Important Takeaways:
- Wildfires in Brazil’s southern Sao Paulo state have killed at least two people, officials said Saturday. At least 36 cities have been put on high alert.
- The fires have raged in the region outside the city of Sao Paulo, one of Latin America’s most populous cities with more than 11 million residents.
- At least 7,300 government workers and volunteers had been deployed across the state to “contain the advance and put out these fires,” de Freitas told journalists. De Freitas warned that the flames, spurred on by a heat wave and a drought, may be fanned by strong winds.
- The region has been plagued with the worst wildfires in decades, according to local news organization Folha de S.Paulo, which counted 4,973 fires in the region just this year.
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Important Takeaways:
- Wildfires raged across western Turkey for a third straight day Saturday, exacerbated by high winds and warm temperatures, authorities said.
- More than 130 fires have erupted across the country in the past week, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate. Most have been brought under control, but eight major fires continued in a number of provinces including Izmir, Aydin, Manisa, Karabuk and Bolu.
- Thousands of firefighters were tackling the blazes on land and from the air, with dozens of aircraft and hundreds of vehicles aiding in the emergency response.
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Important Takeaways:
- The nation’s disaster agency is being stretched to the limit by a spate of storms and wildfires so far in 2024, and the busiest time of year for the Federal Emergency Management Agency is just beginning.
- FEMA issued 100 disaster and emergency declarations — for 58 severe storms and flooding events and 42 fires — through the first week of August, according to the agency’s database. That is nearly as many as all of last year (114) and well past the 90 declarations of disasters and fire emergencies the agency issued in 2022.
- It is still short of the all-time high of 315 declarations issued by FEMA in 2020, but with the expected active hurricane season ahead and the threat of wildfires continuing in the West, that record isn’t out of reach.
- The flurry of emergency responses comes as FEMA shifts into what is known as “immediate needs funding” mode, in which new obligations not necessary for lifesaving and life-sustaining activities will be paused, the agency announced on Aug. 7.
- And last week the Department of Energy announced it will invest $2.2 billion in projects to make the electrical grid more resilient.
- Meantime, FEMA officials are anxiously waiting for Congress to return in September and consider providing additional disaster aid, including $9 billion for FEMA that was part of an administration request last October.
- FEMA has said the deficit in its disaster relief fund could reach $6 billion by Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
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Important Takeaways:
- Thick grey smoke engulfed Mount Pentelicus that dominates Athens on Monday as the Greek capital battled the infernal fallout from what promises to be its hottest summer on record.
- A 30-kilometre (20-mile) long line of fires was moving towards Athens, reports said, and one has already engulfed the mountain, also known as Mount Pentelikon, famed for the marble used in the Acropolis and other ancient buildings in Athens.
- The nearby historic town of Marathon has also been ordered evacuated.
- Brick homes on roads leading out of Marathon had huge black stains up the sides of their walls left by the flames. Their roofs had been turned to cinders.
- “It’s a catastrophe,” said Marathon social worker Maria Kanavaki. “It’s all burnt. There is a fear what will happen. This summer was the hottest. And the water — will we have enough water?” the 55-year-old told AFP.
- Greek authorities have thrown hundreds of firefighters with trucks and water carrying aircraft into what has become an annual battle as global temperatures soar.
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Important Takeaways:
- With much of the country in the grip of a heat wave that is set to break daily temperature records and make conditions dangerously hot during the holiday weekend, a large and uncontained blaze near Yosemite National Park has triggered evacuations and forced hospital patients to shelter in place.
- Evacuations ordered as new California wildfire ignites in scorching heat wave
- Meteorologists warned earlier this week that the holiday period could be hit by a dual threat of dangerously high heat and wildfires.
- Almost the entire town of Mariposa was under a mandatory evacuation order, with a large area to the east under an evacuation warning.
- In Northern California the much larger Thompson Fire continues to rage across Butte County, where it has burned through almost 3,800 acres and is 46% contained as of Friday morning.
- Many Fourth of July celebrations were canceled across California on Thursday as temperatures soared past the 100 degree mark, while places reached 110.
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Important Takeaways:
- California is hit by ‘dangerously high temperatures’ of up to 117F as 13,000 are evacuated from fierce wildfires and 90million are under heat alert across country
- California is sweltering under ‘dangerously high temperatures’, with the mercury set to rise to 117F and thousands of people evacuated as raging wildfires grip the state.
- The severe heat is only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people placed under heat alerts across the country.
- The torrid conditions have been caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.
- California’s capital, Sacramento, is under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 105 degrees and 115 degrees (40.5 and 46.1 Celsius). Meanwhile, Palm Springs is set to see 117F.
- The heatwave has created perfect conditions for wildfires, with red flag fire warnings issued across the state, with pictures showing the blazes tearing through forests and homes leaving a trail of destruction.
- About 70 miles (113km) north of Sacramento, crews have been working in scorching conditions to battling a wildfire in Butte County that forced the evacuation of about 13,000 people in and around Oroville.
- The blaze, dubbed the Thompson Fire, broke out before noon yesterday and sent up a huge plume of smoke as it swiftly grew to more than 3 square miles (7.7 square kilometers) by evening, with zero containment.
- Firefighters lined roads, trying to keep the flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on the fast-moving blaze.
- California has had a spate of spring and early summer wildfires feeding on abundant grasses spawned by back-to-back wet winters. The largest current blaze, dubbed the Basin Fire, was 17% contained after charring more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County since it was sparked June 26.
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Important Takeaways:
- The so-called Darlene 3 fire broke out in central Oregon on Tuesday and burned more than 2,415 acres by Wednesday morning, prompting officials in the rural city of La Pine – population 2,500 – to issue evacuation orders and warnings
- As of Thursday morning, the east side of town and surrounding areas were under a level three evacuation order, the highest level, while residents in the central and west sides were asked to prepare to flee their homes.
- Officials have contained the fire by 30% as “fire activity picked up” on Wednesday.
- To the north, firefighters made headway against the Long Bend fire, which erupted in central Oregon on Saturday and, as of Wednesday, burned more than 1,000 acres
- The blaze knocked out power to homes and temporarily closed a portion of the Wapinitia Creek
- In New Mexico, firefighters gained momentum in the battle against two blazes that have forced thousands from their homes and killed at least two people.
- The South Fork and Salt fires have scorched 17,569 and 7,939 acres of land, respectively. They broke out on June 17 and have damaged over 23,000 structures and displaced about 8,000 people.
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Important Takeaways:
- Phoenix and Las Vegas are among the cities that will experience blazing heat in the West this week — and the widespread hot and dry conditions will escalate the wildfire threat across the region.
- The combination of a bulge in the jet stream, high pressure building at most levels of the atmosphere and a storm offshore of California will allow the heat to build without any shower or thunderstorm activity for about 50 million people in the West.
- “Sacramento, California, will challenge the daily record high temperature of 103 F by Tuesday, with a current forecast that would match the record set in 1935,”
- Farther south, in Fresno, California, temperatures are projected to be around 105 F
- In Las Vegas, temperatures are forecast to hit 108 on Wednesday, 111 on Thursday and 110 on Friday.
- Temperatures are forecast to reach at least 110 degrees in Phoenix from Wednesday to Friday.
- According to the United States Drought Monitor, more extensive and deeper soil drought conditions are expanding over parts of the interior Southwest, especially in New Mexico and parts of West Texas.
- Recent heavy rain in much of the Northwest will keep the risk of wildfires low in the short term.
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Important Takeaways:
- Texas wildfires map: Track latest locations of blazes as dry weather, wind poses threat
- Texas wildfires have been burning for 5 days
- The wildfires were ignited in the panhandle on Monday Feb. 26. The flames continued to spread throughout the state as dry, warm and windy weather conditions created obstacles for rescue crews to contain the fire.
- The Smokehouse Creek Fire, about 60 miles northeast of Amarillo, is the largest reported fire in state’s history and has burned over a million acres of land.
- Where are the Texas wildfires?
- 687 Reamer — Hutchinson County, 2,000 acres, 10% contained
- Grape Vine Creek — Gray County, 30,000 acres, 60% contained
- Magenta — Oldham County, 3,297 acres, 85% contained
- Smokehouse Creek — Hutchinson County, 1,078,086 acres, 60% contained
- Windy Deuce — Moore County, 142,000 acres, 60% contained
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Important Takeaways:
- State of Emergency declared in Virginia amid wildfires: ‘Additional resources are required to contain these fires’
- Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently declared a state of emergency as two wildfires broke containment lines earlier in November amid dry conditions and high winds, the Guardian reported, and the fires have continued spreading, with a Newsweek report covering recent updates with a map.
- As firefighters responded to the original Quaker Run fire in Madison County and the Tuggles Gap fire in Patrick County, “officials said additional resources [were] required to contain these fires and respond to additional fires,” per a press release. Youngkin’s declaration of a state of emergency allows the mobilization of additional resources, staff, and equipment.
- “This executive order will ensure that the Commonwealth has additional resources and is using every tool at its disposal to keep Virginians safe,” Youngkin said in a press release. “Thank you to our first responders who are doing everything they can to help contain these wildfires in the Commonwealth during this year’s fall fire season.”
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