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A sign in Death Valley warns of extreme heat
Photo:
John Locher / AP
Dozens of new fires and evacuations: People in the western United States and Canada are again affected by extreme heat.
Meteorologists are warning of a new "dangerous heat wave" and record temperatures as the forest fires continue to spread in Canada.
Train traffic in the region was restricted, some roads were closed and new evacuations were ordered.
"A dangerous heat wave will hit large parts of the western United States - with record-breaking temperatures," said the US National Meteorological Service on Sunday. According to the US Weather Service, the record temperature of 47.2 degrees Celsius was reached in Las Vegas on Saturday - a temperature that was measured in the desert city once in 1942 and three more times since 2005.
In Canada alone, 50 more fires had broken out in the past two days.
Here the army helps fight the fire.
Almost 300 fires are currently raging in the region.
Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced new emergency measures on Sunday to prevent further forest fires in the region.
Among other things, train connections have been discontinued.
Trains are a common cause of forest fires due to uncontrolled flying sparks due to poor maintenance.
Climate change exacerbates the risk situation
In the US state of Oregon, the so-called bootleg fire continued to spread in the south at the weekend: According to the US forest authority, its area tripled.
Dozens of fires are blazing in California too.
At the end of June, a heat wave in the northwest of the USA and in western Canada with temperatures of up to almost 50 degrees had claimed hundreds of lives.
In the Canadian community of Lytton, around 260 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, 49.6 degrees Celsius had been measured - previously the record in Canada was 45 degrees.
A few days later, the village was almost completely destroyed in an inferno.
Last month was the hottest June on record in North America.
Precipitation and snow cover in the mountains, which usually fill the water reservoirs, are already at a critically low level.
According to scientists, climate change is also exacerbating drought, heat and extreme weather conditions, which can contribute to more violent forest fires.
kha / AFP
