Important Takeaways:
- California is hit by ‘dangerously high temperatures’ of up to 117F as 13,000 are evacuated from fierce wildfires and 90million are under heat alert across country
- California is sweltering under ‘dangerously high temperatures’, with the mercury set to rise to 117F and thousands of people evacuated as raging wildfires grip the state.
- The severe heat is only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people placed under heat alerts across the country.
- The torrid conditions have been caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.
- California’s capital, Sacramento, is under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 105 degrees and 115 degrees (40.5 and 46.1 Celsius). Meanwhile, Palm Springs is set to see 117F.
- The heatwave has created perfect conditions for wildfires, with red flag fire warnings issued across the state, with pictures showing the blazes tearing through forests and homes leaving a trail of destruction.
- About 70 miles (113km) north of Sacramento, crews have been working in scorching conditions to battling a wildfire in Butte County that forced the evacuation of about 13,000 people in and around Oroville.
- The blaze, dubbed the Thompson Fire, broke out before noon yesterday and sent up a huge plume of smoke as it swiftly grew to more than 3 square miles (7.7 square kilometers) by evening, with zero containment.
- Firefighters lined roads, trying to keep the flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on the fast-moving blaze.
- California has had a spate of spring and early summer wildfires feeding on abundant grasses spawned by back-to-back wet winters. The largest current blaze, dubbed the Basin Fire, was 17% contained after charring more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County since it was sparked June 26.
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Important Takeaways:
- The so-called Darlene 3 fire broke out in central Oregon on Tuesday and burned more than 2,415 acres by Wednesday morning, prompting officials in the rural city of La Pine – population 2,500 – to issue evacuation orders and warnings
- As of Thursday morning, the east side of town and surrounding areas were under a level three evacuation order, the highest level, while residents in the central and west sides were asked to prepare to flee their homes.
- Officials have contained the fire by 30% as “fire activity picked up” on Wednesday.
- To the north, firefighters made headway against the Long Bend fire, which erupted in central Oregon on Saturday and, as of Wednesday, burned more than 1,000 acres
- The blaze knocked out power to homes and temporarily closed a portion of the Wapinitia Creek
- In New Mexico, firefighters gained momentum in the battle against two blazes that have forced thousands from their homes and killed at least two people.
- The South Fork and Salt fires have scorched 17,569 and 7,939 acres of land, respectively. They broke out on June 17 and have damaged over 23,000 structures and displaced about 8,000 people.
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Important Takeaways:
- Phoenix and Las Vegas are among the cities that will experience blazing heat in the West this week — and the widespread hot and dry conditions will escalate the wildfire threat across the region.
- The combination of a bulge in the jet stream, high pressure building at most levels of the atmosphere and a storm offshore of California will allow the heat to build without any shower or thunderstorm activity for about 50 million people in the West.
- “Sacramento, California, will challenge the daily record high temperature of 103 F by Tuesday, with a current forecast that would match the record set in 1935,”
- Farther south, in Fresno, California, temperatures are projected to be around 105 F
- In Las Vegas, temperatures are forecast to hit 108 on Wednesday, 111 on Thursday and 110 on Friday.
- Temperatures are forecast to reach at least 110 degrees in Phoenix from Wednesday to Friday.
- According to the United States Drought Monitor, more extensive and deeper soil drought conditions are expanding over parts of the interior Southwest, especially in New Mexico and parts of West Texas.
- Recent heavy rain in much of the Northwest will keep the risk of wildfires low in the short term.
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Important Takeaways:
- Texas wildfires map: Track latest locations of blazes as dry weather, wind poses threat
- Texas wildfires have been burning for 5 days
- The wildfires were ignited in the panhandle on Monday Feb. 26. The flames continued to spread throughout the state as dry, warm and windy weather conditions created obstacles for rescue crews to contain the fire.
- The Smokehouse Creek Fire, about 60 miles northeast of Amarillo, is the largest reported fire in state’s history and has burned over a million acres of land.
- Where are the Texas wildfires?
- 687 Reamer — Hutchinson County, 2,000 acres, 10% contained
- Grape Vine Creek — Gray County, 30,000 acres, 60% contained
- Magenta — Oldham County, 3,297 acres, 85% contained
- Smokehouse Creek — Hutchinson County, 1,078,086 acres, 60% contained
- Windy Deuce — Moore County, 142,000 acres, 60% contained
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Important Takeaways:
- State of Emergency declared in Virginia amid wildfires: ‘Additional resources are required to contain these fires’
- Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently declared a state of emergency as two wildfires broke containment lines earlier in November amid dry conditions and high winds, the Guardian reported, and the fires have continued spreading, with a Newsweek report covering recent updates with a map.
- As firefighters responded to the original Quaker Run fire in Madison County and the Tuggles Gap fire in Patrick County, “officials said additional resources [were] required to contain these fires and respond to additional fires,” per a press release. Youngkin’s declaration of a state of emergency allows the mobilization of additional resources, staff, and equipment.
- “This executive order will ensure that the Commonwealth has additional resources and is using every tool at its disposal to keep Virginians safe,” Youngkin said in a press release. “Thank you to our first responders who are doing everything they can to help contain these wildfires in the Commonwealth during this year’s fall fire season.”
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Important Takeaways:
- The US has suffered a record 23-billion-dollar climate disasters so far this year costing an eye-watering $57.6 BILLION – as tornadoes, wildfires and flooding ravaged the nation
- Hundreds of Americans have died due to climate catastrophes in 2023, which has already smashed records for the highest number of billion-dollar disasters incurred in a single year.
- The National Center for Environmental Information has released eye-watering figures on the human and financial cost of recent weather events after Hurricane Idalia and the horrific Maui wildfires tipped the scales this year.
- With four months still to go, the US has been struck by 23 disasters which came at a loss of at least $1 billion each – eclipsing the previous annual record of 22 events with a 10-figure price-tag in 2022.
- Some 253 people perished in climate catastrophes this year, which have incurred a financial toll of $57.6 billion – and this expense doesn’t yet include Hurricane Idalia.
- Adam Smith, the NOAA applied climatologist and economist said ‘I would not expect things to slow down anytime soon’
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Important Takeaways:
- The indiscriminate devastation of Canada’s raging wildfires
- There have been more than 1,000 wildfires across Canada in the last week – a record number.
- The biggest fires may have been tamed, but there is still a significant threat as new seats of fire start up at various places in the tinder-dry forest.
- The helicopters flew and dropped water virtually from dawn till dusk and were back again the next day.
- This crisis has undoubtedly strengthened the bond between the fire crews and a grateful public, who gather at fire houses in Kelowna to cheer home the firemen and firewomen after another exhausting day in the forest.
- “There were times when our staff were surrounded on all sides by fire,” says the chief. “They would not say they were ‘trapped’ but there’s no question it’s been dangerous. We saw dramatic fire behavior, with winds ripping up trees by their roots and laying them down like toothpicks.”
- Most alarmingly, Chief Brolund wonders about how his relatively small department can cope with an ever-expanding fire season. Normally the team would be dealing with a relatively small number of blazes in July and August. Now, he says, they can be fighting wildfires from March to November.
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Important Takeaways:
- California Digging From Mud Left By Tropical Storm Hilary
- While northern Californians fight wildfires, southern Californians are recovering—particularly those in the drier parts of the Golden State—after receiving heavy rainfall from their first tropical storm in more than 80 years.
- Damaged roads and mud-deep vehicles ill Californians after Tropical Storm Hilary and its remnants dropped several inches of rain to areas that are typically dry.
- The damage across southern California after the storm’s passage has caused road closures and power outages and pushed community clean-up efforts.
- Riverside County—where Cathedral City and Desert Hot Springs are located—saw about 1.5 inches of rain recently, causing I-10 freeway flooding and excessive damage that prompted the county’s chief executive to proclaim a local emergency.
- Palm Springs International Airport recorded 3.23 inches of rain in flooding unseen in the area since 2019, the National Weather Service says.
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Important Takeaways:
- California officials respond to Tropical Storm Hilary, an Ojai quake and wildfires
- California received a one-two punch from Mother Nature as Tropical Storm Hilary unleashed torrential record rains and flooding across Southern California, and an earthquake struck near Ojai — all during what has historically been the state’s wildfire season. The wild weekend prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom to head south, declaring a storm state of emergency even before crews began struggling to respond across a wide swath of the state.
- The storm is the “wettest tropical cyclone in state history” according to Newsom’s office, and the first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years. The National Weather Service issued what it termed “life threatening” flash flood and tornado warnings, the Navy pulled its ships out of San Diego’s harbor, Death Valley National Park shut down, and public schools in Los Angeles and San Diego announced they would close today, with plans to resume classes tomorrow.
- Newsom: “There’s an old ancient curse that loosely is translated to, ‘May you live in interesting times.’ It’s certainly interesting times — tornadoes, lightning strikes, I’ve got CalFire worried about wildfires…. I walked out of the Office of Emergency Services in San Bernardino, check my phone and learned about an earthquake.”
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Important Takeaways:
- More than 20,000 Canadians have been ordered to flee their homes amid ‘out of control’ wildfires that now threaten to cut off access to the only highway out of the affected city.
- Thousands evacuated Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories, on Thursday as wildfires burned across the region, forcing convoys of vehicles to snake south to safety on the only open highway.
- Evacuation flights also took off from the local airport in the latest chapter in a terrible summer for wildfires in Canada – the worst fire season on record. Residents of the regional capital have been given until noon Friday to leave.
- Northwest winds over the next two days will send the fire ‘in directions we don’t want,’ said Mike Westwick, Northwest Territories’ fire information officer.
- Across the wider territory, 6,800 people in eight other communities were also forced to evacuate their homes, including the small community of Enterprise, which was largely destroyed
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