It's Climate Change I tell'ya!! IT'S CLIMATE CHANGE!!
- Thread starter B00Mer
- Start date
Of course they will. Liberal, Conservative, liberal, or conservative, every country. . . they all do.
We mostly don't in the U.S. We have other ways the pols get their snouts in the trough.
Scorching summer heat hits Canada, but won’t touch records set by the 2021 heat dome
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Jul 08, 2024 • 4 minute read
Sweltering temperatures stretching from British Columbia to the Ontario border has prompted hundreds of heat warnings, but it’s not as intense at the deadly 2021 heat dome in B.C., says a national warning preparedness meteorologist.
Jennifer Smith with Environment and Climate Change Canada told a news conference Monday that while the “epicentre” of the heat is located in Northern California, it is expanding north and east this week, where it is expected to linger.
An unrelated heat wave has meanwhile sent temperatures into the 30s in Atlantic Canada.
“Above normal temperatures developed across southern B.C. over the weekend. The heat will continue there and expand east, affecting Alberta and southwestern Northwest Territories today, Saskatchewan by Tuesday and spreading into Manitoba by Wednesday,” Smith said.
She said the heat event will be “significant and impactful” but it does not compare to the 2021 heat dome that surpassed heat warning thresholds by “a significant margin.”
“That was truly an anomalous and extreme heat wave,” Smith told the conference. “The highest temperatures forecast for this event are expected to be lower for the areas that saw the worst heat in 2021.”
But, she noted the 2021 heat dome did not impact Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“With the current heat event, several daily records may be broken across the region throughout the event, but all-time records should not be threatened.”
In British Columbia, temperatures in the province’s southern Interior are forecast to climb into the low 40s.
The weather agency says the scorching temperatures in B.C. are caused by a ridge of high pressure, with heat warnings covering much of the southern part of the province, including Metro Vancouver. On Sunday, more than 20 daily heat records were broken.
“High pressure causes air to sink and dry out, reducing cloud cover and leading to hot temperatures,” Smith explained.
She warned the hot and dry conditions heighten wildfire risk, “particularly where there are existing fires or there is a precipitation deficit such as in northeastern B.C., northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories.”
Armel Castellan, another meteorologist with Environment Canada, said B.C. is “definitely seeing its warmest temperatures over the next couple of days.” He said the weather office is now working with the BC Wildfire Service and it will meet with emergency management officials in the province to prepare for the risks.
In the Prairies, temperatures in some parts of Alberta are forecast to reach about 35 C by Wednesday. Heat warnings were up Monday across most of the province and into Saskatchewan, where daily highs in Regina are expected to hover around 30 C for the whole week.
The tiny community of Fort Liard, in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories, is forecast to hit 30 C until Wednesday, well above its average high of 23 C.
Because this is the first widespread heat event of the year in Western Canada, Smith said health officials are warning of the risks, saying people may not be acclimatized to the hot weather.
“This warm spell is likely to linger into next week, particularly across southern B.C. and the Prairie provinces, though it’s a bit early to offer a high confidence forecast this far into the future,” she said.
“But, with many outdoor events ongoing — for example, the Calgary Stampede or the Winnipeg Folk Festival — it’s encouraged to take extra precautions against the heat, drink lots of water, stay in the shade and arrange for regular checkups on family members, neighbours and friends in case they may need help.”
Smith noted Ontario is right on “the fringe” of the heat wave.
“That ridge is essentially going to be retreating south as it transitions east,” she explained. “I would expect some warmer temperatures to touch on northwestern Ontario before that ridge fully moves south and retreats back into the United States.”
Daytime highs around 30 C are forecast across much of Atlantic Canada, with humidex readings close to 40 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, the European climate service Copernicus is reporting the global temperature in June hit a record high for the 13th straight month. The agency said June was also the 12th consecutive month that the world was 1.5 C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Most countries agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 C as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Eastern Canada, which was hit by an intense heat wave in mid-June, is one of the regions where temperatures were most above average.
June was also the 15th month in a row of record-high sea surface temperatures, according to Copernicus.
A strong El Nino weather pattern helped drive the spike in global temperatures over the last year, according to the United Nations weather agency. But the World Meteorological Organization warned last month that the last nine years have been the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a multi-year La Nina event.
“The end of El Nino does not mean a pause in long-term climate change as our planet will continue to warm due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett in a June statement.
Later this week, remnants of Hurricane Beryl, which devastated parts of the Caribbean last week, are forecast to move into Ontario and Quebec, bringing rain and a risk of thunderstorms.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Jul 08, 2024 • 4 minute read
Sweltering temperatures stretching from British Columbia to the Ontario border has prompted hundreds of heat warnings, but it’s not as intense at the deadly 2021 heat dome in B.C., says a national warning preparedness meteorologist.
Jennifer Smith with Environment and Climate Change Canada told a news conference Monday that while the “epicentre” of the heat is located in Northern California, it is expanding north and east this week, where it is expected to linger.
An unrelated heat wave has meanwhile sent temperatures into the 30s in Atlantic Canada.
“Above normal temperatures developed across southern B.C. over the weekend. The heat will continue there and expand east, affecting Alberta and southwestern Northwest Territories today, Saskatchewan by Tuesday and spreading into Manitoba by Wednesday,” Smith said.
She said the heat event will be “significant and impactful” but it does not compare to the 2021 heat dome that surpassed heat warning thresholds by “a significant margin.”
“That was truly an anomalous and extreme heat wave,” Smith told the conference. “The highest temperatures forecast for this event are expected to be lower for the areas that saw the worst heat in 2021.”
But, she noted the 2021 heat dome did not impact Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“With the current heat event, several daily records may be broken across the region throughout the event, but all-time records should not be threatened.”
In British Columbia, temperatures in the province’s southern Interior are forecast to climb into the low 40s.
The weather agency says the scorching temperatures in B.C. are caused by a ridge of high pressure, with heat warnings covering much of the southern part of the province, including Metro Vancouver. On Sunday, more than 20 daily heat records were broken.
“High pressure causes air to sink and dry out, reducing cloud cover and leading to hot temperatures,” Smith explained.
She warned the hot and dry conditions heighten wildfire risk, “particularly where there are existing fires or there is a precipitation deficit such as in northeastern B.C., northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories.”
Armel Castellan, another meteorologist with Environment Canada, said B.C. is “definitely seeing its warmest temperatures over the next couple of days.” He said the weather office is now working with the BC Wildfire Service and it will meet with emergency management officials in the province to prepare for the risks.
In the Prairies, temperatures in some parts of Alberta are forecast to reach about 35 C by Wednesday. Heat warnings were up Monday across most of the province and into Saskatchewan, where daily highs in Regina are expected to hover around 30 C for the whole week.
The tiny community of Fort Liard, in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories, is forecast to hit 30 C until Wednesday, well above its average high of 23 C.
Because this is the first widespread heat event of the year in Western Canada, Smith said health officials are warning of the risks, saying people may not be acclimatized to the hot weather.
“This warm spell is likely to linger into next week, particularly across southern B.C. and the Prairie provinces, though it’s a bit early to offer a high confidence forecast this far into the future,” she said.
“But, with many outdoor events ongoing — for example, the Calgary Stampede or the Winnipeg Folk Festival — it’s encouraged to take extra precautions against the heat, drink lots of water, stay in the shade and arrange for regular checkups on family members, neighbours and friends in case they may need help.”
Smith noted Ontario is right on “the fringe” of the heat wave.
“That ridge is essentially going to be retreating south as it transitions east,” she explained. “I would expect some warmer temperatures to touch on northwestern Ontario before that ridge fully moves south and retreats back into the United States.”
Daytime highs around 30 C are forecast across much of Atlantic Canada, with humidex readings close to 40 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, the European climate service Copernicus is reporting the global temperature in June hit a record high for the 13th straight month. The agency said June was also the 12th consecutive month that the world was 1.5 C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Most countries agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 C as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Eastern Canada, which was hit by an intense heat wave in mid-June, is one of the regions where temperatures were most above average.
June was also the 15th month in a row of record-high sea surface temperatures, according to Copernicus.
A strong El Nino weather pattern helped drive the spike in global temperatures over the last year, according to the United Nations weather agency. But the World Meteorological Organization warned last month that the last nine years have been the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a multi-year La Nina event.
“The end of El Nino does not mean a pause in long-term climate change as our planet will continue to warm due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett in a June statement.
Later this week, remnants of Hurricane Beryl, which devastated parts of the Caribbean last week, are forecast to move into Ontario and Quebec, bringing rain and a risk of thunderstorms.
Scorching summer heat hits Canada, but won’t touch records set by the 2021 heat dome
Sweltering temperatures stretching from British Columbia to the Ontario border has prompted hundreds of heat warnings.
A perfect ending to the cold wave/dome.Scorching summer heat hits Canada, but won’t touch records set by the 2021 heat dome
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Jul 08, 2024 • 4 minute read
Sweltering temperatures stretching from British Columbia to the Ontario border has prompted hundreds of heat warnings, but it’s not as intense at the deadly 2021 heat dome in B.C., says a national warning preparedness meteorologist.
Jennifer Smith with Environment and Climate Change Canada told a news conference Monday that while the “epicentre” of the heat is located in Northern California, it is expanding north and east this week, where it is expected to linger.
An unrelated heat wave has meanwhile sent temperatures into the 30s in Atlantic Canada.
“Above normal temperatures developed across southern B.C. over the weekend. The heat will continue there and expand east, affecting Alberta and southwestern Northwest Territories today, Saskatchewan by Tuesday and spreading into Manitoba by Wednesday,” Smith said.
She said the heat event will be “significant and impactful” but it does not compare to the 2021 heat dome that surpassed heat warning thresholds by “a significant margin.”
“That was truly an anomalous and extreme heat wave,” Smith told the conference. “The highest temperatures forecast for this event are expected to be lower for the areas that saw the worst heat in 2021.”
But, she noted the 2021 heat dome did not impact Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
“With the current heat event, several daily records may be broken across the region throughout the event, but all-time records should not be threatened.”
In British Columbia, temperatures in the province’s southern Interior are forecast to climb into the low 40s.
The weather agency says the scorching temperatures in B.C. are caused by a ridge of high pressure, with heat warnings covering much of the southern part of the province, including Metro Vancouver. On Sunday, more than 20 daily heat records were broken.
“High pressure causes air to sink and dry out, reducing cloud cover and leading to hot temperatures,” Smith explained.
She warned the hot and dry conditions heighten wildfire risk, “particularly where there are existing fires or there is a precipitation deficit such as in northeastern B.C., northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories.”
Armel Castellan, another meteorologist with Environment Canada, said B.C. is “definitely seeing its warmest temperatures over the next couple of days.” He said the weather office is now working with the BC Wildfire Service and it will meet with emergency management officials in the province to prepare for the risks.
In the Prairies, temperatures in some parts of Alberta are forecast to reach about 35 C by Wednesday. Heat warnings were up Monday across most of the province and into Saskatchewan, where daily highs in Regina are expected to hover around 30 C for the whole week.
The tiny community of Fort Liard, in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories, is forecast to hit 30 C until Wednesday, well above its average high of 23 C.
Because this is the first widespread heat event of the year in Western Canada, Smith said health officials are warning of the risks, saying people may not be acclimatized to the hot weather.
“This warm spell is likely to linger into next week, particularly across southern B.C. and the Prairie provinces, though it’s a bit early to offer a high confidence forecast this far into the future,” she said.
“But, with many outdoor events ongoing — for example, the Calgary Stampede or the Winnipeg Folk Festival — it’s encouraged to take extra precautions against the heat, drink lots of water, stay in the shade and arrange for regular checkups on family members, neighbours and friends in case they may need help.”
Smith noted Ontario is right on “the fringe” of the heat wave.
“That ridge is essentially going to be retreating south as it transitions east,” she explained. “I would expect some warmer temperatures to touch on northwestern Ontario before that ridge fully moves south and retreats back into the United States.”
Daytime highs around 30 C are forecast across much of Atlantic Canada, with humidex readings close to 40 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, the European climate service Copernicus is reporting the global temperature in June hit a record high for the 13th straight month. The agency said June was also the 12th consecutive month that the world was 1.5 C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Most countries agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 C as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Eastern Canada, which was hit by an intense heat wave in mid-June, is one of the regions where temperatures were most above average.
June was also the 15th month in a row of record-high sea surface temperatures, according to Copernicus.
A strong El Nino weather pattern helped drive the spike in global temperatures over the last year, according to the United Nations weather agency. But the World Meteorological Organization warned last month that the last nine years have been the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a multi-year La Nina event.
“The end of El Nino does not mean a pause in long-term climate change as our planet will continue to warm due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett in a June statement.
Later this week, remnants of Hurricane Beryl, which devastated parts of the Caribbean last week, are forecast to move into Ontario and Quebec, bringing rain and a risk of thunderstorms.
Scorching summer heat hits Canada, but won’t touch records set by the 2021 heat dome
Sweltering temperatures stretching from British Columbia to the Ontario border has prompted hundreds of heat warnings.
Tourists flock to Death Valley amid searing U.S. heat wave blamed for several deaths
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ty O'neil, Claire Rush And Anita Snow
Published Jul 09, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. — Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend.
French, Spanish, English and Swiss tourists left their air-conditioned rental cars this week to take photographs of the barren landscape so different than the snow-capped mountains and rolling green hills they know back home. American adventurers liked the novelty of it, even as officials at the park in California warned visitors to stay safe.
“I was excited it was going to be this hot,” said Drew Belt, a resident of Tupelo, Mississippi, who wanted to stop in Death Valley as the place boasting the lowest elevation in the U.S. on his way to climb California’s Mount Whitney. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kind of like walking on Mars.”
The searing heat wave gripping large parts of the U.S. also led to record daily high temperatures in Oregon, where it is suspected to have caused six deaths, the state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday. More than 161 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts, especially in Western states.
Dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing this week.
At Death Valley National Park, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer the National Park Service keeps near the visitor centre. It’s not precise, registering the temperature anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than more modern instruments kept by the National Weather Service nearby, providing a more impressive reading for pictures.
““It’s not cited to be an official temperature sensor,” said Dan Berc, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.
“This is an incredibly popular place to be, as you can see from the visitors behind me,” supervisory park ranger Jeanette Jurado said Tuesday by the thermometer, which read 120 F (48.9 C). “But even in the wintertime, people might find that 80 degrees in December is unusual and worthy of taking a picture.”
An excessive heat warning was also in place for much of Washington and Oregon on Tuesday, with the potential for temperatures to reach up to 110 F (43.3 C) in areas, posing a major risk for heat-related illness, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures in parts of Idaho, including Boise, were expected to reach over 100 F (37.7 C) on Tuesday.
The early U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
In eastern California’s sizzling desert, a high of 128 F (53.3 C) was recorded over the weekend at Death Valley National Park, where a visitor, who was not identified, died Saturday from heat exposure. Another person was hospitalized.
They were among six motorcyclists riding through the Badwater Basin area in scorching weather, the park said in a statement. The other four were treated at the scene. Emergency medical helicopters were unable to respond because the aircraft cannot generally fly safely over 120 F (48.8 C), officials said.
Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134 F (56.67 C) in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130 F (54.4 C), recorded there in July 2021.
“It’s impressive,” Thomas Mrzliek, of Basel, Switzerland, said of the triple-digit heat. “It like a wave that hits when you get out of the car, but it’s a very dry heat. So it’s not as in Europe.”
Across the desert in Nevada, Las Vegas already had hit 103 F (39.4 C) by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and was likely to approach 120 F (48.8 C) again by day’s end.
“Intense heatwave will continue to set records through the end of the week before moderating as increasing monsoonal moisture returns to the area,” the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said.
In Arizona, the average temperatures for the first eight days of July have been the hottest on record for Phoenix and Yuma, said the National Weather Service in Phoenix. It said both cities will remain at about 10 degrees above normal over the next few days, with highs mostly between 112 F (44.4 C) and 120 F (48.8 C).
Extreme heat and a longstanding drought in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.
In California, firefighters were battling least 18 wildfires Tuesday, including a 41-square-mile (106-square-kilometre) blaze in the mountains of Santa Barbara County. The Lake Fire was only 12% contained, and forecasters warned of a “volatile combination” of high heat, low humidity and northwest winds developing late in the day.
North of Los Angeles, the 2-square-mile (5-square-kilometre) Vista Fire chewed through trees in the San Bernardino National Forest and sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the region. A small but smoky blaze, dubbed the Royal Fire, burned through more than 150 acres (60 hectares) of forest west of Lake Tahoe and sent ash raining down on the tourist town of Truckee, California. Neither fire was contained Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said Tuesday it was extending the excessive heat warnings across most of the Southwest U.S. through Saturday morning.
“Unusually high temperatures are now projected to linger through Friday, and then with increased cloud cover Saturday morning‘s lows may be the warmest of this entire episode,” the service in Reno said. “Thursday could end up being the hottest overall day for most locations, so it’s not over yet.”
— Snow reported from Phoenix. AP journalists Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; and Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ty O'neil, Claire Rush And Anita Snow
Published Jul 09, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. — Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend.
French, Spanish, English and Swiss tourists left their air-conditioned rental cars this week to take photographs of the barren landscape so different than the snow-capped mountains and rolling green hills they know back home. American adventurers liked the novelty of it, even as officials at the park in California warned visitors to stay safe.
“I was excited it was going to be this hot,” said Drew Belt, a resident of Tupelo, Mississippi, who wanted to stop in Death Valley as the place boasting the lowest elevation in the U.S. on his way to climb California’s Mount Whitney. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kind of like walking on Mars.”
The searing heat wave gripping large parts of the U.S. also led to record daily high temperatures in Oregon, where it is suspected to have caused six deaths, the state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday. More than 161 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts, especially in Western states.
Dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing this week.
At Death Valley National Park, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer the National Park Service keeps near the visitor centre. It’s not precise, registering the temperature anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than more modern instruments kept by the National Weather Service nearby, providing a more impressive reading for pictures.
““It’s not cited to be an official temperature sensor,” said Dan Berc, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.
“This is an incredibly popular place to be, as you can see from the visitors behind me,” supervisory park ranger Jeanette Jurado said Tuesday by the thermometer, which read 120 F (48.9 C). “But even in the wintertime, people might find that 80 degrees in December is unusual and worthy of taking a picture.”
An excessive heat warning was also in place for much of Washington and Oregon on Tuesday, with the potential for temperatures to reach up to 110 F (43.3 C) in areas, posing a major risk for heat-related illness, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures in parts of Idaho, including Boise, were expected to reach over 100 F (37.7 C) on Tuesday.
The early U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
In eastern California’s sizzling desert, a high of 128 F (53.3 C) was recorded over the weekend at Death Valley National Park, where a visitor, who was not identified, died Saturday from heat exposure. Another person was hospitalized.
They were among six motorcyclists riding through the Badwater Basin area in scorching weather, the park said in a statement. The other four were treated at the scene. Emergency medical helicopters were unable to respond because the aircraft cannot generally fly safely over 120 F (48.8 C), officials said.
Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134 F (56.67 C) in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130 F (54.4 C), recorded there in July 2021.
“It’s impressive,” Thomas Mrzliek, of Basel, Switzerland, said of the triple-digit heat. “It like a wave that hits when you get out of the car, but it’s a very dry heat. So it’s not as in Europe.”
Across the desert in Nevada, Las Vegas already had hit 103 F (39.4 C) by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and was likely to approach 120 F (48.8 C) again by day’s end.
“Intense heatwave will continue to set records through the end of the week before moderating as increasing monsoonal moisture returns to the area,” the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said.
In Arizona, the average temperatures for the first eight days of July have been the hottest on record for Phoenix and Yuma, said the National Weather Service in Phoenix. It said both cities will remain at about 10 degrees above normal over the next few days, with highs mostly between 112 F (44.4 C) and 120 F (48.8 C).
Extreme heat and a longstanding drought in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.
In California, firefighters were battling least 18 wildfires Tuesday, including a 41-square-mile (106-square-kilometre) blaze in the mountains of Santa Barbara County. The Lake Fire was only 12% contained, and forecasters warned of a “volatile combination” of high heat, low humidity and northwest winds developing late in the day.
North of Los Angeles, the 2-square-mile (5-square-kilometre) Vista Fire chewed through trees in the San Bernardino National Forest and sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the region. A small but smoky blaze, dubbed the Royal Fire, burned through more than 150 acres (60 hectares) of forest west of Lake Tahoe and sent ash raining down on the tourist town of Truckee, California. Neither fire was contained Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said Tuesday it was extending the excessive heat warnings across most of the Southwest U.S. through Saturday morning.
“Unusually high temperatures are now projected to linger through Friday, and then with increased cloud cover Saturday morning‘s lows may be the warmest of this entire episode,” the service in Reno said. “Thursday could end up being the hottest overall day for most locations, so it’s not over yet.”
— Snow reported from Phoenix. AP journalists Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; and Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
Tourists flock to Death Valley amid searing U.S. heat wave blamed for several deaths
Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park
The sockeye are already showing in the Alouette system .Tourists flock to Death Valley amid searing U.S. heat wave blamed for several deaths
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ty O'neil, Claire Rush And Anita Snow
Published Jul 09, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
DEATH VALLEY, Calif. — Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park, even though the desolate region known as one of the Earth’s hottest places is being punished by a dangerous heat wave blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend.
French, Spanish, English and Swiss tourists left their air-conditioned rental cars this week to take photographs of the barren landscape so different than the snow-capped mountains and rolling green hills they know back home. American adventurers liked the novelty of it, even as officials at the park in California warned visitors to stay safe.
“I was excited it was going to be this hot,” said Drew Belt, a resident of Tupelo, Mississippi, who wanted to stop in Death Valley as the place boasting the lowest elevation in the U.S. on his way to climb California’s Mount Whitney. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Kind of like walking on Mars.”
The searing heat wave gripping large parts of the U.S. also led to record daily high temperatures in Oregon, where it is suspected to have caused six deaths, the state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday. More than 161 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts, especially in Western states.
Dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing this week.
At Death Valley National Park, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer the National Park Service keeps near the visitor centre. It’s not precise, registering the temperature anywhere from 1 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than more modern instruments kept by the National Weather Service nearby, providing a more impressive reading for pictures.
““It’s not cited to be an official temperature sensor,” said Dan Berc, a warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.
“This is an incredibly popular place to be, as you can see from the visitors behind me,” supervisory park ranger Jeanette Jurado said Tuesday by the thermometer, which read 120 F (48.9 C). “But even in the wintertime, people might find that 80 degrees in December is unusual and worthy of taking a picture.”
An excessive heat warning was also in place for much of Washington and Oregon on Tuesday, with the potential for temperatures to reach up to 110 F (43.3 C) in areas, posing a major risk for heat-related illness, the National Weather Service said. Temperatures in parts of Idaho, including Boise, were expected to reach over 100 F (37.7 C) on Tuesday.
The early U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
In eastern California’s sizzling desert, a high of 128 F (53.3 C) was recorded over the weekend at Death Valley National Park, where a visitor, who was not identified, died Saturday from heat exposure. Another person was hospitalized.
They were among six motorcyclists riding through the Badwater Basin area in scorching weather, the park said in a statement. The other four were treated at the scene. Emergency medical helicopters were unable to respond because the aircraft cannot generally fly safely over 120 F (48.8 C), officials said.
Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134 F (56.67 C) in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130 F (54.4 C), recorded there in July 2021.
“It’s impressive,” Thomas Mrzliek, of Basel, Switzerland, said of the triple-digit heat. “It like a wave that hits when you get out of the car, but it’s a very dry heat. So it’s not as in Europe.”
Across the desert in Nevada, Las Vegas already had hit 103 F (39.4 C) by 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and was likely to approach 120 F (48.8 C) again by day’s end.
“Intense heatwave will continue to set records through the end of the week before moderating as increasing monsoonal moisture returns to the area,” the National Weather Service in Las Vegas said.
In Arizona, the average temperatures for the first eight days of July have been the hottest on record for Phoenix and Yuma, said the National Weather Service in Phoenix. It said both cities will remain at about 10 degrees above normal over the next few days, with highs mostly between 112 F (44.4 C) and 120 F (48.8 C).
Extreme heat and a longstanding drought in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.
In California, firefighters were battling least 18 wildfires Tuesday, including a 41-square-mile (106-square-kilometre) blaze in the mountains of Santa Barbara County. The Lake Fire was only 12% contained, and forecasters warned of a “volatile combination” of high heat, low humidity and northwest winds developing late in the day.
North of Los Angeles, the 2-square-mile (5-square-kilometre) Vista Fire chewed through trees in the San Bernardino National Forest and sent up a huge plume of smoke visible across the region. A small but smoky blaze, dubbed the Royal Fire, burned through more than 150 acres (60 hectares) of forest west of Lake Tahoe and sent ash raining down on the tourist town of Truckee, California. Neither fire was contained Tuesday.
The National Weather Service said Tuesday it was extending the excessive heat warnings across most of the Southwest U.S. through Saturday morning.
“Unusually high temperatures are now projected to linger through Friday, and then with increased cloud cover Saturday morning‘s lows may be the warmest of this entire episode,” the service in Reno said. “Thursday could end up being the hottest overall day for most locations, so it’s not over yet.”
— Snow reported from Phoenix. AP journalists Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska; Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; and Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada, contributed to this report.
Tourists flock to Death Valley amid searing U.S. heat wave blamed for several deaths
Hundreds of Europeans touring the American West and adventurers from around the U.S. are still being drawn to Death Valley National Park
Toronto, Ottawa seek ways to fight increasingly visible rodents
A sharp increase in construction has disrupted rat habitats deep underground
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Sheila Reid
Published Jul 10, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
Efforts are underway to combat growing rat populations in two of Ontario’s largest cities, as the rodents that typically lurk underground become more visible thanks to a combination of construction and climate change.
In Toronto, the municipality’s infrastructure committee recently adopted a motion asking city council to direct staff to craft an “action plan” to reduce rats in the city.
The motion, put forward by Coun. Alejandra Bravo and Deputy Mayor Amber Morley, is a response to residents’ concerns about a rise in visible rats in local neighbourhoods, Bravo said.
“People were talking about this in 2022 as sort of a growing problem. And then last year, last year and a half … it’s been something that’s bubbling and growing,” said Bravo, noting that residents of her ward have found themselves “overrun” by the rodents.
“It’s a really critical quality-of-life problem when people have all of a sudden been confronted with rats coming into their home or into their business or their place of work … a bunch of factors (have) come together to create this kind of perfect rat storm.”
A sharp increase in construction in the city, due to transit projects and housing development, has disrupted rat habitats deep underground, driving them into open spaces where people can see them, Bravo said.
Longer stretches of warmer weather due to climate change have also enabled the rodent population to flourish by extending their mating periods, she said.
“Cold winters helped us because that interrupted the breeding of rats,” Bravo said. “But with winters not being cold enough, that means that every two months (the rats) can breed.”
The motion put forward by Bravo and Morley — which will go to city council for a vote later this month — also seeks to have council ask the city manager to consult other communities in North America on their approach to rat reduction.
In Ottawa, the city is exploring a form of rat birth control that is not yet legal in Canada.
Local council recently supported a motion brought by Coun. Laine Johnson that asks Health Canada to expedite the review of a product called ContraPest, which is already being deployed in Seattle.
ContraPest works by inducing early menopause in female rats while reducing sperm production in males.
Johnson called it a better solution than rat poison because rats have the ability to “learn” which food sources are bad for them and adjust their behaviour.
A trial of the oral contraceptive was conducted in Washington D.C. in 2019, but the Department of Health said”the results proved inconclusive” and stopped using the product.
Meanwhile, the province of Alberta says it has been a rat-free zone for about 70 years, adhering to a zero-tolerance policy that even prohibits residents from keeping the rodents as pets.
The province says it does not allow rat populations to establish themselves and while small infestations might occasionally occur, those rats are isolated and eradicated when found. Public vigilance, prevention of rat infestations by efforts like rat-proofing structures and removing food sources, are key, the province says.
Karen Wickerson, the province’s rat and pest specialist, doubts whether the humane birth control strategy suggested by Ottawa would be enough to fight the problem plaguing North American cities by itself.
“They have to continuously eat (the birth control) for (population reduction) to continue, so I think there’s a lot kind of missing from that strategy,” she said.
Wickerson has been at the helm of the province’s rat control program for four years, and says that a multi-pronged approach is necessary, but ultimately the province prescribes to a strategy of elimination based on vigilant citizen reportage.
The project that began in the 1950s has been so successful that many Albertans don’t even know what a rat looks like anymore, Wickerson said, sometimes sending pictures of tree squirrels to the official government reporting email.
“If you’ve never lived outside of Alberta, you may never have seen a rat before and so they’re often misidentified,” she said, adding that muskrats make up about 50 per cent of the 400-500 yearly reports of alleged rat sightings.
Along with public education and participation, Alberta has established a veritable rat exclusion zone. The Rocky Mountains to the west and co-ordination with neighbouring Saskatchewan to the east have fortified the rat-free borders, something that might be difficult to establish in Ontario’s urban centres.
“For the province of Ontario, that rat is out of the gate,” said Johnson, the Ottawa councillor. “So we unfortunately have to work reactively instead of proactively as Alberta was able to back 70 years ago.”
Ontario isn’t alone in its struggle.
New York City’s mayor will be hosting the Urban Rat Summit in September, with expected participation of experts from cities like Boston, New Orleans, and Seattle.
The inaugural conference aims to bring together experts in pest control, academic researchers, and politicians in order to share best practices for rat population control in North American cities.
Bravo, the Toronto councillor, said knowledge sharing and co-ordination across regions is key to the fight.
“We’re part of a huge, continuous megalopolis here, and collaboration is always important,” she said. “If there’s good things being done in Peel or in Ottawa or in Chicago, we want to know about that.”
torontosun.com
A sharp increase in construction has disrupted rat habitats deep underground
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Sheila Reid
Published Jul 10, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 4 minute read
Efforts are underway to combat growing rat populations in two of Ontario’s largest cities, as the rodents that typically lurk underground become more visible thanks to a combination of construction and climate change.
In Toronto, the municipality’s infrastructure committee recently adopted a motion asking city council to direct staff to craft an “action plan” to reduce rats in the city.
The motion, put forward by Coun. Alejandra Bravo and Deputy Mayor Amber Morley, is a response to residents’ concerns about a rise in visible rats in local neighbourhoods, Bravo said.
“People were talking about this in 2022 as sort of a growing problem. And then last year, last year and a half … it’s been something that’s bubbling and growing,” said Bravo, noting that residents of her ward have found themselves “overrun” by the rodents.
“It’s a really critical quality-of-life problem when people have all of a sudden been confronted with rats coming into their home or into their business or their place of work … a bunch of factors (have) come together to create this kind of perfect rat storm.”
A sharp increase in construction in the city, due to transit projects and housing development, has disrupted rat habitats deep underground, driving them into open spaces where people can see them, Bravo said.
Longer stretches of warmer weather due to climate change have also enabled the rodent population to flourish by extending their mating periods, she said.
“Cold winters helped us because that interrupted the breeding of rats,” Bravo said. “But with winters not being cold enough, that means that every two months (the rats) can breed.”
The motion put forward by Bravo and Morley — which will go to city council for a vote later this month — also seeks to have council ask the city manager to consult other communities in North America on their approach to rat reduction.
In Ottawa, the city is exploring a form of rat birth control that is not yet legal in Canada.
Local council recently supported a motion brought by Coun. Laine Johnson that asks Health Canada to expedite the review of a product called ContraPest, which is already being deployed in Seattle.
ContraPest works by inducing early menopause in female rats while reducing sperm production in males.
Johnson called it a better solution than rat poison because rats have the ability to “learn” which food sources are bad for them and adjust their behaviour.
A trial of the oral contraceptive was conducted in Washington D.C. in 2019, but the Department of Health said”the results proved inconclusive” and stopped using the product.
Meanwhile, the province of Alberta says it has been a rat-free zone for about 70 years, adhering to a zero-tolerance policy that even prohibits residents from keeping the rodents as pets.
The province says it does not allow rat populations to establish themselves and while small infestations might occasionally occur, those rats are isolated and eradicated when found. Public vigilance, prevention of rat infestations by efforts like rat-proofing structures and removing food sources, are key, the province says.
Karen Wickerson, the province’s rat and pest specialist, doubts whether the humane birth control strategy suggested by Ottawa would be enough to fight the problem plaguing North American cities by itself.
“They have to continuously eat (the birth control) for (population reduction) to continue, so I think there’s a lot kind of missing from that strategy,” she said.
Wickerson has been at the helm of the province’s rat control program for four years, and says that a multi-pronged approach is necessary, but ultimately the province prescribes to a strategy of elimination based on vigilant citizen reportage.
The project that began in the 1950s has been so successful that many Albertans don’t even know what a rat looks like anymore, Wickerson said, sometimes sending pictures of tree squirrels to the official government reporting email.
“If you’ve never lived outside of Alberta, you may never have seen a rat before and so they’re often misidentified,” she said, adding that muskrats make up about 50 per cent of the 400-500 yearly reports of alleged rat sightings.
Along with public education and participation, Alberta has established a veritable rat exclusion zone. The Rocky Mountains to the west and co-ordination with neighbouring Saskatchewan to the east have fortified the rat-free borders, something that might be difficult to establish in Ontario’s urban centres.
“For the province of Ontario, that rat is out of the gate,” said Johnson, the Ottawa councillor. “So we unfortunately have to work reactively instead of proactively as Alberta was able to back 70 years ago.”
Ontario isn’t alone in its struggle.
New York City’s mayor will be hosting the Urban Rat Summit in September, with expected participation of experts from cities like Boston, New Orleans, and Seattle.
The inaugural conference aims to bring together experts in pest control, academic researchers, and politicians in order to share best practices for rat population control in North American cities.
Bravo, the Toronto councillor, said knowledge sharing and co-ordination across regions is key to the fight.
“We’re part of a huge, continuous megalopolis here, and collaboration is always important,” she said. “If there’s good things being done in Peel or in Ottawa or in Chicago, we want to know about that.”
’PERFECT RAT STORM’: Toronto, Ottawa seek ways to fight increasingly visible rodents
A sharp increase in construction in Toronto, due to transit projects and housing development, has disrupted rat habitats deep underground
Las Vegas hits 5th consecutive day over 46C as heat wave continues
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ken Ritter and Ty Oneil
Published Jul 10, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 Celsius) or greater amid a lengthening hot spell that is expected to broil much of the U.S. into the weekend.
The temperature climbed to 115 shortly after 1 p.m. at Harry Reid International Airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days set in July 2005. And the record could be extended, or even doubled, by the weekend.
Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking that Nevada’s largest city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented, with forecasters calling it “the most extreme heat wave” since the National Weather Service began keeping records in Las Vegas in 1937.
Already the city has broken 16 heat records since June 1, well before the official start of summer, “and we’re not even halfway through July yet,” meteorologist Morgan Stessman said Wednesday. That includes an all-time high of 120 F (48.8 C) set on Sunday, which beat the previous 117 F (47.2 C) record.
Alyse Sobosan said this July has felt the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day if she can help it.
“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.”
It’s also dangerously hot, health officials have emphasized. There have been at least nine heat-related deaths this year in Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, according to the county coroner’s office. Officials say the toll is likely higher.
“Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.
For homeless residents and others without access to safe environments, officials have set up emergency cooling centres at community centres across southern Nevada.
The Las Vegas area has been under an excessive heat warning on three separate occasions this summer, totaling about 12 days of dangerous heat with little relief even after the sun goes down, Stessman said.
Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at a Las Vegas park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and Stanley.
“If I don’t get out by 8:30 in the morning, then it’s not going to happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in the grass.
More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Wednesday, especially in Western states, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing so all week.
Oregon has seen record daily high temperatures, with Portland reaching 103 F (39.4 C) and Salem and Eugene hitting 105 F (40.5 C) on Tuesday. The number of potentially heat-related deaths in Oregon has risen to 10, according to the state medical examiner’s office. The latest two deaths involved a 54-year-old man in Jackson County and a 27-year-old man in Klamath County.
On the other side of the nation, the National Weather Service warned of major-to-extreme heat risk over portions of the East Coast.
An excessive heat warning remained in place Wednesday for the Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey. Temperatures were around 90 F (32.2 C) for most of the region, and forecasters warned the heat index could soar as high as 108 F (42.2 C). The warning was due to expire at 8 p.m. Wednesday, though forecasters said there may be a need to extend it.
The heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend in Death Valley National Park. At Death Valley on Tuesday, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer that was reading 120 F (48.9 C).
Simon Pell and Lisa Gregory from London left their air-conditioned RV to experience a midday blast of heat that would be unthinkable back home.
“I wanted to experience what it would feel like,” Pell said. “It’s an incredible experience.”
At the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service was investigating the third hiker death in recent weeks. Temperatures on parts of some trails can reach 120 F (49 C) in the shade.
An excessive heat warning continued Wednesday in many parts of southern and central Arizona. Forecasters said the high in Phoenix was expected to reach 114 F (45.5 C) after it hit 116 F (46.6 C) Tuesday, tying the previous record for the date set in 1958.
Authorities were investigating the death of a 2-year-old who was left alone in a hot vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Marana, near Tucson, police said. At Lake Havasu, a 4-month-old died from heat-related complications Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department said.
The U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was a record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “ polar pods, ” devices filled with water and ice to cool a person exhibiting symptoms of heat stroke or a related medical emergency.
Extreme heat in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.
A blaze burning in northern Oregon, about 178 kilometres east of Portland, blew up to 28 square kilometres by Wednesday afternoon due to hot temperatures, gusty wind and low humidity, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal. The Larch Creek Fire closed Highway 197 and forced evacuations for remote homes.
In California, firefighters were battling least 19 wildfires Wednesday, including a 117-square-kilometre blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara County.
— Associated Press journalists Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; Anita Snow in Phoenix; Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada; Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; Martha Bellisle in Seattle and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; contributed to this report.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ken Ritter and Ty Oneil
Published Jul 10, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 Celsius) or greater amid a lengthening hot spell that is expected to broil much of the U.S. into the weekend.
The temperature climbed to 115 shortly after 1 p.m. at Harry Reid International Airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days set in July 2005. And the record could be extended, or even doubled, by the weekend.
Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking that Nevada’s largest city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented, with forecasters calling it “the most extreme heat wave” since the National Weather Service began keeping records in Las Vegas in 1937.
Already the city has broken 16 heat records since June 1, well before the official start of summer, “and we’re not even halfway through July yet,” meteorologist Morgan Stessman said Wednesday. That includes an all-time high of 120 F (48.8 C) set on Sunday, which beat the previous 117 F (47.2 C) record.
Alyse Sobosan said this July has felt the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day if she can help it.
“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.”
It’s also dangerously hot, health officials have emphasized. There have been at least nine heat-related deaths this year in Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, according to the county coroner’s office. Officials say the toll is likely higher.
“Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.
For homeless residents and others without access to safe environments, officials have set up emergency cooling centres at community centres across southern Nevada.
The Las Vegas area has been under an excessive heat warning on three separate occasions this summer, totaling about 12 days of dangerous heat with little relief even after the sun goes down, Stessman said.
Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at a Las Vegas park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and Stanley.
“If I don’t get out by 8:30 in the morning, then it’s not going to happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in the grass.
More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Wednesday, especially in Western states, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing so all week.
Oregon has seen record daily high temperatures, with Portland reaching 103 F (39.4 C) and Salem and Eugene hitting 105 F (40.5 C) on Tuesday. The number of potentially heat-related deaths in Oregon has risen to 10, according to the state medical examiner’s office. The latest two deaths involved a 54-year-old man in Jackson County and a 27-year-old man in Klamath County.
On the other side of the nation, the National Weather Service warned of major-to-extreme heat risk over portions of the East Coast.
An excessive heat warning remained in place Wednesday for the Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey. Temperatures were around 90 F (32.2 C) for most of the region, and forecasters warned the heat index could soar as high as 108 F (42.2 C). The warning was due to expire at 8 p.m. Wednesday, though forecasters said there may be a need to extend it.
The heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend in Death Valley National Park. At Death Valley on Tuesday, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer that was reading 120 F (48.9 C).
Simon Pell and Lisa Gregory from London left their air-conditioned RV to experience a midday blast of heat that would be unthinkable back home.
“I wanted to experience what it would feel like,” Pell said. “It’s an incredible experience.”
At the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service was investigating the third hiker death in recent weeks. Temperatures on parts of some trails can reach 120 F (49 C) in the shade.
An excessive heat warning continued Wednesday in many parts of southern and central Arizona. Forecasters said the high in Phoenix was expected to reach 114 F (45.5 C) after it hit 116 F (46.6 C) Tuesday, tying the previous record for the date set in 1958.
Authorities were investigating the death of a 2-year-old who was left alone in a hot vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Marana, near Tucson, police said. At Lake Havasu, a 4-month-old died from heat-related complications Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department said.
The U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was a record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “ polar pods, ” devices filled with water and ice to cool a person exhibiting symptoms of heat stroke or a related medical emergency.
Extreme heat in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.
A blaze burning in northern Oregon, about 178 kilometres east of Portland, blew up to 28 square kilometres by Wednesday afternoon due to hot temperatures, gusty wind and low humidity, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal. The Larch Creek Fire closed Highway 197 and forced evacuations for remote homes.
In California, firefighters were battling least 19 wildfires Wednesday, including a 117-square-kilometre blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara County.
— Associated Press journalists Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; Anita Snow in Phoenix; Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada; Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; Martha Bellisle in Seattle and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; contributed to this report.
Las Vegas hits 5th consecutive day over 46C as heat wave continues
Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 Celsius) or greater.
Senate's anti-fossil fuel advocate flies over 100,000 km to climate conferences
Author of the article
ostmedia News
Published Jul 11, 2024 • 1 minute read
Is this the behaviour of a fossil fuel opponent?
New records show Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.) — a Liberal appointee and the Senate’s leading anti-fossil fuels advocate — travelled more than 100,000 kilometres to climate conferences from Casablanca to Mumbai in the past year, reports Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time and will require an unprecedented transformation,” Galvez told the Senate in 2023. “It will take us out of our comfort zone, yes, but it is also an opportunity for us to come together and build a better future.”
Newly-filed records show Galvez, the former chair of the Senate energy and environment committee, in the past year travelled 100,084 kilometres’ worth of air travel on climate junkets.
Charges were paid by the Parliamentarians’ Network for a Fossil Fuel Free Future, American Society of Civil Engineers, the University of Pau in France and other sponsors.
Galvez did not comment on Wednesday.
In a Senate debate, however, she repeatedly sought a “whole of government approach” to eliminating fossil fuels.
“Government must do more to protect Canadians,” she said on June 18.
Fossil fuel “contributes to the climate crisis that brings destructive weather events,” Galvez told the Senate June 17.
Records show even as Galvez spoke against fossil fuels she was preparing for a May 25 flight to a Casablanca conference on “energy justice” and a May 2 meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil concerning “fossil fuel phase out in the Amazon.”
Senate filings show the Senator also discussed fossil fuels and climate change at meetings in Basel, Bled in Slovenia, Bonn, Marrakesh, Mumbai and Pau.
torontosun.com
Author of the article
ostmedia NewsPublished Jul 11, 2024 • 1 minute read
Is this the behaviour of a fossil fuel opponent?
New records show Senator Rosa Galvez (Que.) — a Liberal appointee and the Senate’s leading anti-fossil fuels advocate — travelled more than 100,000 kilometres to climate conferences from Casablanca to Mumbai in the past year, reports Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our time and will require an unprecedented transformation,” Galvez told the Senate in 2023. “It will take us out of our comfort zone, yes, but it is also an opportunity for us to come together and build a better future.”
Newly-filed records show Galvez, the former chair of the Senate energy and environment committee, in the past year travelled 100,084 kilometres’ worth of air travel on climate junkets.
Charges were paid by the Parliamentarians’ Network for a Fossil Fuel Free Future, American Society of Civil Engineers, the University of Pau in France and other sponsors.
Galvez did not comment on Wednesday.
In a Senate debate, however, she repeatedly sought a “whole of government approach” to eliminating fossil fuels.
“Government must do more to protect Canadians,” she said on June 18.
Fossil fuel “contributes to the climate crisis that brings destructive weather events,” Galvez told the Senate June 17.
Records show even as Galvez spoke against fossil fuels she was preparing for a May 25 flight to a Casablanca conference on “energy justice” and a May 2 meeting in Sao Paulo, Brazil concerning “fossil fuel phase out in the Amazon.”
Senate filings show the Senator also discussed fossil fuels and climate change at meetings in Basel, Bled in Slovenia, Bonn, Marrakesh, Mumbai and Pau.
Senate's anti-fossil fuel advocate flies over 100,000 km to climate conferences
New records show Rosa Galvez, the Senate’s leading anti-fossil fuels advocate travelled more than 100,000 kilometres to climate conferences.
Sizzling heat wave in parts of Europe prompts alerts
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jovana Gec
Published Jul 11, 2024 • 2 minute read
BELGRADE, Serbia — Weather alerts, forest fires, melting pavement in cities: A sizzling heat wave has sent temperatures in parts of central and southern Europe soaring toward 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places.
From Italy to Romania, authorities warned people to be cautious, drive carefully if going on holiday, drink plenty of water and avoid going out during the hottest hours of the day.
Italian authorities declared a red weather alert in seven cities on Thursday, mostly in the central parts of the country but also the capital Rome and Trieste in the northeast. The heat conditions are aggravated by humidity and could affect healthy people as well as those with health conditions, authorities warned.
Similar warnings were issued in neighboring Croatia and further east and south. Croatia’s main tourism resort, the southern Adriatic Sea town of Dubrovnik, recorded 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) at dawn, signalling there won’t be relief when the sun goes down.
Forest fires have been reported this week in Albania, near the border with Greece, as well as in Bosnia and Italy.
Meteorologists said temperatures were even higher than officially reported in big cities where sizzling concrete radiates the heat above the ground and the asphalt softens under one’s feet.
“It was impossible to breathe yesterday,” said Antonela Spičanović, from the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, where temperatures reached 39C (102F) on Wednesday. The city seemed deserted with many of its residents staying indoors or heading for the Adriatic Sea coast or the mountains.
“I spend my days in the apartment, under the air conditioning,” said Đorđe Stanišić, an electrical engineer also from Podgorica. “It’s hell outside.”
Mendim Rugova, a meteorologist from neighboring Kosovo, said temperatures in the country have risen on average by 2.5 degrees since the 1980s. He said the current heat wave could last until the end of July.
“In the region we could see temperatures above 40C, in parts of Albania, Northern Macedonia, in Greece and also in parts of Serbia,” he predicted.
In Czechia’s capital of Prague, where temperatures reached 34C Wednesday before dropping slightly Thursday, the city zoo delivered ten tons of ice to provide much-needed relief for the animals.
The ice was strategically placed around the zoo Wednesday creating cool spots where animals could find refuge from unusually high temperatures.
In the Romanian capital Bucharest, street thermometers showed 42C ( 107F) on Tuesday and Wednesday though the official measurements were a few degrees lower.
Neighboring Serbia reported record temperatures so far this summer, with thermostats at 35C (95F) Thursday morning in the north of the country. In the capital Belgrade, doctors reported treating people who collapsed, felt dizzy or complained of headaches due to the heat.
Serbian authorities have said that the use of air conditioning led to huge power consumption similar to levels normally seen in winter, when many in the Balkan country use electricity for heating.
During a previous heat wave last month, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Albania faced a major power outage amid the overload and a collapse of a regional distribution line. Earlier this month, a powerful storm swept the region after days of heat and killed two people, damaged houses while pulling out trees and flooding streets.
Experts say human-induced climate change has brought wild weather swings, increasingly unpredictable storms and heat waves.
torontosun.com
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Jovana Gec
Published Jul 11, 2024 • 2 minute read
BELGRADE, Serbia — Weather alerts, forest fires, melting pavement in cities: A sizzling heat wave has sent temperatures in parts of central and southern Europe soaring toward 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places.
From Italy to Romania, authorities warned people to be cautious, drive carefully if going on holiday, drink plenty of water and avoid going out during the hottest hours of the day.
Italian authorities declared a red weather alert in seven cities on Thursday, mostly in the central parts of the country but also the capital Rome and Trieste in the northeast. The heat conditions are aggravated by humidity and could affect healthy people as well as those with health conditions, authorities warned.
Similar warnings were issued in neighboring Croatia and further east and south. Croatia’s main tourism resort, the southern Adriatic Sea town of Dubrovnik, recorded 28 degrees Celsius (82.4 Fahrenheit) at dawn, signalling there won’t be relief when the sun goes down.
Forest fires have been reported this week in Albania, near the border with Greece, as well as in Bosnia and Italy.
Meteorologists said temperatures were even higher than officially reported in big cities where sizzling concrete radiates the heat above the ground and the asphalt softens under one’s feet.
“It was impossible to breathe yesterday,” said Antonela Spičanović, from the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, where temperatures reached 39C (102F) on Wednesday. The city seemed deserted with many of its residents staying indoors or heading for the Adriatic Sea coast or the mountains.
“I spend my days in the apartment, under the air conditioning,” said Đorđe Stanišić, an electrical engineer also from Podgorica. “It’s hell outside.”
Mendim Rugova, a meteorologist from neighboring Kosovo, said temperatures in the country have risen on average by 2.5 degrees since the 1980s. He said the current heat wave could last until the end of July.
“In the region we could see temperatures above 40C, in parts of Albania, Northern Macedonia, in Greece and also in parts of Serbia,” he predicted.
In Czechia’s capital of Prague, where temperatures reached 34C Wednesday before dropping slightly Thursday, the city zoo delivered ten tons of ice to provide much-needed relief for the animals.
The ice was strategically placed around the zoo Wednesday creating cool spots where animals could find refuge from unusually high temperatures.
In the Romanian capital Bucharest, street thermometers showed 42C ( 107F) on Tuesday and Wednesday though the official measurements were a few degrees lower.
Neighboring Serbia reported record temperatures so far this summer, with thermostats at 35C (95F) Thursday morning in the north of the country. In the capital Belgrade, doctors reported treating people who collapsed, felt dizzy or complained of headaches due to the heat.
Serbian authorities have said that the use of air conditioning led to huge power consumption similar to levels normally seen in winter, when many in the Balkan country use electricity for heating.
During a previous heat wave last month, Montenegro, Bosnia, Croatia and Albania faced a major power outage amid the overload and a collapse of a regional distribution line. Earlier this month, a powerful storm swept the region after days of heat and killed two people, damaged houses while pulling out trees and flooding streets.
Experts say human-induced climate change has brought wild weather swings, increasingly unpredictable storms and heat waves.
’IT'S HELL OUTSIDE’: Sizzling heat wave in parts of Europe prompts alerts
A sizzling heat wave has sent temperatures in parts of central and southern Europe soaring toward 40 degrees Celsius
Records are made to be broken .Las Vegas hits 5th consecutive day over 46C as heat wave continues
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Ken Ritter and Ty Oneil
Published Jul 10, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 5 minute read
LAS VEGAS — Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 Celsius) or greater amid a lengthening hot spell that is expected to broil much of the U.S. into the weekend.
The temperature climbed to 115 shortly after 1 p.m. at Harry Reid International Airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days set in July 2005. And the record could be extended, or even doubled, by the weekend.
Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking that Nevada’s largest city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented, with forecasters calling it “the most extreme heat wave” since the National Weather Service began keeping records in Las Vegas in 1937.
Already the city has broken 16 heat records since June 1, well before the official start of summer, “and we’re not even halfway through July yet,” meteorologist Morgan Stessman said Wednesday. That includes an all-time high of 120 F (48.8 C) set on Sunday, which beat the previous 117 F (47.2 C) record.
Alyse Sobosan said this July has felt the hottest in the 15 years she has lived in Las Vegas. She said she doesn’t step outside during the day if she can help it.
“It’s oppressively hot,” she said. “It’s like you can’t really live your life.”
It’s also dangerously hot, health officials have emphasized. There have been at least nine heat-related deaths this year in Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, according to the county coroner’s office. Officials say the toll is likely higher.
“Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.
For homeless residents and others without access to safe environments, officials have set up emergency cooling centres at community centres across southern Nevada.
The Las Vegas area has been under an excessive heat warning on three separate occasions this summer, totaling about 12 days of dangerous heat with little relief even after the sun goes down, Stessman said.
Keith Bailey and Lee Doss met early Wednesday morning at a Las Vegas park to beat the heat and exercise their dogs, Breakie, Ollie and Stanley.
“If I don’t get out by 8:30 in the morning, then it’s not going to happen that day,” Bailey said, wearing a sunhat while the dogs played in the grass.
More than 142 million people around the U.S. were under heat alerts Wednesday, especially in Western states, where dozens of locations tied or broke heat records over the weekend and are expected to keep doing so all week.
Oregon has seen record daily high temperatures, with Portland reaching 103 F (39.4 C) and Salem and Eugene hitting 105 F (40.5 C) on Tuesday. The number of potentially heat-related deaths in Oregon has risen to 10, according to the state medical examiner’s office. The latest two deaths involved a 54-year-old man in Jackson County and a 27-year-old man in Klamath County.
On the other side of the nation, the National Weather Service warned of major-to-extreme heat risk over portions of the East Coast.
An excessive heat warning remained in place Wednesday for the Philadelphia area, northern Delaware and nearly all of New Jersey. Temperatures were around 90 F (32.2 C) for most of the region, and forecasters warned the heat index could soar as high as 108 F (42.2 C). The warning was due to expire at 8 p.m. Wednesday, though forecasters said there may be a need to extend it.
The heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death over the weekend in Death Valley National Park. At Death Valley on Tuesday, tourists queued for photos in front of a giant thermometer that was reading 120 F (48.9 C).
Simon Pell and Lisa Gregory from London left their air-conditioned RV to experience a midday blast of heat that would be unthinkable back home.
“I wanted to experience what it would feel like,” Pell said. “It’s an incredible experience.”
At the Grand Canyon, the National Park Service was investigating the third hiker death in recent weeks. Temperatures on parts of some trails can reach 120 F (49 C) in the shade.
An excessive heat warning continued Wednesday in many parts of southern and central Arizona. Forecasters said the high in Phoenix was expected to reach 114 F (45.5 C) after it hit 116 F (46.6 C) Tuesday, tying the previous record for the date set in 1958.
Authorities were investigating the death of a 2-year-old who was left alone in a hot vehicle Tuesday afternoon in Marana, near Tucson, police said. At Lake Havasu, a 4-month-old died from heat-related complications Friday, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Department said.
The U.S. heat wave came as the global temperature in June was a record warm for the 13th straight month and marked the 12th straight month that the world was 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial times, the European climate service Copernicus said. Most of this heat, trapped by human-caused climate change, is from long-term warming from greenhouse gases emitted by the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, scientists say.
Firefighters in Henderson, Nevada, last week became the first in the region to deploy what city spokesperson Madeleine Skains called “ polar pods, ” devices filled with water and ice to cool a person exhibiting symptoms of heat stroke or a related medical emergency.
Extreme heat in the West has also dried out vegetation that fuels wildfires.
A blaze burning in northern Oregon, about 178 kilometres east of Portland, blew up to 28 square kilometres by Wednesday afternoon due to hot temperatures, gusty wind and low humidity, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal. The Larch Creek Fire closed Highway 197 and forced evacuations for remote homes.
In California, firefighters were battling least 19 wildfires Wednesday, including a 117-square-kilometre blaze that prompted evacuation orders for about 200 homes in the mountains of Santa Barbara County.
— Associated Press journalists Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; Anita Snow in Phoenix; Scott Sonner and Gabe Stern in Reno, Nevada; Christopher Weber and John Antczak in Los Angeles; Martha Bellisle in Seattle and Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey; contributed to this report.
Las Vegas hits 5th consecutive day over 46C as heat wave continues
Las Vegas baked Wednesday in its record fifth consecutive day of temperatures sizzling at 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46.1 Celsius) or greater.
Since when are Gary Oaks endangered , they grow all over the southern island ? Not condoning burning them .
