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Most severe drought in California since 1977 (at the Salton Sea): In the next few weeks, experts expect more fires again due to the drought and heat
Photo: Aude Guerrucci / REUTERS
"What we have seen the last few days was the official opening of the climate catastrophe," said Governor Jay Inslee the US TV station CNN.
He was responding to the devastating heat wave that hit Washington State, which he ruled, in the past few days.
In Seattle, the largest city in the northwestern United States, record temperatures of 41 degrees were measured on Monday.
"We warned about the consequences of climate change for a long time," explains Inslee.
"Now he's here." The Northwest of the USA has already felt this - but "it will affect everyone," said the governor.
It pains him to think of the many people who are suffering from heat stroke or desperately trying to escape the high temperatures.
Last week, the heat wave in Canada and the United States had already contributed to hundreds of deaths.
The situation in the Canadian province of British Columbia was particularly dire.
After several days with record temperatures of up to 49.6 degrees Celsius, a fire burned Lytton down completely.
The temperatures have cooled down a bit by now, but the heat nightmare is not over yet.
US weather services are already predicting the next heat wave for the coming weekend: This time, California in particular could groan under temperatures of at least 40 degrees.
In Yosemite National Park the values should climb to 42 degrees according to the national weather service NWS, in Death Valley even to 54 degrees.
The coming heat wave will not only hit national parks and uninhabited deserts, but also metropolises of millions: According to the US weather services, more than 25 million Americans will be affected by temperatures above 40 degrees in the coming days.
The trigger for this extreme weather is a so-called heat build-up.
In the coming days, a high pressure area is to build up again over the west of the USA, which will grow into a »heat dome«.
High winds, also known as jet streams, are currently stabilizing these extreme weather conditions for humans.
According to climate researchers, this is also due to the fact that the jet stream tends to slow down more and more, especially in summer.
The more warming the earth is caused by the entry of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the more stable weather conditions there are, some of which last for weeks.
"We really see the fingerprints of climate change here," commented Michael Palecki of the US climate agency NOAA on the heat wave last week.
It's not just people who suffer from the heat.
According to the Canadian media, around a billion marine animals, including mussels and starfish, have been "cooked" to death.
Coastal temperatures of over 50 degrees led to mass extinction in the sea in British Columbia, as the animals normally only withstand temperatures over 35 degrees for a few days and collapse rapidly from 40 degrees.
North America's hottest June "ever"
In North America, June of this year was even the warmest since records began in 1979, as the European climate change service Copernicus (C3S) announced in London on Wednesday.
After all, it was the second warmest in Europe, where it was particularly hot in Finland and western Russia.
Worldwide, higher average temperatures were only measured in 2016, 2019 and 2020.
The Copernicus atmosphere monitoring service (Cams) also warns that there could be more forest fires in Eastern Russia and Canada this year.
In the western United States, there is also a "very" to "extremely" high risk of fire due to extreme drought.
The researchers of the Copernicus program have been observing increased fire activity in North America since the end of May.
The largest forest fires so far have occurred in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.
In California, too, the experts expect even more fires.
“Large numbers of forest fires usually occur in regions with drier conditions and higher temperatures.
Initial evidence suggests that this could also be the case with these fires, ”said forest fire expert Mark Parrington from the Copernicus Service.
The researchers not only observe the spread of the fires, but also the air pollution.
The smoke emitted by the fires poses a serious health risk, warn the researchers.
This not only affects local residents, but also people who live further away.
With the help of satellite-based sensors, the researchers can estimate the emissions from forest fires and track the intensity and spread of the fires.
Smoke particles, carbon monoxide and other pollutants could be transported over hundreds, sometimes thousands of kilometers.
Hurricane season opened way too early
To make matters worse, the hurricane season starts extremely early this year.
Here, too, the US media are already discussing the impact of climate change.
On Friday, "Elsa" was the first Atlantic hurricane of this year's season to be recorded.
On Saturday, the experts downgraded him to a tropical storm.
What surprises experts: Elsa is unusually strong for the time of year and appears two months earlier than one is used to from storms of this intensity.
The first storm of the season was also unusual: "Ana" formed in May in the Atlantic north-east of Bermuda.
It was thus above a region of the sea in which storms usually do not form in May.
The last time there was such a storm at this point in the North Atlantic was in the 1950s.
The meteorologists therefore expect a "busy season" - a busy hurricane season.
With material from dpa