Forest fires are spreading in California with temperatures reaching up to 47 degrees Celsius. Several hundred hectares have already been destroyed. And experts are warning of further fires – because new temperature records could be reached in the coming days.
Firefighters in the US state of California battled several fires on Friday in record heat. A new fire broke out near Yosemite National Park, while a forest fire in the north of the state was brought under control. Temperatures of up to 47 degrees Celsius were forecast as the region's recent heatwave approached its peak.
The National Weather Service warned of the spread of “dangerous heat” in the western United States on Friday and Saturday. “Temperature records are expected to be reached or broken in many areas,” the weather service said.
Several hundred hectares destroyed
The heat wave is hitting the state on the long weekend after Independence Day on July 4, which is celebrated in many places with fireworks, which can easily start fires due to the dry conditions. In the former gold mining town of Mariposa outside Yosemite Park, a fire broke out on Friday night and spread quickly. The cause of the fire was initially unclear.
The city itself is in danger, the evacuation is being expanded and it will remain warm and dry at night, warned Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California in Los Angeles. By Friday morning local time, the fire had destroyed several hundred hectares and was only five percent contained, the fire department said.
More and more severe weather extremes due to climate change
Meanwhile, there was a slight easing of the situation in northern California, where authorities had ordered more than 25,000 people in the area around the small town of Oroville to evacuate in the middle of the week. Despite persistently high temperatures, firefighters were able to report success in containing the flames and lifted some evacuation orders. However, the fire service and weather experts were not yet able to give the all-clear, as even higher temperatures were expected on Saturday.
Wildfires are a natural and necessary part of life cycles in the region, but climate change is making weather extremes more intense and frequent.
