LOS ANGELES — Authorities in Western countries are warning of the risk of wildfires due to hot conditions and low humidity that dry up the landscape amid an ongoing heat wave that is expected to make much of the US again Thursday.
California’s top fire official said Wednesday that so far this year the state has responded to more than 3,500 wildfires that have burned nearly 325 square miles (842 square kilometers) of vegetation — five times the average burned through July 10 in each of the past five years. . .
“We’re not just in fire season, but we’re in a fire year,” Joe Tyler, director of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said at a news conference. “Our winds and the current heat wave have exacerbated the problem, consuming thousands of acres. So we have to be extra careful.”
California crews working in scorching temperatures and single-digit humidity battled at least 19 wildfires on Wednesday, including a 45-square-mile (117-square-kilometer) blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the Santa Barbara mountains. County northwest of Los Angeles. The fire was fueled by dry brush and grass.
Several wildfires are also burning in Oregon, including one about 111 miles (178 kilometers) east of Portland that grew to 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) Wednesday due to hot temperatures, strong winds and low humidity, according to state fire officials. .
Oregon Governor Tina Kotek issued an emergency authorization that allows additional resources to be deployed to fight the fires as the state sees record high temperatures. Portland reached 103 F (39.4 C) and Salem and Eugene reached 105 F (40.5 C) on Tuesday. The number of heat-related deaths in Oregon has risen to 10, according to the state medical examiner’s office.
More than 142 million people across the U.S. were under heat alerts on Wednesday, especially in the West, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records over the weekend and are expected to do so all week.
Las Vegas on Wednesday recorded its fifth consecutive temperature record of 115 F (46.1 C) or more. The temperature rose to 115 shortly after 1:00 PM at Harry Reid International Airport, breaking the old mark of four days in a row set in July 2005. And that record could be extended, or even doubled, over the weekend.
Nevada’s largest city has broken 16 heat records since June 1 “and we’re not even halfway through July yet,” National Weather Service meteorologist Morgan Stessman said Wednesday. That included Sunday’s high of 120 F (48.8 C), which beat the previous record of 117 F (47.2 C).
In Henderson, Nevada, more than a dozen officers from the Public Response Office drove around Wednesday offering cold water, buses and rides to cooling stations for the homeless and anyone else in need.
On the other side of the country, the weather service warned of the risk of extreme heat in parts of the East Coast. An extreme heat warning remains in effect Wednesday for the Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey. Temperatures are around 90 F (32.2 C) for most of the region, and forecasters warn that the heat index could reach as high as 108 F (42.2 C).
In the west, the heat was blamed for the death of a motorcyclist over the weekend in California’s Death Valley National Park. At the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service is investigating the death of a third hiker in the past few weeks. Temperatures in some areas can reach 120 F (48.8 C) in the shade.
Arizona authorities are investigating the death of a 2-year-old boy who was left alone in a hot vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Marana, near Tucson, police said. In Lake Havasu, a 4-month-old died of heat-related complications Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department said.
The US heat wave comes as global temperatures in June hit a record warm 13th month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Much of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, comes from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by burning coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
“Climate change is real,” California Governor Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Wednesday. “These extremes are here every day in the great state of California. If you don’t believe in science, you have to believe in the lived experience that we have in the western United States, for that matter, around the world.
Newsom said the state is prepared to fight fires, praising federal support for providing new firefighting aircraft to the state. Cal Fire has also used cameras and artificial intelligence to locate fires and alert first responders, officials said.
In southern New Mexico, heavy rains caused flash flooding across wildfire scars for the second day in a row on Wednesday, forcing about 1,000 residents to evacuate their homes in Ruidoso, city spokeswoman Kerry Gladden said.
He said emergency responders had conducted more than 30 water rescues but there were no immediate reports of deaths or serious injuries. He said most bridges over rivers and streams were closed, as was U.S. Highway 70 — one of the main arteries into the city — while crews cleared debris.
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Associated Press reporters Ken Ritter, Rio Yamat and Ty ONeil in Las Vegas; Tran Nguyen in Sacramento, California; Anita Snow in Phoenix; Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada; John Antczak in Los Angeles; Martha Bellisle in Seattle; and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
