A swirl of flame pushed by gusts of 60 miles per hour; firefighters fleeing a bull that attacked them while they were working to put out a fire; new rotating power outages ordered after the power grid was put to the test; a record temperature of 117ºF in the center of a big city; more pollution and almost unbreathable air in places.
A brutal heat wave that is expected to last for days is still hitting California and hitting other states from the West Coast to Texas. Authorities and citizens are in a battle to solve various problems related to this extreme weather event and avoid or reduce the dangers that it entails as much as possible.
One of the most threatening for the region, particularly in California, is the risk of fires because current weather conditions can be favorable for their spread. There are several assets in the state, as well as in other parts of the west of the country, many of them out of control.
The combination of flames and extreme temperatures, for example, have created the ideal situation for a tornado of fire to occur this Saturday afternoon in the northeast part of California, almost on the border with Nevada. It is a rare event, but it can happen occasionally.
John Mittelstadt, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service based in Reno, Nevada, explained to our sister network NBC News that it is a dangerous phenomenon because of its "extremely erratic" nature , which can put firefighters at risk.
Image of the fiery tornado that occurred this Saturday in northeast California, near the border with Nevada. Jordan & Katelynn Hewlett
The forest fire in which this event occurred began near Loyalton this Saturday. It has already burned 2,000 acres and has yet to be contained. Some residents of the area have been evacuated.
Of the several assets in California, there is one that has had authorities particularly concerned after starting in a wooded area north of Los Angeles: it has already burned more than 17,000 acres and after days it is only 12% contained, according to the latest data. available. While fighting him, a group of Ventura County firefighters found themselves in front of a bull and had to flee in a hurry to avoid being rammed.
A bull interrupts a group of firefighters in the middle of work to control the fires in California
Aug. 15, 202000: 19A failure at a power plant and the decrease in available wind power in combination with high demand led the California Independent System Operator (California ISO), which manages the electrical grid in this state, to order new rotating power outages this Saturday. in the afternoon to avoid system breakdowns.
After about 20 minutes, California ISO declared the emergency over and authorized the state's power companies to return power to affected customers, estimated at several thousand by The Associated Press news agency.
On Friday night, the network operator had launched a first plan for temporary power outages: the need was to balance the high energy demand of users by the increased use of devices such as air conditioning due to heat. It was the first plan of its kind since 2001 .
Temperatures above 90ºF, and even in triple digits, have been recorded in many parts of California and also in other states. In Phoenix, Arizona, for example, thermometers rose to 117ºF on Friday, a city record.
[Millions of people in California are left without power in an unprecedented measure against fires]
Local governments and charities set up hydration stations for people to find relief from the heat. The high temperatures are expected to continue next week.
Officials responsible for monitoring air quality warned that current conditions are contributing to increasing air pollution to "very unhealthy" levels , the Los Angeles Times reports. Much of Southern California will experience high pollution through Monday.
Smoke from fires can also cause air breathability problems, adds the same newspaper.
With information from NBC News , AP, Los Angeles Times .