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In Woodland Hills, just over 30 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, 49.4 degrees were measured Sunday. It is the highest officially measured temperature in the region, according to the US equivalent of SMHI, National Weather Service, NWS. Similar records were measured at several other locations.
The heat and high temperatures prompted NWS to issue heat advisories for nearly all of California.
This is the second time before long the state is sweating in an extreme heat wave with hundreds of new temperature records. On August 16, 54.4 degrees were measured in Death Valley. The list is currently being reviewed by the World Meteorological Organization, WMO, and if approved, it is one of the highest temperatures ever measured in the world.
The extreme heat is stopping the large wildfires that have been raging for weeks. The fires are now the largest ever measured in California, covering nearly 8,500 square kilometers, an area slightly larger than the entirety of Södermanland.
“It’s completely insane. We have set a new record and we haven’t even entered the fire season, which is normally October through November,” Richard Cordova of the California Fire Department told CNN.
Heat waves and drought is a sample map of what drives climate change. Climate change and rising global temperatures are not the direct cause of extreme weather events and natural disasters, but they do amplify the effects.
According to the WMO, extremely high temperatures are part of a trend. Due to climate change, temperature records are being set more frequently than before and heat waves are becoming more intense.
Globally, July was the warmest July measured in the Northern Hemisphere, and Arctic sea ice had the lowest distribution on record in July. The period from January to July of this year was the second warmest ever measured.
Globally, July was the warmest July, which has been measured in the northern hemisphere and sea ice in the Arctic, had the lowest distribution recorded in July. The period from January to July of this year was the second warmest ever measured.
Compared to the early 1970s, summer temperatures have risen 1.8 degrees in Northern California. Among other things, this has led to increased evaporation and drier soils and vegetation, providing the conditions for more forest fires. And fires have increased outside of the regular fire season.
A firefighter is fighting fires in Madera County, California.
Photo: Josh Edelson / AFP
According to a new study, since the 1970s, the area burned during the summer months of June through September has increased by 800 percent. In total throughout the season, the forest fire area has increased fivefold over the same period.
The heat and the fires What is currently plaguing California is a parallel to what happened in Australia in December and January. Neither in the United States nor in Australia were the events a surprise, but it is something that climate scientists have warned about. Elevated average temperatures, prolonged drought in both locations have paved the way for record heat and extreme fires before the fire season begins.
California and Australia have long collaborated on fire fighting. Since its fire seasons have previously occurred at different times, it has been possible to share the expensive and highly specialized flights. Now the fire seasons have spread in both directions so that they overlap. Even before the major fires in Australia, fire experts asked politicians that the country should invest in its own large firefighting aircraft. After the record fires, such promises also came from the political quarters.
