Important Takeaways:
- The New Jersey Forest Fire Service says exactly 2,283 acres burned in New Jersey and 5,000 acres scorched across state lines into New York.
- The weather is playing a major role in the fight to contain the wildfire. The Forest Fire Service says they grounded helicopters dumping water because of the wind. The rocky, hilly and forested terrain are adding to the difficulty. But this cold weather they say, actually helps.
- “As the temperatures drop humidity will come up a little bit more thus allowing the fuels to absorb a little bit the ambient moisture in the air thus allowing them to moisten a little bit and slow down fire progression,” said Christopher Franek from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service.
- This is still a coordinated effort. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul says this is the largest wildfire to affect New York state since 2008. She’s deployed the National Guard to help.
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Important Takeaways:
- Firefighters in California gained a foothold in the battle against a wildfire north of Los Angeles while weather officials on Tuesday issued red flag warnings across the Northeast where blazes turned deadly over the weekend.
- The Mountain Fire in California’s Ventura County burned 20,630 acres of land as of Tuesday, an amount it has held near for several days after 80 mph winds fueled its explosive growth last week. As winds slowed, firefighters managed to bring the containment level to 42%, allowing officials to downgrade several evacuation orders. The fire has torched nearly 200 homes and businesses, injured six people and threatened thousands of structures.
- In the Northeast, weather officials issued red flag warnings from New Jersey to Massachusetts after a bout of modest weekend rainfall failed to douse the region’s wildfire threat.
- The rain helped firefighters gain some control over the Jennings Creek wildfire along the New Jersey-New York border, which has engulfed 3,500 acres and was 20% contained by Monday night. In anticipation of Tuesday’s winds and dry conditions, fire officials fortified control lines along the blaze’s east side.
- Some 82 brush fires were being monitored across Connecticut…
- Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont declared a Stage 2 drought advisory for all eight counties in Connecticut over the weekend, citing “far below normal precipitation levels and ongoing fire danger levels statewide,” according to a statement from his office.
- In Massachusetts, officials said firefighters were battling dozens of wildfires throughout the state. In October, the state’s Department of Fire Service recorded 200 wildland fires, a 1,200% increase from the month’s average total of 15 fires.
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Important Takeaways:
- The National Weather Service’s Boston/Norton office said in its weekend forecast discussion that there is an “elevated fire weather risk” because of dry weather.
- “Dry conditions will continue this weekend with increasing winds, which will lead to renewed elevated fire weather risk,” the forecast said.
- Fire weather outlooks issued by the NWS are intended to indicate areas where forecast weather conditions “will result in a significant threat for the ignition and/or spread of wildfires,” according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. An elevated risk is based on wind and relative humidity.
- The wildfire risk in Massachusetts this weekend is elevated, not critical, so it is not an urgent risk to residents. However, there are still ways to stay safe in the event of an elevated fire risk.
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Important Takeaways:
- Multiple wildfires are sweeping across the prairies and badlands of western North Dakota, leaving devastation in their wake.
- Two people have died, and eight have been injured. The Williams County Sheriff’s Office reported that Johannes Nicolaas Van Eden, 26, a ranch hand in the Tioga area, was killed in the fires. Edgar Coppersmith, 47, of Tioga, also died from injuries sustained in the fires. Driven by high winds and dry conditions, the fires have burned through more than 120,000 acres.
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Important Takeaways:
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy issued a Drought Watch on Thursday and urged residents and business to conserve water as dry conditions continue.
- Firefighters across the Northeast have been busy working to extinguish wildfires that erupted in Connecticut and New Jersey over the past several days as abnormally dry conditions persist in the region.
- “The lack of measurable rain is translating into dangerous fire concerns across the Northeast,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Marissa Torres said.
- The FOX Forecast Center said dry brush is largely to blame for allowing the fires to spread. However, winds and low relative humidity are also helping to fuel the flames.
- “Parts of Connecticut are reporting less than a half-inch of rain so far this month,” Torres continued. “No rain, as we mentioned, is expected this week.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Wildfires in Brazil’s southern Sao Paulo state have killed at least two people, officials said Saturday. At least 36 cities have been put on high alert.
- The fires have raged in the region outside the city of Sao Paulo, one of Latin America’s most populous cities with more than 11 million residents.
- At least 7,300 government workers and volunteers had been deployed across the state to “contain the advance and put out these fires,” de Freitas told journalists. De Freitas warned that the flames, spurred on by a heat wave and a drought, may be fanned by strong winds.
- The region has been plagued with the worst wildfires in decades, according to local news organization Folha de S.Paulo, which counted 4,973 fires in the region just this year.
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Important Takeaways:
- Wildfires raged across western Turkey for a third straight day Saturday, exacerbated by high winds and warm temperatures, authorities said.
- More than 130 fires have erupted across the country in the past week, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate. Most have been brought under control, but eight major fires continued in a number of provinces including Izmir, Aydin, Manisa, Karabuk and Bolu.
- Thousands of firefighters were tackling the blazes on land and from the air, with dozens of aircraft and hundreds of vehicles aiding in the emergency response.
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Important Takeaways:
- The nation’s disaster agency is being stretched to the limit by a spate of storms and wildfires so far in 2024, and the busiest time of year for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is just beginning.
- FEMA issued 100 disaster and emergency declarations — for 58 severe storms and flooding events and 42 fires — through the first week of August, according to the agency’s database. That is nearly as many as all of last year (114) and well past the 90 declarations of disasters and fire emergencies the agency issued in 2022.
- It is still short of the all-time high of 315 declarations issued by FEMA in 2020, but with the expected active hurricane season ahead and the threat of wildfires continuing in the West, that record isn’t out of reach.
- The flurry of emergency responses comes as FEMA shifts into what is known as “immediate needs funding” mode, in which new obligations not necessary for lifesaving and life-sustaining activities will be paused, the agency announced on Aug. 7.
- And last week the Department of Energy announced it will invest $2.2 billion in projects to make the electrical grid more resilient.
- Meantime, FEMA officials are anxiously waiting for Congress to return in September and consider providing additional disaster aid, including $9 billion for FEMA that was part of an administration request last October.
- FEMA has said the deficit in its disaster relief fund could reach $6 billion by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
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Important Takeaways:
- Thick grey smoke engulfed Mount Pentelicus that dominates Athens on Monday as the Greek capital battled the infernal fallout from what promises to be its hottest summer on record.
- A 30-kilometre (20-mile) long line of fires was moving towards Athens, reports said, and one has already engulfed the mountain, also known as Mount Pentelikon, famed for the marble used in the Acropolis and other ancient buildings in Athens.
- The nearby historic town of Marathon has also been ordered evacuated.
- Brick homes on roads leading out of Marathon had huge black stains up the sides of their walls left by the flames. Their roofs had been turned to cinders.
- “It’s a catastrophe,” said Marathon social worker Maria Kanavaki. “It’s all burnt. There is a fear what will happen. This summer was the hottest. And the water — will we have enough water?” the 55-year-old told AFP.
- Greek authorities have thrown hundreds of firefighters with trucks and water carrying aircraft into what has become an annual battle as global temperatures soar.
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Important Takeaways:
- With much of the country in the grip of a heat wave that is set to break daily temperature records and make conditions dangerously hot during the holiday weekend, a large and uncontained blaze near Yosemite National Park has triggered evacuations and forced hospital patients to shelter in place.
- Evacuations ordered as new California wildfire ignites in scorching heat wave
- Meteorologists warned earlier this week that the holiday period could be hit by a dual threat of dangerously high heat and wildfires.
- Almost the entire town of Mariposa was under a mandatory evacuation order, with a large area to the east under an evacuation warning.
- In Northern California the much larger Thompson Fire continues to rage across Butte County, where it has burned through almost 3,800 acres and is 46% contained as of Friday morning.
- Many Fourth of July celebrations were canceled across California on Thursday as temperatures soared past the 100 degree mark, while places reached 110.
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