantly, be you to full.

I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. And we start with the latest on Hurricane Idalia. The powerful storm made landfall in Florida yesterday with heavy

rain and winds of 110 miles per hour. It`s the strongest hurricane in at least 125 years to hit Florida`s big bend region of the Gulf coast. This

was the state`s third hurricane in the past 12 months.

Right before it made landfall, Idalia experienced what`s called an extreme, rapid intensification. That`s when winds increased by more than 35 miles

per hour, within a 24-hour span, scientists say that`s becoming more and more common due to warm water temperatures.

Idalia jumped from a Category 1 to a Category 4, the second highest rating on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. It then dropped back to a

Category 3 before hitting land. It pushed water onto shore in a record setting storm surge. It also cut off power to hundreds of thousands of

people. And checked this out, pilots caught this rare footage while evacuating an air base ahead of the storm. That`s not lightning. It`s an

uncommon weather event, an electrical phenomenon known as St. Elmo`s fire.

After the fast-moving storm passed through the recovery and cleanup effort began right away.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are in Pinellas County, just on the other side of Tampa Bay, where there -- there`s still some flooding

concerns for a part of the city. The mayor tells me that they`re still waiting for some of this water to recede, so that officials get a better, a

clearer picture of the kind of damage that they`re dealing with here.

Jerry, if you can show them just up the street from where we are here along the coastline. You can see, one emergency crews out here on a pickup truck.

They`ve been driving up and down a little bit further up the street out here were told some streets up there are pretty blocked off cars really

can`t get in and out of that area.

We are in Gulfport, again, a part of Pinellas County where we expected a lot of this storm search to take hold. It`s what -- it was the one thing

really that emergency officials across the Tampa bay area and Pinellas County were really worried about. They didn`t want folks to be out here

doing exactly what they`re doing at least earlier in the day, because we still were going to have all of this water coming in off -- off the

coastline out here. We`ve had a little bit of rain, although much of that has since cleared.

And so officials really were just telling folks really stay home, stay away from this part of town because we`re still dealing with some significant

flooding. The mayor tells me that a lot of the damage again does seem to have been, more storm surge related than anything else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Ten Second Trivia.

Leonids, Perseids, and Quadrantids are all names of what?

Constellations, Animal orders, Meteor showers or Fields of mathematics?

Shower me with a show of hands if you set meteor showers. These types occur in different parts of the year.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: This fireball lit up the Colorado night sky, as it traveled over the Western U.S. Sidings were also reported

in Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. NASA media watch field of reports of loud booms and shaking in the area caused by shockwaves as the

media disintegrated. They estimate the fireball hurdle through the sky at approximately 41,000 miles per hour, traveling 48 miles in four seconds

before it crumbled above the Keystone forest.

We get questions here all the time about comets asteroids and meteors, meteorites. What`s the difference? Well, let`s start in space and work our

way all the way down to the surface.

A comet is a snowball. It`s a piece of ice. Now, the ice is mainly frozen gas, not water. But there could be dust and rocks and things inside the

comet. Halley`s Comet, now NASA knows of about 3,600 other comets than that one out there. Closer in, in the asteroid belt. These are rocks, not gas.

They could be metal as well, but they are hard surfaces. And sometimes they come out of the asteroid belt, get closer to the surface of the earth, or

at least our atmosphere.

If one or a piece of a smaller one called a meteoroid, hits the surface of the atmosphere, it turns into a meteor. It gets bright because it hits our

atmosphere and begins to burn up. If it doesn`t make its way all the way down to the surface, it turns into a shooting star.

Now, if it does make its way all the way down to the surface of the earth and hits the ground, and you can pick it up, that is a meteorite.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Have you ever heard of urban heat islands? If you live in a big city, you know how hot it can get in the summer, especially with all that

heat radiating up off the concrete and asphalt, that`s called the urban heat island effect. And it was first documented way back in the 1800 by a

meteorologist in London.

Today, we have tools that can help us identify and map these islands, which can be 18 degrees hotter than the areas around them. And that`s important.

So these hot spots can be cooled down. And that`s exactly what the architects in our next story are trying to do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEENAN GIBBONS, LECTURER UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: In one study at the city had temperatures over 150, 160 degrees. We`re cooking vast swabs of our

city well done every single day. Why are we accepting so little? Why are the people here tolerating this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our cities are hot by design, but they don`t have to be that way. Architects Keenan Gibbons and Salvador Lindquist are uncovering

exactly how we`re cooking our cities using specialized tools like this drone.

GIBBONS: I have snap pictures in parallel. So I get a standard photo and then you get an identical thermal one at the exact same time. And it`s

opened up a whole world that just didn`t exist previously.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our cities are hotter than surrounding rural areas. Sometimes 15 to 20 degrees hotter in extreme cases.

SALVADOR LINDQUIST, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN: Heat is amplified due to the different types of materials that you would commonly find in the

city, asphalt, concrete, reflective building services.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the urban heat island effect, governments and organizations use satellites to measure heat distribution on a regional

scale.

LINDQUIST: The problem with that is that satellites can only understand heat at a 30 meter by 30-meter resolution. We`re trying to find ways to

understand the really highly localized impacts of heat.

GIBBONS: And the drone gets you right in there. I mean, you`d know that pavement was hot, but how hot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The drone moves in an automated precalculated path.

GIBBONS: It`s similar to, if you`re a hockey fan, like a Zamboni machine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And takes tons of photos of a street scape.

GIBBONS: About 2400, 2200 photos.

LINDQUIST: Allowing for 3D modeling in thermal comparison.

GIBBONS: It shows this area because it captures an intersection in any city USA. And so this is the urban heat island material palette. The air

temperature on this day was 84 degrees Fahrenheit. Shaded concrete was 89, exposed concrete 110 degrees Fahrenheit. So we`re jumping 20 degrees.

LINDQUIST: The full 30 degrees difference from the surface of the parking lot to the shade immediately behind me.

GIBBONS: But Bitumen Rooftops are measuring upwards of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Beef is considered cooked well done at 160 degrees.

LINDQUIST: Heat is the leading cause of natural disaster related deaths in the United States and likely the world.

GIBBONS: We can build a model from this detailed map and then provide appropriate treatment options, you know, going forward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keenan and Sal hope other architecture firms, companies, and even cities use this toolkit in the future who can then

fight the urban heat island effect with vast tree coverage, lighter pavement and white, or even green roofs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Some cities have trouble mowing grass and hard to reach places, but America`s goat talent have no fear. Your eco-friendly grazers are here. The

city of Chicago goated these goats after they spent two weeks filling up on grassoline, clearing seven acres of hard-to-reach vegetation around power

lines. The city`s celebrated by giving them a driving tour around Chicago. These munching mowers are the greatest of all time helping to prevent

outages caused by overgrown power lines since 2019, not bad, not bad at all.

And some of the other greatest of all time, the students and teachers at Lewis and Clark Middle School in Meridian, Idaho. You get the shout out

today. Make the most of your moments today.

An ancient philosopher once said, we all have two lives. The second begins though, when we realized we have just one. I`m Coy Wire, and I`ll see you

tomorrow.

END