US Heatwave

Official: 19 firefighters killed in Arizona

Nineteen firefighters were killed Sunday battling a blaze in Arizona, the state forestry division said.

CNN,

1 July, 2013

The vast majority were from Prescott, said Wade Ward with the Prescott Fire Department.

State forestry official Art Morrison said the firefighters were members of a "hotshot" crew, tasked with digging a fire line and creating an escape route.

"In normal circumstances, when you're digging fire line, you make sure you have a good escape route, and you have a safety zone set up," Morrison said. "Evidently, their safety zone wasn't big enough, and the fire just overtook them."

The crew was fighting the Yarnell Hill fire, which broke out Friday northwest of Phoenix. The fire has grown to 1,000 acres, damaged three homes and forced the evacuations of residents in the communities of Peeples Valley and Yarnell, Morrison said.

Authorities believe lightning sparked the blaze.

Not including the 19 deaths reported in Arizona, there have been 43 firefighter fatalities reported so far in 2013, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. A total of 83 firefighters died last year while on duty.

A Facebook page in memory of the Arizona firefighters was created Sunday night.

People left their condolences and messages of support.

"Such a tragic loss. My heart aches for these brave souls, and for their families and friends," wrote one.

"I pray for the families and the town of Prescott. RIP," wrote another.

I tried a Google search on wildfires in the Canadian far north – and found precisely nothing apart from this report. The mainstream media is not very interested in letting people know what is really happening in the Arctic.

'My cellphone burns my ear, my camera stops working': Death Valley on the brink of breaking its own record as hottest place on Earth

Chris Carlson braves the (almost) record-breaking heat at Furnace Creek – and regrets hiring a black car for the journey

the Independent,

30 June 2013

By 9am, the two bags of ice I loaded into the cooler are gone and the floor of my rental car looks like a bin at a recycling plant. Hydration is essential.

I know what to expect in Death Valley: unrelenting heat so bad it makes my eyes hurt, as if someone is blowing a hair dryer in my face. I don’t leave CDs or electronics in the car because they could melt or warp. I always carry bottles of water.

But I still make mistakes. I forget my oven mitts, the desert driving trick I learned as a teenager after burning my hands on the steering wheel. And my rental car is black, adding several degrees to the outside temperature of 127F [53C].

When the big digital thermometer at the Furnace Creek visitor centre ticks up to 128F, a few people jump out of their cars to take a picture. The record temperature for the region – and the world – is 134F, reached a century ago.

I try to work in flip-flops, but the sun sears the tops of my feet and I am forced to put shoes on. My cellphone, pulled from my shirt pocket, is so hot it burns my ear when I try to take a call from my wife.

One of my first stops is at the Furnace Creek Golf Course, a place I’ve played in the past. The guy in the pro shop tells me they’ve had only two players all morning. Both were employees.

I don’t stay long. The camera around my neck gets so hot it stops working. An error message flashes up.

I’m surprised to find out that hotels are packed with visitors. This is Death Valley’s busy season. Tourists, mostly from Europe, come to experience extreme heat, or maybe they just don’t know what they’re getting into. Death Valley is between the Grand Canyon and Yosemite, and many people add it to their itinerary.

Tourists are out today, but they rarely emerge from their cars. They drive through the brown, cracked landscape, peering out at the vast desert and occasionally rolling down the windows to feel the heat, but only briefly. Those who do get out of their cars park in sparse shade, sprint to local landmarks, snap a few photos and then jump back in to the air conditioning. By midday, few people can be seen.

Record-setting heat wave turns fatal in Southwest

Death Valley resident Mike Wood says he's used to the heat. But when his running shoes begin to melt, he starts to pay attention.

CNN,

1 July, 2013

"The ground temperatures here can approach a hundred degrees so you're talking about pretty much boiling the shoes ... everything that kind of holds the shoe together kind of comes apart," Wood said.

Wood hit the pavement running despite temperatures that hit 128 (53 degrees C) this weekend in Death Valley.

That was the high reported by the National Weather Service on Sunday afternoon. It recorded the same temperature Saturday, after an initial reported reading of 127, according to meteorologist Dan Berc.

Highs in Las Vegas hit 117 on Sunday. This tied the all-time record for the city, first set in 1942 and tied in 2005, the National Weather Service reported.

The record-setting heat wave is expected to bake the Southwest well into the work week.

Civic and emergency officials throughout the Southwest say if there was ever a time to worry, this would be it. The reason isn't just the oppressive heat that is plaguing the region: It's the fact it is expected to hang around, and possibly even get worse, over the next few days.

The heat may have led to the death of an elderly man in Las Vegas. Paramedics found the man dead in his home, which did not have air conditioning, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue spokesman Tim Szymanski said.

He died of cardiac arrest and the heat may have contributed to his death, although the coroner will make the final determination, Szymanski said.

Paramedics also responded to two "very serious heat related medical calls" on Saturday, even though the victims had air conditioning in the home or car, Las Vegas Fire & Rescue tweeted.

The heat wave comes just a couple weeks before the 100th anniversary of what the National Weather Service calls the "highest reliably recorded air temperature on Earth" -- 134 degrees on July 10, 1913, in Death Valley's Greenland Ranch.

The valley is consistently deemed the hottest location in the world because of its depth and shape. It has one of the world's lowest elevations and also serves as one of the driest locations in North America. Its 11,000-foot surrounding mountain range traps and radiates heat down into it.

Despite the extreme heat, Death Valley's National Park Service says several animal species thrive in the severe climate because of its great range in elevations. Coyotes, bats and bobcats are among the 51 species of native mammals there. The valley also has more 30 species of reptiles, such as the desert turtle and lizards.

At the aptly named Furnace Creek, in Death Valley National Park, the heat will stay on full blast through Tuesday at the earliest. Nighttime lows will drop to about 96 degrees.

"We have more work than we can handle," said Max Ghaly of Cathedral City Air Conditioning and Heating in Palm Springs, California. "We're running all over the place trying to do what we can."

Heat wave bakes the West Extreme heat taking toll on Utah Prevent asthma attacks in the heat

"I'm not worried as much about the people who have lived here a while," said Sgt. Troy Stirling, police spokesman in the Lake Havasu, Arizona, near the California state line.

"It's more the tourists coming into the area, even from Southern California, who aren't used to this kind of heat."

US Airways had to cancel 18 flights Saturday because of the heat, spokesman Todd Lehmacher said. He said planes are certified for takeoff up to 118 degrees, but the temperature crept up to 119 degrees in Phoenix on Saturday.

Extended heat warnings

The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for large parts of California, Nevada and Arizona, and a heat advisory for other parts of Nevada.

Many of the excessive heat warnings extend through Tuesday night. Starting Wednesday, temperatures will drop by a couple of degrees, moving closer to normal temperatures.

"It'll still be hot, but not as intense as we're seeing now," said Chris Stachelski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.

Forecasters say temperatures through the weekend could rival a 2005 heat wave that killed 17 people in the Las Vegas area.

The culprit is a high pressure dome that's blocking cooler air coming down from the Pacific Northwest, CNN meteorologist Indra Petersons said.

Even dusk won't provide much respite, as temperatures might not drop below 90 degrees in many places, even in the middle of the night.

Some heat wave advice

"The No. 1 thing is to absolutely know your limitations and to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water," Stachelski advised those coping with the high temperatures.

He recommended limiting time outdoors. For those who have to do any strenuous activity outside, he advises doing it in the early morning, evening or simply putting it off until the end of the week when the temperatures are lower.

Heat stroke symptoms include hallucinations, chills, confusion and dizziness, along with slurred speech.

To protect against heat stress, the CDC advises spending time in air-conditioned places, staying informed of heat warning and drinking lots of fluids.