A wave of “extreme heat” is hitting tens of millions of Americans this weekend, with many temperature records expected in the central and northeast and an alarmingly spreading wildfire in California.
The “Oak Fire”, described as ” explosive by authorities, said Friday in Mariposa County, near Yosemite National Park and its giant sequoias. It has already moved some 4,800 acres, destroying ten properties and damaging five others, according to a bulletin Saturday from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Several roads were cut and several areas were ordered to evacuate, while the fire, from a ” extreme activity and fought by more than 500 firefighters, was not under control on Saturday, according to the same source.
Officials quoted by the newspaper Los Angeles Times estimated that it would probably take a week to contain it. More than 6,000 people were evacuated, according to a spokesman for the California fire department, adding that employees from various departments were flocking from all over the state to lend a hand.
“Extreme Peril”
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a “state of emergency” in Mariposa County on Saturday, due to a ” extreme danger to the safety of persons and property”. This allows in particular to release funding.
According to a climatologist from the University of California at Los Angeles, Daniel Swain, the fire has spread significantly in almost all directions », « in a context of high fuel load and extreme drought “. ” The series of relatively small, non-destructive wildfires that have plagued California so far this season appear to be over “, he added on Twitter.
Fire activity never really calmed down overnight, but #OakFire really cranking again now. All flanks active, but multiple large pyrocumuli now building on northeastern flank of where intensity is currently greatest. Will very likely surpass 10k acres in <24hr. #CAwx #CAfire https://t.co/LxDf0TzQmm
—Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) July 23, 2022
The American West has already experienced forest fires of exceptional magnitude and intensity in recent years, with a very marked lengthening of the fire season, a phenomenon that scientists attribute to climate change.
Tornado
Witnesses posted images on social media of a huge, impressive whirlwind of thick smoke rising from the forest, like a tornado, a dangerous pyrocumulus phenomenon that can fuel the fire.
This fire is one of the most dramatic consequences of the heat wave affecting the United States this weekend, in a localized area between California and Oregon in the west but much more extensively in the center and the North-east.
Stifling heat was particularly felt in the capital Washington, where the temperature flirted with the symbolic bar of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) which it should reach or exceed on Sunday for the first time in years. New York was not spared, with temperatures close to 35 degrees.
The temperature could also reach 43 degrees in parts of Utah (west), Arizona (south) and the northeast, according to NWS.
Emergency state
In Boston, where Mayor Michelle Wu decreed a ” heat-related emergency “Providing the opening of municipal places to cool off and swimming pools open longer, it could be 37 degrees on Sunday.
This week, the US President Joe Biden once again underlined the “ clear and immediate danger What does climate change represent?“ an existential threat to our nation and the world “. But its room for maneuver is limited in Congress and by the Supreme Court.
The planet has already recorded several heat waves this year, such as in July in Western Europe or in India in March-April. Their multiplication is an unmistakable sign of climate change, according to scientists.
In June 2021, a “heat dome” of extremely rare intensity had sown chaos on the entire west coast of the United States and Canada, killing more than 500 people and causing major fires, with temperatures approaching 50 degrees.
(With AFP)