Showing posts with label Extreme heat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Extreme heat. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Thousands evacuated in Spain as deadly heatwave fans Mediterranean wildfires. Boy, four, dies of heatstroke in Rome as scientists say high temperatures and fires are reminder of climate emergency


 by  in Madrid and in Athens

 




The deadly heatwave fanning wildfires across the Mediterranean region has claimed at least three lives and forced thousands of people from their homes.

Firefighters continued to battle blazes on Tuesday and authorities braced for further damage as temperatures in some areas surged well past 40C. In Spain, a Romanian man in his 50s died after suffering 98% burns while trying to rescue horses from a burning stable near Madrid on Monday night.

A four-year-old boy who was found unconscious in his family’s car in Sardinia died in Rome on Monday after suffering irreversible brain damage caused by heatstroke. And in Montenegro, one soldier died and another was seriously injured when their water tanker overturned while fighting wildfires in the hills north of the capital, Podgorica, on Tuesday.

Scientist have warned that the heat currently affecting large parts of Europe is creating perfect conditions for wildfires and serving as another reminder of the climate emergency.

 

“Thanks to climate change, we now live in a significantly warmer world,” Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading’s meteorology department told Agence France-Presse, adding that “many still underestimate the danger”.

The fire in Tres Cantos, near Madrid – which had been fuelled by winds of 70km/h (45mph) and which has devoured 1,000 hectares of land – was still not under control on Tuesday evening, when further strong gusts were expected. The regional government said it had recovered 150 dead sheep and 18 dead horses from the area.

More than 3,700 people were evacuated from 16 municipalities amid dozens of reported blazes in the north-western region of Castilla y León, including one that damaged the Unesco world heritage-listed Roman-era mining site at Les Médulas.

Authorities in neighbouring Galicia said the largest wildfire of the year had burned through 3,000 hectares of land in Ourense province. In the southern town of Tarifa, firefighters on the ground and in planes battled a fire that broke out on Monday, with 2,000 people evacuated.

The blazes have led the interior ministry to declare a “pre-emergency phase” to help coordinate emergency resources.

Firefighters work to extinguish a forest fire in Lamas de Olo, in the Alvao natural park, Portugal. Photograph: Pedro Sarmento Costa/EPA

The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered his condolences to the family of the man who died after the Tres Cantos fire, and thanked the emergency services for their “tireless efforts”.

He urged people to recognise the seriousness of the situation. “We’re at extreme risk of forest fires,” he said in a message on X on Tuesday. “Let’s be very careful.”

In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters were battling three large wildfires in the centre and north of the country.

Authorities in Greece requested EU help as fires, fuelled by gale force winds, ripped across vast swathes of the western Peloponnese and emergency services ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents.

Firefighters were also trying to contain blazes on the popular Ionian tourist islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia. With gusts hampering firefighting efforts, emergency services ordered all hotels in the region of Agala and Keri on Zakynthos to temporarily close, forcing suitcase-wielding holidaymakers to flee and relocate to other areas.

A house burning during a wildfire that erupted in a forest near the village of Agalas on Zakynthos. Photograph: Costas Synetos/EPA

 

By late Tuesday, dozens of firefighters, supported by 15 fire trucks and eight water-bombing planes and helicopters, were still trying to douse the fast-moving flames.

“Everything that civil protection can offer is here but there are very strong winds and the fires are out of control,” said the island’s mayor, Giorgos Stasinopoulos. “We need a lot more air support, it’s vital.”

The fire service said it was also dealing with blazes farther north in Epirus, around Preveza and in the central region of Aetolia-Acarnania.

Despite temperatures nudging 43C in some parts of the Peloponnese region of southern Greece on Tuesday – and the prolonged drought, which has produced highly flammable conditions on tinder-dry soil – officials described the outbreak of so many fires as “suspiciously high”.

Faced with an estimated 63 blazes erupting and firefighters confronting flames on 106 fronts, fire officers dispatched specialist teams to several of the stricken regions to investigate possible arson.

In Albania, hundreds of firefighters and troops had subdued most of the nearly 40 fires that flared up in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said, but more than a dozen were still active.

Since the start of July, nearly 34,000 hectares have been scorched nationwide, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. Police say many of the blazes were deliberate, with more than 20 people arrested.

The aftermath of the blaze in Çanakkale, Turkey, on Tuesday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

In Croatia, about 150 firefighters spent Monday night defending homes near the port city of Split.

In the north-western Turkish province of Çanakkale, more than 2,000 people were evacuated and 77 people treated in hospital for smoke inhalation after fires broke out near the tourist village of Güzelyalı, authorities said.

Images on Turkish media showed homes and cars ablaze, while more than 760 firefighters, 10 planes, nine helicopters and more than 200 vehicles were deployed to battle the flames. Turkey this year experienced its hottest July since records began 55 years ago.

In southern France, where temperature records were broken in at least four weather stations, the government called for vigilance.

The south-western city of Bordeaux hit a record 41.6C on Monday, while all-time records were broken at meteorological stations in Bergerac, Cognac and Saint Girons, according to the national weather service, Météo France.

Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Grim new death records as brutal heat plagues US south-west into the autumn

Traffic warden Rai Rogers during an eight-hour shift in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 12 July 2023. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images



 

 September has offered little reprieve after a sweltering summer, with Las Vegas on 102nd day of temperatures above 100F

 

Brutal heat continues to plague the south-west US, with excessive heat alerts lingering long into September as parts of the region set grim new records for deaths connected to the sweltering temperatures.

Autumn has offered little reprieve for cities that have already spent months mired in triple-digit temperatures. This week, Las Vegas, Nevada; Phoenix, Arizona; and Palm Springs, California, are all grappling with severe weather, with highs that have pushed over 100F (38C). More than 16 million people in the US were under heat alerts on Friday, according to the National Weather Service, mostly clustered in the southern tips of Nevada, Arizona and California.

“Late-season heat is dangerous because people are fatigued from fighting heat all summer,” the NWS forecast office in Las Vegas cautioned in an alert, which warned of extreme weather expected to last through the weekend and into next week. “This is especially true this year,” it added, “as 2024 continues to break all-time heat records.”

Fueled by the climate crisis, and often exacerbated by concrete cityscapes that cook when temperatures rise, heatwaves are getting longer, larger and more intense.

 

Las Vegas had its 102nd day of temperatures above 100F on Friday, a new record for the most days in a single year. Several states, including Arizona and California, have experienced their warmest summers on record this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and forecasters are predicting that 2024 may rank as the hottest year – a record just set in 2023.

“But it’s not over,” NWS Las Vegas said on Twitter, noting the heat warnings lingering in the forecast through the weekend.


 The scorching and sustained heat has taken a devastating toll; heat already ranks as the most lethal weather-related disaster in the US, and deaths are increasing. Heat-associated fatalities are growing across the south-west, where shadeless streets can grow hot enough to cause second-degree burns in seconds. As dangerously hot weather stretches past summer and into spring and fall, the risks for those who don’t have access to cooling have continued to rise.

In Arizona’s Maricopa county, home to Phoenix, 664 fatalities are believed to have been linked to the heat this year , according to public health officials, who are still working to confirm more than half of them. Southern Nevada, where Las Vegas is located, has seen more deaths this year than in any year prior, with officials confirming this week that there have been 342 fatalities linked to the heat. This surpassed last year’s record, which marked an 80% increase over 2022.

But even these tragically high numbers are believed to paint only part of the picture. Heat deaths can be difficult to track, especially among high-risk populations including in unhoused communities. “We will inevitably see this number climb,” Melanie Rouse, Clark county’s coroner, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Older people, children and people with underlying health conditions are among the most at risk, especially among those without access to air conditioning, but first responders have also reported that heat-related emergencies have been climbing for workers.


 “Delivery drivers, warehouse operators, our construction trades – basically anyone who has to work outside – we have seen emergencies from them and people with regular medical emergencies, and during a normal day the heat causes them to succumb,” Scott Vivier, the deputy fire chief in Henderson, a city south-east of Las Vegas, said in July.

Vivier’s department is among the first in the region to use a new tool called the polar pod, which enables emergency responders to pack someone in ice and water while they transport them to the hospital. Vivier said it’s had an incredible impact on their ability to save lives, and that they’ve even been trained to use the pods to revive overheated pets.

Exposure to prolonged extreme heat can also have lingering effects that are harder to quantify. As residents across the south-west yearn for the coming of a cooler autumn, public health clinicians have cautioned the heat can pack a psychological punch as well, leading to symptoms like irritability, anxiety and difficulty concentrating.


 

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Phoenix, Arizona, hits its 100th consecutive day of 100F weather

A billboard shows the temperature in Phoenix, Arizona, on 5 June 2024. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
 

Hottest large city in US broke previous heat record from 1993 as temperatures are expected to reach 110 tomorrow

 

Phoenix, Arizona, saw its 100th straight day of 100F (37.7C) heat this week.

The hottest large city in the United States broke its previous record of 76 consecutive 100F days set in 1993. The relentless streak, which started on 27 May and hit its 100th day on Tuesday, is forecast to persist into next week. An excessive heat warning is in effect through Friday, with temperatures expected to reach 110F (43C) tomorrow.

This summer was the hottest one in Phoenix since 1896, when records first began. Latest county data shows that at least 177 people died from heat-related causes so far this year, with 436 under investigation. Last year, Maricopa county saw 645 confirmed heat-related fatalities, enduring 55 days in a row with above 110F temperatures.

“Summers in Phoenix are becoming increasingly hotter, with more intense and prolonged heat,” said Shel Winkley, a meteorologist at the non-profit Climate Central. “On average, Phoenix now experiences about 60 days [or] 65% of the summer with extreme heat.”

In addition to Arizona, millions of Americans across Nevada and California are facing scorching heat, with the highest temperature expected to peak in the Death Valley national park at 120F (49C).

“Temperatures will be running up to 8 degrees above normal for early September,” the National Weather Service Las Vegas office warned in an advisory.

Homeless people, children, the elderly, pregnant people and those with chronic medical conditions are at higher risk for heat-related illness.

 


“Consecutive high heat days mean that people in Phoenix don’t get respite at night, especially those who don’t have or can’t afford to run an AC unit as well as those who work outdoors,” said Juan Declet-Barreto, senior social scientist for climate vulnerability at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“I would like the public to understand that this heat is no longer a rare occurrence,” Declet-Barreto said. “It will continue to get worse year after year if we don’t make drastic emissions reductions. We need to decarbonize our energy, industrial, agricultural and transportation sectors. There’s no way around that if we want cities like Phoenix to be livable.”


 

Saturday, August 10, 2024

July was California’s hottest month in history

 

A man fishes off a jetty in Alameda, California, as the sun sets over the San Francisco Bay on 1 July.


 

Some areas see days of temperatures over 100F, drying plants and fueling wildfires as extreme heat creates deadly conditions

 

California experienced its hottest month on record in July as grueling heat baked the American west for weeks on end.

The state’s average temperature for the month was 81.7F (27.6C), according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, but some areas endured days of temperatures greater than 100F (about 38C). Several cities broke temperature records during a heatwave in early July – Palm Springs hit 124F on 5 July, while Redding in the state’s far north saw a high of 119F on 6 July.

Death Valley, the hottest place on Earth, recorded its hottest month ever in July, according to the National Park Service (NPS). In Nevada, Las Vegas reached 120F on 7 July, its hottest day in history, and set a record for number of days over 115F.

The impacts of extreme heat are being felt across the US and the world as the climate crisis drives increasingly severe and dangerous weather conditions. Last month about one-third of the US population was under warnings for record heat. The Earth saw its hottest day in recorded history on 22 July, breaking a record set just one day earlier.

A firefighter uses a drip torch to burn vegetation while trying to stop the Park fire in Tehama county on Wednesday. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP


 

Extreme heat poses major health risks and is the mostly deadly type of weather-related disaster. It is particularly dangerous for unhoused people and seniors as well as those who don’t have access to cooling spaces.

California’s high temperatures in July also helped dry out vegetation and fuel wildfires across the state. Late last month, the Park fire quickly exploded after an alleged arsonist sparked by the blaze in a city park by pushing a burning car into a ravine. The area had baked at temperatures 100F and above for days before and after the fire began. The Park fire has since become the fourth-largest blaze in state history.

 

The Pacific north-west has also endured intense heat and intense wildfires. Oregon has seen more land burned this year, more than 1.4m acres (567,000 hectares), than any year in the last 32 years, when the north-west interagency coordination center’s record-keeping began.

The extreme heat leads to more intense fires, and makes for challenging conditions for the firefighters responding to the incidents. Firefighters battling the Thompson fire last month, not far from where the Park fire broke out, suffered heat-related injuries.

Heatwaves are increasing in intensity and frequency, as well as duration and range, and are the weather events most directly impacted by the climate crisis, Dr Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the Guardian last month. He described heatwaves as “the weather extremes that are impacted by the steroids of climate change”.

“The trend is toward more frequent, more extreme, longer-lasting heatwaves all over the world,” he said. “California is certainly no exception.”


 

Monday, July 8, 2024

US heatwave smashes records as ‘extreme fire weather’ fuels new blazes Over 146 million Americans under extreme heat alerts as dozens of locations in US west tie or break past heat records

 

The Lake Fire burns close to what was Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California, on 6 July 2024. Photograph: David Swanson/Reuters



A fierce heatwave that shattered records this weekend – with dangerous temperatures that spiked well into the triple digits – will continue to grip much of the US in the coming days and fuel fires across the west.

More than 146 million Americans were under extreme heat alerts on Monday, as both sides of the country cooked. Excessive heat warnings, the National Weather Service’s (NWS) highest alert, stretch across the west, covering parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Areas on the east coast, including Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, were also under heat advisories.

 Dozens of locations in the west and Pacific north-west tied or broke previous heat records in recent days. On Sunday, Las Vegas set an all-time record high of 120F (48.8C), while across the desert in Death Valley national park, temperatures reached 128F (53.3 C), breaking a daily heat record and coming just shy of it’s all time high. The dangerous temperatures caused the death of a motorcyclist in the park.




Oregon also faced triple-digit temperatures and saw several records toppled, including in Salem, where on Sunday it hit 103F (39.4C), topping the 99F (37.2C) mark set in 1960. Authorities in Multnomah county, home to Portland, said they were investigating four suspected deaths tied to the heatwave.

Meanwhile, firefighters are battling a flurry of new blazes that sparked in the brutal temperatures over the weekend, with the sweltering, dry conditions posing challenges for fire crews. There were 73 large active fires burning across the country Monday, according to the National Interagency Fire Center, collectively covering close to half a million acres, and fire conditions are expected to continue through the week.

California, which was left covered in quick-to-burn grasses after a wet winter, saw an explosive week and firefighters are battling 18 active blazes.

In Santa Barbara county, the Lake fire burned through dry grass, brush and timber over the weekend, prompting evacuations of some rural homes, including the Neverland ranch. The fire has grown to 20,320 acres and was at 8% containment Monday morning.

Further north, the Shelly fire, which erupted in California’s Marble Mountain Wilderness on 3 July, continues to pose threats to “communities, private timberlands, cultural resources, and wilderness areas”, CalFire posted in an update Monday, as fire behavior became more extreme through the weekend.

“Yesterday, as well as today, we have experienced some problematic weather forecasts that leads to critical fire behavior,” John Chester, operations section chief with CalFire’s Siskiyou unit said. “We are expecting the same weather patterns and forecasts over the next few days.”

 

Fire conditions have also been intense in Utah, fueling rapid growth for several large fires.

The Silver King fire, which has roared across more than 10,823 acres – more than 4,500 acres in a single day – has exhibited extreme behavior and is 0% contained. Hundreds of homes are at risk from the fire, as state officials secured federal support Monday.

“A warming and drying trend will continue today with an excessive heat warning, as temperatures continue to increase above average the relativity humidity continues to drop to 10 – 15%,” officials with the US Forest Service said in a Monday morning update on the fire, adding that gusty winds will continue to fan the flames. “These elements combine for extreme fire weather.”

The heat wave came as the global temperature in June hit a record high for the 13th straight month and it marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5C (2.7F) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said.

While parts of California will see some relief from the brutally hot conditions, extreme heat is predicted to linger across the US west throughout the week. As the heatwave shifts north into Oregon and Washington, and moves east covering parts of the Great Basin and Arizona, more records will likely be broken. “The multi-day length and record warm overnight temperatures will continue to cause heat stress in people without adequate cooling and hydration,” NWS meteorologists wrote in a forecast published on Monday.


 People shield their eyes from the sun along the Las Vegas Strip on Sunday, when the city set an all-time record high temperature of 120F (48.8C). Photograph: John Locher/AP

 

Rare heat advisories were extended even into higher elevations including around Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, with the weather service in Reno, Nevada, warning of “major heat risk impacts, even in the mountains”.

More extreme highs are in the near forecast, including possibly 130F (54.4C) around midweek at Furnace Creek, California, in Death Valley. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134F (56.67C) in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130F (54.4C), recorded there in July 2021.

Park officials warned visitors to take the heat seriously. “While this is a very exciting time to experience potential world record-setting temperatures in Death Valley, we encourage visitors to choose their activities carefully, avoiding prolonged periods of time outside of an air-conditioned vehicle or building when temperatures are this high,” Mike Reynolds, a park superintendent said.

 


 





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