Extremely high temperatures are a problem for people in the USA. Now more and more forest fires are spreading.
Los Angeles – North America is on fire. In the western United States and Canada, more than a million acres are currently on fire. The Canadian province of British Columbia and the US states of Oregon and California are particularly hard hit.
A forest fire is currently spreading near the famous Yosemite National Park. The so-called river fire has grown rapidly to an area of 32 square kilometers, the authority Cal Fire said. Several hundred people had to leave their homes. In the neighboring state of Oregon, the fires tripled to an area of more than 150,000 hectares. The “bootleg” fire there also affected energy supplies to California. The extreme heat, increasing winds, low humidity and the arid vegetation favored the spread of the fires.
Heat wave in the USA encourages fires
In fact, the heat in the US is reaching unimaginable proportions, with previous record temperatures being broken almost every day across the country. It is particularly extreme in the west of the country. This is especially true of California’s Death Valley, which is notorious for its almost inhumane heat. Perhaps the highest temperature ever recorded was recorded at Furnace Creek on Saturday (July 11th, 2021). If the value of 54.4 degrees Celsius (130 degrees Fahrenheit) is confirmed, it would be a new record. However, the official investigation could take months.
However, an even higher value has haunted the room for more than 100 years. But the temperature of 56.7 degrees Celsius (134 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded on July 10, 1913 is extremely controversial among experts. For example, an analysis by weather expert Christopher Burt from 2016 found that the measurement did not agree with other regional observations, which is why Burt said, according to the New York Times, that it was “impossible from a meteorological point of view”.
Heat wave in the USA: Death Valley sets records
But basically this question is only secondary. Because in Death Valley there are two other values that are even more meaningful than the maximum temperature:
- a) The average daily temperature on Sunday was 47.8 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit). This means that July 11, 2021 in Death Valley is considered to be the hottest day that has ever been recorded anywhere.
- b) The daily minimum temperature was 42.1 degrees Celsius (107.7 degrees Fahrenheit) – this is also a record.
But all of these seem only snapshots. The National Weather Service has warned that some of these record highs could be reached or surpassed again within a few days.
Lytton: First heat record, then victim of the flames
It was not until the beginning of July that a heat wave hit the north-west of the USA and western Canada with temperatures of almost 50 degrees Celsius. In the Canadian community of Lytton, around 260 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, 49.6 degrees were measured. A few days later, the village was almost completely destroyed in an inferno of flames.
With an average temperature of 22.6 degrees Celsius, June 2021 was the hottest June nationwide since records began 127 years ago, according to the US climate agency NOAA. Eight US states also experienced their hottest June. (Christian Stör with dpa / afp)
List of rubric lists: © Noah Berger / dpa
