More heat ahead for sweltering West.
The drought and floods in some areas is killing agriculture and human ecology.
HELENA, Mont. - An oppressive heat wave eased a bit in some parts of the West, but forecasters predicted little relief in the days ahead for a region where many cities have baked in triple-digit temperatures.
The National Weather Service issued a red flag wildfire warning for Saturday in eastern Utah and western Colorado, where temperatures were again expected to approach or top 100.
Extreme heat plagued much of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state again on Friday. In Montana, where cattle outnumber residents by more than 2 to 1, livestock and people sought the shade and drought-weary farmers watched for damage to grain.
"We are trying to get our hay up before it disintegrates," said cattle rancher Sharon McDonald near Melville. "It just gets crispy and just falls apart."
Air conditioners — and even swamp coolers — were predictably hot sellers at the hardware store.
"I'm telling you, it has been nuts," said Dennis VanDyke, a manager at Power Townsend in Helena. "The only thing I am getting calls for is air conditioners."
VanDyke said some people prefer swamp coolers, which use a fan and the evaporation of water to cool the air, over the more power-hungry air conditioning units. "They are being bought faster than we can put them on the shelves," he said.
In Montana, temperatures above 100 degrees are usually not seen until August. The normal July high in Helena is 83 degrees — not the high 90s seen Friday. Triple-digit records were set or tied in Great Falls and Billings at 104 degrees each. The mercury reached 105 in the north-central Montana town of Havre, 106 at the Gallatin Field Airport near Bozeman and 107 in Missoula.
In Utah, high school teacher Lois Wolking said she was escaping the summer heat by heading indoors. Temperatures were down a few degrees in Salt Lake City on Friday, but still hovered around 100.
"A swamp cooler, Netflix and reading is how we're surviving," the 58-year-old East High teacher said.
But the heat will hover over most of the far West through at least the end of next week, said Kelly Redmond, a regional climatologist for the National Weather Service. He said it could migrate farther inland and cover more of the West, including Colorado, as the week goes on.
"It looks like it is going to stay place for a good long while," he said.
Boise hit 105 degrees Friday after a high temperature of 104 on Thursday. Lewiston reported a high of 101 on Friday and Pocatello hit 102.
Idaho Power, the state's largest utility, set a record Friday for electricity consumption for the second consecutive day, as triple-digit temperatures continued across much of Idaho.
The company's peak load reached 3,142 megawatts at 4 p.m., topping the previous record set Wednesday of 3,120 megawatts. The old record, 3,084 megawatts, was set in 2006.
Anne Alenskis, a spokeswoman for Idaho Power, said the company has kept records for at least 90 years.
Temperatures were expected to ease slightly in Southern California. Phoenix saw a modest drop, a somewhat cooler 112 degrees compared to 115 on Thursday. With the approach of Arizona's summer rainy season, humidity levels have started climbing along with power demand.
Heat remained an issue along the border. The bodies of six suspected illegal immigrants have been found since Monday in southern Arizona deserts, all likely victims of heat illness while trying to walk into the U.S. from Mexico. The toll, while high, is not unusual during hot spells in the region.
In eastern Oregon, which set 15 record highs on Thursday, temperatures largely dropped to the high 90s. In the center part of the state, population growth and a burgeoning demand for air conditioning meant a rise in electricity demand. The Bonneville Power Administration said it was worried fires could damage transmission lines and cause outages.
In California, heat was mostly confined to inland regions, with triple-digit readings in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. The mercury topped 100 in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley and in the high desert cities of Lancaster and Palmdale, while out east by the Colorado River, the little city of Needles sweltered in 115-degree heat.
But temperatures in most of Los Angeles and the populous Southern California coastal zone were in the 70s and low 80s, while San Francisco and Monterey Bay cities were even cooler.
The National Forest Service reported at least 16 fires over 500 acres in size burning throughout the West, including three new ones that sparked Thursday.
The agency said fire danger was most extreme in Arizona, California, Oregon and Utah — although a "red flag" warning was posted for much of the West.
Arizona Dust Causes Colorado Meltdown
Wind-blown dust from the drought-stricken Southwest can speed the melt of snow in Colorado’s mountains, yet another unpredictable effect of climate change, a new study shows.
In 2006, snows in areas of Colorado's San Juan Mountains above and below the tree line (above which trees can no longer grow), unexpectedly melted a month earlier than usual.
The cause for the premature melt was dust, most likely originally from parched deserts in Arizona and New Mexico, hundreds of miles away.
The dust is less reflective than snow and so reduces the overall reflectivity of the area, allowing for more of the sun’s energy to warm, and subsequently melt, the snow pack. A similar effect of dark soot falling on Arctic snow is thought to speed melting there.
“The connection between dust and lower snow reflectance is already established, but the amount of impact measured and modeled in this system stunned us,” said study team leader Tom Painter of the University of Colorado at Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center. “The fact that dust can reduce the snow cover duration so much—a month earlier—transforms our understanding of mountain sensitivity to external forcings.”
There were eight dust deposition events in 2006, up from only three or four between 2003 and 2005, according to the authors of the study, detailed in the June 23 issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Snowmelt provides one-sixth of the world’s population with drinking water, and is important to sustain agriculture in the western United States.
The expected exacerbation of western droughts brought about by global warming will likely make the situation snowball.
“Recent studies agree that with global warming, the Southwest will be warmer and drier,” Painter said. “Enhanced dust deposition is likely, further shortening snow cover duration.”
“Ultimately, a warming climate and the dust it generates will affect river run-off and soil moisture in the mountains,” he added. “Not only in the Western United States, but across many of the world’s mountains.”
Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming
Southwest Forecast: Expect 90 Years of Drought
Air Pollution Cuts Rainfall Over Mountains
Original Story: Arizona Dust Causes Colorado Meltdown
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Forecasters offer little hope as West sizzles
Triple-digit temperatures to set records; heat wave to last until next week
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:17 p.m. PT July 6, 2007
HELENA, Mont. - If a record-breaking heat wave doesn’t lift soon, cattle rancher Sharon McDonald may see her hay crop turn to dust.
Oppressive temperatures eased a bit in some parts of the West, but McDonald’s central Montana ranch baked under triple-digit heat. Forecasters reported little relief in the days ahead, saying the weather system that brought the high temperatures could last well into next week.
In Montana, where cattle outnumber residents by more than 2 to 1, livestock and people sought shade and drought-weary farmers watched for damage to grain.
“We are trying to get our hay up before it disintegrates,” said McDonald, a rancher near Melville. “It just gets crispy and just falls apart.”
Warnings of excessive heat were posted Friday for much of Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon and Washington state.
Air conditioners — and even swamp coolers — were predictably hot sellers at the hardware store.
“I’m telling you, it has been nuts,” said Dennis VanDyke, a manager at Power Townsend in Helena. “The only thing I am getting calls for is air conditioners.”
VanDyke said some people prefer swamp coolers, which use a fan and the condensation of water to cool the air, over the more power-hungry air conditioning units.
“They are being bought faster than we can put them on the shelves,” he said.
Records set
In Montana, temperatures above 100 are usually not seen until August. The normal July high in Helena is 83 degrees — not the 105 expected Friday.
By midday, records were already set or tied in the Montana cities of Cut Bank, Great Falls, Havre, and Bozeman.
The Montana Department of Transportation said it was putting maintenance crews to work early in the morning so they could finish by midday.
In Boise, where it was headed well above 100 degrees Friday, some found it was too hot to play at a public water fountain.
“We’ll probably leave soon. Two or three o’clock is about my limit before I want to get in some air conditioning,” mother Monica Player said as children ran through jets of water.
Temperatures were expected to ease slightly in Southern California. Phoenix saw a modest drop, a relatively cooler 111 degrees compared to 115 Thursday. With the approach of Arizona’s summer rainy season, humidity levels have started climbing along with power demand.
Heat remained an issue along the border. The bodies of six suspected illegal immigrants have been found since Monday in southern Arizona deserts, all likely victims of heat illness while trying to walk into the U.S. from Mexico. The toll, while high, is not unusual during hot spells in the region.
'A hot start'
In central Oregon, population growth and a burgeoning demand for air conditioning meant a rise in electricity demand. The Bonneville Power Administration said it was worried fires could damage transmission lines and cause outages.
Officials said the fire season could turn fearsome following the dry heat.
“It’s an early start and a hot start,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Velver in Great Falls.
The National Forest Service reported at least 16 fires over 500 acres in size burning throughout the West, including three new ones that sparked Thursday.
The agency said fire danger was most extreme in Arizona, California, Oregon and Utah — although a “red flag” warning was posted for much of the West.
'A good long while'
Velver said temperatures in Montana could start to fall a bit by Saturday. In eastern Oregon, which set 15 record highs on Thursday, temperatures were expected to fall off to between 94 and 100 degrees.
But the heat will hover over most of the far West through at least the end of next week, said Kelly Redmond, a regional climatologist for the National Weather Service. He said it could migrate further inland and cover more of the West, including Colorado, as the week goes on.
“It looks like it is going to stay place for a good long while,” he said.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19619641/
Wildfires rage across western United States
By Jim ChristieSun Jul 8, 6:57 PM ET
Wildfires raged across the western United States on Sunday as firefighters scrambled to prevent flames from spreading across rugged terrain thick with tinder turned bone-dry by scorching weather.
Some of the intense blazes forced hasty evacuations of rural homes and recreational areas and officials temporarily shut highways and railways in some fire zones.
California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana each reported wildfires of varying severity as a heat wave blanketed the western United States.
Fanned by high winds, a fire in Utah grew into a massive blaze covering more than 160,000 acres. In neighboring Nevada a fire burning 30 miles southwest of the town of Winnemucca consumed an estimated 152,000 acres . The two fires forced temporary closures of major interstate highways.
Neighborhoods in Winnemucca were briefly evacuated with the approach of a separate fire that had burned an estimated 25,000 acres of brush.
"People are back in their homes now but we're keeping a very close eye on this fire," Jamie Thompson, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told Reuters. "There is a potential for extreme fire conditions today as well."
Lightning triggered both blazes near Winnemucca and fire crews are on alert for more strikes.
"Isolated cells were moving through the area. They had very little moisture but plenty of lightning," Thompson said. "There is still the potential for isolated thunder storms with lightning of course this afternoon."
In California, fires started by lightning in the Inyo National Forest forced evacuations of campgrounds. The two blazes have scorched an estimated 34,000 acres since Friday, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The Forest Service imposed fire restrictions a week earlier in all Inyo National Forest lands and neighboring Bureau of Land Management lands, expecting increased fire danger from hot, dry weather.
"Everything is very, very dry," said Nancy Upham, a spokeswoman for the Inyo National Forest. "There are seasoned fire fighters who are seeing fire behavior they have never seen before ... Things are just igniting with a single spark."
More than 500 fire fighters are combating the Inyo fires, hoping for calm and predictable winds after strong and erratic gusts on Saturday, Upham added.
"The winds are the wild card," she said.
Lightning, flood threats in West
By TOM GARDNER, Associated Press WriterTue Jul 24, 3:46 PM ET
Fire managers worried Tuesday that lightning could spark more wildfires in the West, where hundreds of square miles of land have been blackened, as thunderstorms also threatened flash flooding in burned-over areas.
A flash flood watch was in effect for parts of western Nevada and the Sierra Nevada range, with forecasters warning of the potential for extensive runoff in areas stripped of vegetation by the wildfire that destroyed at least 254 homes south of Lake Tahoe and by a large blaze southwest of Reno.
Lightning started many of Nevada's current swarm of wildfires, which have burned some 730 square miles.
Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for tiny Jarbidge, Nev., within a mile of a blaze that had blackened more than 880 square miles on the Idaho-Nevada line, fire information officer Bill Watt said. The fire, which was 20 percent contained Tuesday, was mostly in Idaho but the most active part was in Nevada, authorities said.
In northeastern Nevada, the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe declared a state of emergency for the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, most of which has been without power for six days because fires have destroyed more than 240 utility poles.
The tribe is providing ice, propane, flashlights and battery-operated fans, and its fire department is filling bathtubs with water. Temperatures in the region have been near 100 degrees.
Crews have been battling dozens of huge wildfires across the West, primarily in Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, California and Utah, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Tinder-dry conditions across Idaho prompted federal land managers to ban most open burning on millions of acres of public forest and range. The National Interagency Fire Center reported 14 large fires had burned 1,300 square miles of Idaho, more than in any other state.
Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter issued disaster emergency declarations for five counties Monday because of the fire danger.
Fire managers worried Tuesday that dry lightning storms in parts of the West could start more blazes, though the systems also were expected to bring rain, the interagency center said.
"It's great to have rain, but there's always the possibility of a downdraft and erratic winds. There's a high concern over additional lightning strikes," said Ricardo Zuniga, a fire information officer in Utah, where a blaze had charred more than 33 square miles and forced the evacuation of several communities.
Fire lines along the east side of the Utah blaze held during the night, protecting the town of Fountain Green, home to about 1,000 people about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Fountain Green was not evacuated, but residents had earlier been told to leave several tiny communities with a total of about 36 primary residences, officials said. Residents of one of those villages, Holiday Oaks, were allowed to return Tuesday, authorities reported. The blaze was listed as about 20 percent contained.
Crews in northern California were battling about 30 lightning-sparked fires covering 14 square miles near the Oregon state line. The fires started July 10 and had threatened up to 550 homes near the town of Happy Camp.
In Montana, a nearly 22-square-mile fire burning on the edge of Lewis and Clark National Forest led to an evacuation order for 40 summer homes. Many were unoccupied, said Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cheryl Liedle.
Heat wave bakes southern Europe
Many deaths including 33 in Romania; some areas top 110 degrees
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:56 a.m. PT July 26, 2007
ATHENS, Greece - Southern Europe sweltered under the summer’s second major heat wave Wednesday as firefighters battled blazes raging in Greece, Italy and Macedonia.
Officials blamed some fires on arson motivated by the desire to clear land for development.
The heat killed an 81-year-old woman in northern Greece, and a man died in a blaze that consumed homes outside the town of Aegio in the southern part of the country. Officials have attributed dozens of other deaths to the heat, including 33 in Romania.
The day’s high of 113 degrees outside Athens approached the 114.8 degrees reached in the region’s first major heat wave of the summer late last month. High pollution, humidity and stagnant air compounded the misery for residents and tourists in the capital.
Warned to stay home
Authorities warned citizens, especially the elderly, to minimize movement, stay indoors and drink plenty of water. Health officials in Hungary have said high temperatures may have contributed to the deaths of hundreds of seriously ill people.
Some 2,000 firefighters battled dozens of blazes in pine and oak forests in what Macedonia’s Crisis Management Center called one of the country’s worst fire seasons recorded.
One wind-blown fire raced across the border with Greece, where the Fire Service ordered 24-hour patrols in areas at risk. More than 1,000 additional firefighters were being hired to cope with fires around the country.
Stranded residents of Aegio were rescued by helicopter. In the western holiday island of Cephallonia, flames imperiled a nature reserve for native ponies. Tourists and a children’s camp were evacuated as a precaution in other parts of Greece.
Italian authorities said they had discovered incendiary devices at the site of one fire, giving credence to official suspicions that at least some blazes were set to destroy protected forests and create new construction areas.
A firefighting plane crashed in Italy on Monday, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the co-pilot in the area where the incendiary devices were found.
Italy passed a law in 2000 banning construction for 10 years in any burned area. But the rule is not always enforced, and forestry officials have recently closed two hotels — one in the north and one in the south — that were built over the ashes of forests ravaged by fires.
Builders culprits?
Builders are also seen as likely culprits in Greece — the only EU country that lacks a nationwide land registry which means fire-damaged forests have to be re-designated as protected areas.
Firefighters in Italy managed to subdue blazes in central and southern areas — many of them blamed on arson — after about 3,000 tourists and residents were evacuated Tuesday night.
Fires destroyed about 250 acres of forest in western Bulgaria, the Civil Defense Agency said Wednesday, with arson again suspected.
Albania suffered a new round of power and water cuts Wednesday, as hydroelectric power stations were unable to cope with increased demand. For more than a month Albanians have suffered power cuts of up to 15 hours at a stretch, while residents of Tirana, the capital, had access to water through the city’s mains for only two hours a day.
Late Tuesday, the western Balkans suffered widespread breakdowns in systems strained by high demand. Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia were all affected. Northern Greece suffered electricity cuts while many other areas were hit by the power company’s policy of rolling power cuts to stave off a widespread blackout.
Greek officials appealed to consumers to restrict peak-hour power use.
“We ask for citizens’ understanding,” Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said. “Only with their cooperation we can cope with extreme weather conditions that have not appeared in our country for decades.”
Farmers in Romania estimate losses at over $2 billion. Many communities have been left without drinkable water as wells have dried up.
Meteorologists said cooler air was expected in the region by Thursday but no rain was forecast.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19957285/
Weather the determining factor in wildfire fight
Wind, lightning taunt Calif. firefighters; clouds help South Dakota crews
The Associated Press
Updated: 3:49 p.m. PT July 10, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO - Clouds rolled across eastern California on Tuesday, giving firefighters hope for moisture to help them battle huge wildfires in the parched Sierra foothills, officials said.
However, the arriving weather front also carried a threat of wind and lightning that could spread flames and start new fires.
“Anything can happen with huge winds that come up,” U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Nancy Upham said.
Damper, cooler weather already had helped fire crews in South Dakota, but a continuing heat wave was expected to challenge firefighters dealing with fast-moved blazes in other Western states.
Cooler temperatures and lighter wind in Northern California had allowed crews to make significant progress toward taming a 35,000-acre fire in the Inyo National Forest. The state’s largest blaze, sparked by lightning on Friday, was 80 percent contained Tuesday after destroying six homes and closing down trails into a popular wilderness area north of Mount Whitney.
On Sunday, the fire temporarily forced 200 residents of Independence to leave their homes and closed down a long stretch of Highway 395. Eleven firefighters had suffered minor injuries, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Pam Bierce said.
Along the coast, firefighters lost some ground in the Los Padres National Forest as flames there fed on brush and trees unburned in four decades. The 9,500-acre fire, which was 30 percent contained, threatened more than 20 unoccupied cabins in Zaca Lake Retreat and the historic Manzana Schoolhouse.
Firefighters in Nevada faced triple-digit temperatures, choking smoke and difficult terrain as they confronted lightning-sparked fires that blackened had more than 245 square miles across northern Nevada but spared dozens of homes.
Nevada’s largest blaze — near Jackpot and the Idaho line — had blackened 63,000 acres, about 98 square miles, but was 45 percent contained, said Elko Interagency Dispatch Center Manager Bill Roach. Firefighters were hampered by limited access and rough terrain that prevented use of bulldozers and fire trucks, he said.
“The weather forecast for the rest of the week does not look promising,” Roach said. “If the predicted dry lightning and scattered thunderstorms arrive, fire conditions will be extreme once again.”
'Starting to gain a hold'
Weather was cool and cloudy Tuesday in the southwest corner of South Dakota and crews expected to make significant progress on a wildfire near Hot Springs that killed a homeowner and destroyed 30 houses. The blaze had covered an additional 900 or so acres since late Monday, bringing the total to more than 15 square miles or 9,888 acres. It was 20 percent contained Tuesday morning.
“We’re starting to gain a hold on this thing,” Joe Lowe, state wildland fire suppression coordinator, told many of the 500 firefighters near Hot Springs on Tuesday. “It’s not over yet but we’re getting close.”
Wildfires kept the Kitt Peak National Observatory in southern Arizona closed Tuesday and three small communities in the northern part of the state remained under evacuation orders as gusty wind and hot weather hampered firefighters’ efforts.
In central Utah, progress was being made as crews headed out Tuesday to fight the biggest wildfire in state history. The burned area increased to 469 square miles Tuesday, but that was a gain of only about 11,000 acres from Monday, authorities said. The fire about 120 miles south of Salt Lake City was 10 percent contained.
Fire officials warned that extreme fire weather was expected to continue for the next several days.
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19642017/
Wildfires rage across western United States
By Jim ChristieSun Jul 8, 6:57 PM ET
Wildfires raged across the western United States on Sunday as firefighters scrambled to prevent flames from spreading across rugged terrain thick with tinder turned bone-dry by scorching weather.
Some of the intense blazes forced hasty evacuations of rural homes and recreational areas and officials temporarily shut highways and railways in some fire zones.
California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana each reported wildfires of varying severity as a heat wave blanketed the western United States.
Fanned by high winds, a fire in Utah grew into a massive blaze covering more than 160,000 acres. In neighboring Nevada a fire burning 30 miles southwest of the town of Winnemucca consumed an estimated 152,000 acres . The two fires forced temporary closures of major interstate highways.
Neighborhoods in Winnemucca were briefly evacuated with the approach of a separate fire that had burned an estimated 25,000 acres of brush.
"People are back in their homes now but we're keeping a very close eye on this fire," Jamie Thompson, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told Reuters. "There is a potential for extreme fire conditions today as well."
Lightning triggered both blazes near Winnemucca and fire crews are on alert for more strikes.
"Isolated cells were moving through the area. They had very little moisture but plenty of lightning," Thompson said. "There is still the potential for isolated thunder storms with lightning of course this afternoon."
In California, fires started by lightning in the Inyo National Forest forced evacuations of campgrounds. The two blazes have scorched an estimated 34,000 acres since Friday, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
The Forest Service imposed fire restrictions a week earlier in all Inyo National Forest lands and neighboring Bureau of Land Management lands, expecting increased fire danger from hot, dry weather.
"Everything is very, very dry," said Nancy Upham, a spokeswoman for the Inyo National Forest. "There are seasoned fire fighters who are seeing fire behavior they have never seen before ... Things are just igniting with a single spark."
More than 500 fire fighters are combating the Inyo fires, hoping for calm and predictable winds after strong and erratic gusts on Saturday, Upham added.
"The winds are the wild card," she said.
Fire officials across the western United States have been bracing for a busy fire season after scant rainfall this past winter.