A new wave of extreme heat hit the southwestern United States this weekend, with places like Las Vegas with an all-time temperature record, just after one of the hottest June in records in the United States closed. country.
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In all, more than 30 million people are in areas with excessive heat alerts in Nevada, California and western Arizona and Utah. The high temperatures will persist for a few more days.
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The thermometer rose over the weekend over much of the Pacific coast and inland to the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.
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The temperature at McCarran International Airport, which serves Las Vegas, reached 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 degrees Celsius) on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service; a mark that the city located in the middle of the Nevada desert registered for the first time in 1942 and three times since 2005.
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And in the desert of Death Valley in southern California, the thermometer reached 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.2 degrees Celsius).
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“Very high risk of heat for today due to the combination of mild temperatures at night and highs expected at noon,” warned the meteorological service in California.
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Forecasters have issued a warning bulletin for the metropolitan area, as well as for several other urban centers, including Phoenix (south) and San Jose, in the center of Silicon Valley, near San Francisco.
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Strong heat until Wednesday
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According to forecasts, these temperatures will remain until next Wednesday, and will progressively decrease towards the end of the week.
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As a consequence, California and Nevada authorities have advised citizens to reduce energy consumption to avoid system failures.
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In Oregon, the Bootleg fire spread to 224 square miles (580 square kilometers) in area as it traversed the thick wood of the Fremont-Winema National Forest near the town of Sprague River in Klamath County. The fire disrupted service on three transmission lines that provide up to 5,500 megawatts of electricity to neighboring California.
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This new heat wave comes less than three weeks after another that hit the western United States and Canada in late June, with record high temperatures for three days in a row in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
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“Unprecedented weather conditions in British Columbia continue to pose a serious threat to public safety and rail operations,” Canadian Transportation Minister Omar Alghabra said in a statement on Sunday.
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Canadian authorities announced emergency measures to prevent wildfires amid “extreme weather conditions,” as the number of igneous outbreaks in the province of British Columbia rose to 298 on Sunday, of which 50 started in the past two days. .
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A ministerial decree in Canada announced “preventive safety measures (…) against forest fires”, including reducing the speed of trains when the temperature exceeds 30 ° C and the level of fire danger for the area is “extreme”.
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In addition, until October 31, no locomotive will operate in these areas unless it has been inspected in the previous 15 days, to ensure that “the exhaust systems (…) are free of combustible materials.”
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Trains are a common source of forest fires, generally due to lack of maintenance of their anti-sparking devices.
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The last six years to 2020 are the hottest ever on record.
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