U.S. West Coast Braces for More Dangerous Wind as Blazes Spread
U.S. West Coast Braces for More Dangerous Wind as Blazes Spread
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. West is bracing for another blast of dry and windy weather, threatening to stoke wildfires that have already charred more than 5 million acres, left dozens of people dead and ravaged air quality from Los Angeles to Seattle.
The U.S. National Weather Service has issued warnings for critical fire conditions in southeast Oregon and northeast California, with wind gusts up to 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour and humidity as low as 7% Monday. It comes as crews battle blazes across the region, including the August complex in northern California that’s burned through more than 877,000 acres, an area larger than Rhode Island.
“There could be some critical fire conditions developing,” said Jim Mathews, a Weather Service forecaster in Sacramento. “There’s concern it could spread the ongoing fires.”
Natural disasters are battering the U.S. as climate change fuels increasingly violent weather. More than 2,000 miles east of the fires raging on the West Coast, residents of Louisiana and Mississippi are bracing for Tropical Storm Sally. It’s one of 19 named storms in the Atlantic this year, marking the fastest such a tally has been reached in records going back to 1851.
On the West Coast, climate change has made summers in the region hotter and drier, turning forests into tinderboxes that are making this year’s fire season the worst on record. Blazes have already killed 35 people, according to the Associated Press, and plumes of smoke are smothering the entire West Coast with unhealthy air conditions.
President Donald Trump, who has been skeptical about the threat of climate change, is scheduled to visit California Monday to assess the impact of the fires.
Weather conditions could shift later in the week, bringing some relief to firefighters, according to Mathews. Temperatures are expected to come down and humidity will increase, he said, “and maybe even some light rain.”
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