Drone footage captures scale of wildfires in Turkey's Bursa province
More than 1,100 firefighters were deployed to tackle at least 76 blazes that broke out within 24 hours, as the country faces a wave of heat-driven infernos
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The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘Fire clouds' springing up around the Grand Canyon
Wildfires in Utah and Arizona, near the Grand Canyon, are producing "fire clouds" that can be seen for hundreds of miles and further fuel the fires. The Dragon Bravo fire near the Grand Canyon has become the largest wildfire in the continental U.S. this year, consuming 111,000 acres and destroying the historic lodge at Grand Canyon National Park. The fire is only nine percent contained, as extreme heat and strong winds continue to fuel the blaze, according to the latest update. Both it and the Monroe Fire, burning further north near Monroe, Utah, are generating pyrocumulus clouds — sometimes called "fire clouds" — that form when air over a fire becomes superheated and rises in large, smoky columns. The massive clouds are visible for hundreds of miles and resemble the shape of an anvil. The fires can also generate pyrocumulonimbus clouds, which trigger thunderstorms, and may further fuel the wildfires. "If they get high enough, they can also create downdrafts, and that's something we really watch out for because that can quickly spread the fire and can be very dangerous for firefighters who are doing their work on the ground," Lisa Jennings, a spokesperson for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, told CBS News. Several fire crews battling the Monroe fire were forced to pull back on Wednesday when fire clouds created dangerous conditions on the ground. "Think of the fire as kind of like a hot-air balloon, so it adds buoyancy and things rise as a result," Derek Mallia, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah who studies fire clouds, told CBS News. "You get this towering thunderstorm over the fire, and just like any other thunderstorm it gets really windy underneath it. Because it's the West, these thunderstorms tend to be very dry." If that's not frightening enough, a fire tornado spun up in Utah and tore through a neighborhood with wind speeds of 122 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Mallia said that fire clouds are likely to appear more frequently due to climate change driven by the human burning of fossil fuels. Climate change is producing longer fire seasons, drought conditions, and extreme weather events, as we're seeing play out in the southwest. The temperature and weather conditions in the southwest are continuing to fuel the fires and erasing the gains firefighters have made in containing the blazes. The Dragon Bravo fire crossed a threshold recently, becoming what the U.S. Forest Service calls a "megafire." Megafires earn that frightening title when they reach more than 100,000 acres in size. Driving around the totality of the fire would take about as long as driving from New York to Washington, D.C. According to fire officials, the blaze in Arizona is continuing to push north. In Utah, the Monroe fire has consumed approximately 50,000 acres and the state's governor, Spencer Cox, said "terrible conditions" are continuing to fuel the blaze. 'These terrible conditions that are making it impossible for us to get ahead of this fire exist in every corner of the state right now,' Cox said. 'It would be very easy to have more fires like this one, so we need people to be incredibly cautious.' The Monroe fire is only seven percent contained.
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Weather tracker: deadly floods devastate northern China
At least 70 people have died in northern China after another bout of torrential rain triggered flooding, the latest in a series of extreme rainfall events in recent months. Between 23 and 29 July, Beijing and its surrounding areas recorded an average of 166mm, equivalent to the monthly norm. The suburban district of Miyun received the highest amount of rainfall, with 543mm recorded, equivalent to the region's annual average. The death toll included 31 people in a Miyun care home, 10 who were swept away in a minibus in Shangxi province, and eight people in a landslide in the city of Chengde. Floods also damaged roads and vital infrastructure, cutting off more than 130 rural villages and leading to the evacuation of more than 80,000 people from their homes. The increasing frequency of high-rainfall events in China has been linked to rising global temperatures; each degree in warming enables the atmosphere to hold 7% more moisture. Meanwhile, Japan is braced for Tropical Storm Krosa on Friday, which is expected to skirt past the south-eastern Kanto region via the Izu islands. Although Krosa travelled towards Japan during its initial north-westerly path, a forecasted change to a more north-easterly direction means the system is likely to avoid a direct hit. However, its close proximity to the Chiba region may bring 120-200mm of rain in 24 hours. This week, as much of Europe experiences below-average temperatures, parts of Scandinavia have been engulfed by unusually intense heat. Prolonged heatwave conditions swept the north of the continent in mid-July, driven by exceptionally high sea-surface temperatures off Norway's northern coast and a stubborn area of high pressure that brought sunny weather and sinking, compressing air. As a result, temperatures in Norway, Sweden and Finland rose 8-10C (46-40F) above seasonal norms and remained elevated for nearly two weeks. The Norwegian counties of Trøndelag and Nordland exceeded 30C for 13 consecutive days, including in Storforsheia, just north of the Arctic Circle. It was the warmest two-week period on record in several areas. In the past week, the heat has shifted north and east, easing across much of Norway and Sweden and pushing temperatures 10-15C above normal in Finland and north-western Russia. Temperatures in the upper 20s celsius are likely to persist for at least the next five days several hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle.
The Independent
10 hours ago
- The Independent
UK sizzled in fifth warmest July on record
Last month was the UK's fifth warmest July on record, as long periods of hot weather saw parts of the country experience two heatwaves in quick succession. The mean average temperature across the month was 16.8C, according to provisional figures from the Met Office. This is slightly below the warmest July on record in 2006, when the average reached 17.8C, and is also behind 2018 (17.2C), 1983 (17.1C) and 2013 (17.0C). July was the sixth consecutive month of above-average mean temperatures for the UK and followed the warmest June on record for England and second warmest June for the country as a whole. The first day of July brought the hottest temperature of the year so far, with 35.8C measured in Faversham in Kent, and two separate heatwaves affected much of the UK in the first half of the month. The long spells of dry weather this year have already led to four areas being declared officially in drought: the East Midlands, north-west England, the West Midlands and Yorkshire. All four UK nations recorded one of their top 10 warmest Julys: Scotland and Northern Ireland saw their sixth warmest, England its seventh and Wales its tenth. Met Office temperature records begin in 1884.
