Wildfires ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui this week, killing dozens of people and forcing thousands to evacuate. Little is left in the historic town of Lahaina, which was once Hawaii’s capital.
The exact cause of the blaze is still unknown, but a mix of land and atmospheric conditions created “fire weather.” “Fire weather” is characterized as strong winds, low relative humidity and thunderstorms, which create an environment where a fire can ignite and spread rapidly, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Officials warned that the death toll is expected to rise. Multiple fires are still burning, and teams have spread out to search charred areas, officials said. The number of people still missing is unknown, said Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier.
Buildings and homes burned to the ground in Lahaina, in western Maui.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
“What we saw is likely the largest natural disaster in Hawaii state history,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said in a news conference Thursday afternoon.
A person was seen walking down Front Street in Lahaina, past destroyed buildings that were burned to the ground.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Police have advised that people stay away from Lahaina “due to biohazard and safety concerns.”
“Things are falling every minute around us,” said Maui County Fire Chief Bradford Ventura. “There have been people hurt by falling telephone poles and such.”
Some residents were being allowed to return to check on their property starting Friday afternoon, but a curfew will be in effect between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the disaster area, officials said.
The fast-moving wildfire destroyed almost everything in its path, making it all the way to Lahaina’s harbor area.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
“Until you see the devastation, it’s difficult to describe,” said Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen. “But there’s lots of people that will need a lot of help.”
An aerial photo shows charred homes along Lahaina’s waterfront.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Part of a structure still stands after being destroyed by the wildfire in Lahaina.
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The fires began burning early on Tuesday, Aug. 8, putting 35,000 lives at risk, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. Four wildfires began spreading rapidly after winds from Hurricane Dora, out in the Pacific, whipped the island.
The harbor area burned to the ground in Lahaina, leaving almost nothing behind.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
The fire caught many residents of Maui off guard, making it difficult to plan for an organized evacuation. Dustin Kaleiopu fled Lahaina with his grandfather. He told CBS News they had to go with only the clothes they were wearing.
“The smoke was starting to come through our windows. By the time we got in our car, our neighbor’s yard was on fire. There were strangers in our yard with their water hoses trying to put fires out,” Kaleiopu said.
Burned cars sit in front of an apartment building that was destroyed by the wildfire in Lahaina.
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Dozens of cars were destroyed when the wildfire struck western Maui.
PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
As evacuees wait to return to their homes, Pelletier, the police chief, told reporters it could be weeks before neighborhoods are reopened.
Jesus Vasquez sits in his van waiting to return to his home near Lahaina.
Robert Gauthier / Getty Images
The Lopes and Vasquez family camped in a parking lot waiting to return home.
The historic seaside town of Lahaina that was once the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii has been largely reduced to ash as wildfires continued to rip through the state, with 36 people already confirmed dead. What do you think?
“Out of respect, I will wait a day before calling to check on my reservation.”
Larry Balestras, Patent Holder
This Week’s Most Viral News: August 11, 2023
“Just once, I’d like to hear a positive story about out-of-control wildfires.”
Maui residents who made desperate escapes from oncoming flames, some on foot, asked why Hawaii’s famous emergency warning system didn’t alert them as fires raced toward their homes.
Hawaii emergency management records show no indication that warning sirens were triggered before a devastating wildfire killed at least 55 people and wiped out most of the historic town of Lahaina, officials confirmed Thursday.
The toll is expected to rise as crews search scorched areas for survivors and those who lost their lives.
Wildfire wreckage is seen on August 9, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii.
Tiffany Kidder Winn / AP
Lahaina business owner J.D. Hessemer said he decided to evacuate early in the morning before the fires reached the town, without ever hearing an emergency alert.
“The winds were just getting out of control. Power lines were down everywhere and we had to reroute,” Hessemer told “CBS Mornings” on Friday. “…We just decided it was not safe to stay around for the day.”
He said he received no official warning or instructions to evacuate.
“I received nothing — at no point in time. I got nothing on my phone,” he said.
The blaze is already the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami that killed 61 people on the Big Island and deadliest U.S. wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise.
“Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” Gov. Josh Green said during a Thursday news conference after walking the ruins of the town with Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen. “Without a doubt, it feels like a bomb was dropped on Lahaina.”
Green said “hundreds of homes” have been burned and estimated over 1,000 buildings have been destroyed.
“It’s a heartbreaking day,” Green said. “Without a doubt, what we saw is catastrophic.”
He described it as “likely the largest natural disaster” ever in Hawaii.
According to CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV, Green went on to say, “When you see the full extent of the destruction in Lahaina, it will shock you. … All of the buildings virtually are gonna have to be rebuilt. It will be a new Lahaina that Maui builds in its own image, with its own values.”
“What we’re telling you is we will rebuild,” he added.
Officials were unable to provide an estimate on the number of people missing. “Honestly, we don’t know,” Maui County Police Chief John Pelletier told reporters.
KGMB, citing authorities, said three large fires on Maui, including the one in Lahaina, were still active, but firefighters appeared to be focusing mostly on hotspots after airdrops conducted for the first time on Wednesday, when winds began to die down, were finally able to beat down flames. On Thursday morning, Maui County said the Lahaina wildfire was 80% contained.
Almost 11,000 homes and businesses across Maui had no power as of 12:45 a.m. Hawaii time Friday, according to PowerOutage.us. The local utility, Hawaiian Electric, said it was “asking West Maui customers without power to prepare for extended outages that could last several weeks in some areas.”
An aerial image taken on August 10, 2023 shows destroyed homes and buildings in Lahaina along the Pacific Ocean in the aftermath of wildfires in western Maui, Hawaii.
PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP via Getty Images
Silent warning system
Hawaii boasts what the state describes as the largest integrated outdoor all-hazard public safety warning system in the world, with about 400 sirens positioned across the island chain to alert people to various natural disasters and other threats. But many of Lahaina’s survivors said in interviews at evacuation centers that they didn’t hear any sirens and only realized they were in danger when they saw flames or heard explosions nearby.
Dustin Kaleiopu fled Lahaina with his grandfather. He told CBS News on Thursday that there wasn’t any warning about the fire and they left with only what they were wearing.
The smoke was starting to come through our windows. By the time we got in our car, our neighbor’s yard was on fire. There were strangers in our yard with their water hoses trying to put fires out,” Kaleiopu said.
William Bugle, 76, told CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti he was burned on his arm when the roof blew off his house and he was hit by red-hot shingles. “It went from like nothing to, like, I felt this heat, this tremendous heat,” Bugle said.
Thomas Leonard, a 70-year-old retired mailman from Lahaina, didn’t know about the fire until he smelled smoke. Power and cell phone service had both gone out earlier that day, leaving the town with no real-time information about the danger.
He tried to leave in his Jeep but had to abandon the vehicle and run to the shore when cars nearby began exploding. He hid behind a seawall for hours, the wind blowing hot ash and cinders over him.
Firefighters eventually arrived and escorted Leonard and other survivors through the flames to safety.
Hawaii Emergency Management Agency spokesperson Adam Weintraub told The Associated Press on Thursday that the department’s records don’t show that Maui’s warning sirens were triggered on Tuesday. Instead, the county used emergency alerts sent to mobile phones, televisions and radio stations, Weintraub said.
It’s not clear if those alerts were sent before widespread power and cellular outages cut off most communication to Lahaina.
Communications have been spotty across Maui, with 911, landline and cellular service failing at times. Power was also out in parts of the island.
Volunteers stack canned goods at War Memorial Stadium in Kahului, Hawaii on August 10, 2023.
Mengshin Lin for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south, the fire started Tuesday and took Maui by surprise, racing through parched brush covering the island and then flattening homes and anything else in its path.
Maui Fire Department Chief Brad Ventura said the fire moved so quickly from brush to neighborhood that it was impossible to get messages to the emergency management agencies responsible for emergency alerts.
Lahaina was at high risk
Lahaina’s wildfire risk was well known. Maui County’s hazard mitigation plan, last updated in 2020, identified Lahaina and other West Maui communities as having frequent wildfire ignitions and a large number of buildings at risk of wildfire damage.
The report also noted that West Maui had the island’s highest population of people living in multi-unit housing, the second-highest rate of households without a vehicle and the highest rate of non-English speakers.
“This may limit the population’s ability to receive, understand and take expedient action during hazard events,” the plan noted.
Maui’s firefighting efforts may also have been hampered by a small staff, said Bobby Lee, the president of the Hawaii Firefighters Association. There are 65 firefighters at most working at any given time in Maui County, and they’re responsible for fighting fires on three islands – Maui, Molokai and Lanai – he said.
Those crews have about 13 fire engines and two ladder trucks, but they’re all designed for on-road use. The department doesn’t have any off-road vehicles, he said.
That means fire crews can’t attack brush fires thoroughly before they reach roads or populated areas, Lee explained. The high winds caused by Dora made that extremely difficult, he said.
“You’re basically dealing with trying to fight a blowtorch,” Lee said. “You’ve got to be careful – you don’t want to get caught downwind from that because you’re going to get run over in a wind-driven fire of that magnitude.”
Mandatory evacuation orders were in place for Lahaina residents, Bissen noted, while tourists in hotels were told to shelter in place so emergency vehicles could get into the area.
Puong Sui, center, talks to her daughter at War Memorial Stadium in Kahului, Hawaii on August 10, 2023. Sui lost her house and all belongings in Lahaina during the wildfire and was planning to fly to Las Vegas on Sunday to reunite with her family.
Mengshin Lin for The Washington Post via Getty Images
The mayor said downed power poles added to the chaos as people attempted to flee Lahaina by cutting off two important roads out of town. Speaking at the Thursday news conference, Bissen said 29 poles fell with live wires still attached, and leaving only the narrow highway toward Kahakuloa.
Tourists were advised to stay away, and thousands of people have crowded airports to leave the island. Officials turned the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu into an assistance center, stocking it with water, food, and volunteers who help visitors arrange travel home.
KGMB reports that Oprah Winfrey, a part-time Maui resident, visited evacuees Thursday at the War Memorial Gymnasium in Maui. The station says she’s one of Maui’s biggest private landowners, with more than 1,000 acres in Kula and Hana. It was unclear whether any of her land was damaged from the wildfires.
President Biden declared a major disaster on Maui. Traveling in Utah on Thursday, he pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.” Mr. Biden promised to streamline requests for assistance and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “surging emergency personnel” on the island.
Mayor Bissen previously said officials hadn’t yet begun investigating the immediate cause of the fires, but officials did point to the combination of dry conditions, low humidity and high winds.
Amid a summer with blistering heat waves and Earth’s hottest month on record, Spain is looking to goats as a solution to combat wildfires.
Spain has struggled with limited rainfall and dry terrain, making the country susceptible to wildfires. Goats herds, with their ability to clear underbrush and create fire breaks at low costs and without detriment to the environment, have long been seen as a key tool for wildfire mitigation. Various methods currently are being developed to sustain and encourage their use.
Using goats to fight fires is not a new idea. In Andalucia, in southern Spain, shepherds have been patrolling forests with their herds “for thousands of years,” Laura Rayas, a technical advisor for forest firefighting at INFOCA of the Junta de Andalucía, said in an interview.
“Mediterranean ecosystems have been linked to livestock use for thousands of years, so they do not cause disturbances,” Rayas said.
A shepherd crosses a road with his herd of goats in Andalucia, Spain. Goats are increasingly seen as a solution to wildfire mitigation.
Getty Images
But as wildfires scorch the earth at an increasingly alarming rate, Spain has been working to refine this age-old approach to ensure misconceptions, public perceptions and costs don’t hinder the use of goat herds.
Low-cost and “highly effective”
Goats can reach areas and terrain difficult for humans and impossible for brush-clearing machines to reach. Their propensity and appetite make the herds “highly effective” for clearing shrubs that can grow back quickly.
Costs for goats to clear brush run about 180 euros (about $197) per hectare, compared to 1,000 euros (about $1,097) for a brush-clearing crew, said BBVA. Goat herds run about 75% percent cheaper than brush crews, according to the Spanish National Research Council.
In the U.S., the use of herds is also considerably less expensive than using machinery or crews to clear brush. Goat-powered fuel reduction costs between $400-$500 per acre, nearly one-third of the cost of more labor-intensive methods of brush clearing, the U.S. Forest Service found after running a pilot program to clear the Cleveland National Forest in California.
A goat protecting ocean view homes from wildfire in Laguna Beach, CA. Although the goats provide a cost – effective brush-clearing method, some environmentalists worry that they also destroy endangered plants and alter the ecosystem.
Getty Images
Reno, Nevada, announced in June that they will be using young Spanish goats to graze in areas of the city. “Rosewood Canyons is prone to fire,” Reno Fire Marshal Tray Palmer said in a news release. “We saw it with the Caughlin Fire and we saw it again with the Pinehaven Fire. Sometimes we have to think outside of the box with fire mitigation and in this case, it’s goats.”
After deadly 2017 wildfires in Chile that left dozens dead, thousands injured and almost 440,000 hectares destroyed, a program modeled on those of Spain’s and named “Buena Cabra,” or the “good goat,” was started to control wildfires, Reuters reported.
New approaches to incentivize goat herds
In Spain, the next step will be convincing communities of the benefits of letting goats graze freely, as there is still “great ignorance” around the value of this approach, Rayas said.
Some herds are outfitted with GPS devices to constrain the goats from wandering and bumping into hikers, tourists, or others, said BBVA Open Mind. Goats are “a key management model for preventing Big Forest Fires,” Guillem Armengol, a project technician at the Pau Costa Foundation, told BBVA.
A man is seen with his goats close to the fire of Valleseco in the island of Gran Canaria.
Getty Images
In Extremadura, a dry region in western Spain near the Portuguese border, a local professor started the Mosaic Project, which teaches shepherds to grow high-value crops such as olives, chestnuts, fruit trees and vines in fire breaks created by goats. The initiative provides administrative and field technical advice, among other services, and it helps shepherds who want to participate with their applications for funding.
Goatherders, shepherds and farmers in Andalucia and Valencia were paid bonuses if they concentrated their herds on fire breaks for a certain amount of time or if the goats cleared a certain amount of vegetation, according to the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism. In Andalucia, 223 shepherds with more than 6100 hectares of grazed land had received payments by 2016.
Mandatory evacuations are underway in parts of Hawaii as devastating wildfires, fueled by strong winds from Hurricane Dora, burn through several island communities. Widespread power outages are also being reported and the 911 system is down in some areas. Mahina Martin, chief of communications and public affairs for Maui County, joined CBS News to discuss the situation.
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A wildfire that started in a California national park has burned tens of thousands of acres – and is so intense that it’s spewing dangerous spinning whirlwinds of fire.
Officials said that the York Fire ignited in Mojave National Preserve near the end of last month, burning 30,000 acres by Sunday. Dry vegetation and high winds created “extremely challenging conditions,” and in some areas, there were 20-foot flames. By the end of that same day, it spread to 70,000 acres and spread into Nevada.
As National Park Service officials and first responders rushed to try and contain the fire, the park’s Facebook page said that some witnesses noticed “fire whirls” on the north side of the flames.
“While these can be fascinating to observe they are a very dangerous natural phenomena that can occur during wildfires,” the service warned. “A fire whirl is a vortex of flames and smoke that forms when intense heat and turbulent winds combine, creating a spinning column of fire.”
The service said that the whirls are similar to dust devils, but form from a wildfire’s heat and energy. They can get up to “several hundred feet in height, and their rotational speed can vary widely,” officials said.
“This weather is extremely dangerous for firefighters battling the fires. They have the potential to spread embers over long distances and can start new fires ahead of the main forefront,” the Preserve’s Facebook post says. “Additional fire whirls can change direction suddenly, making them unpredictable and difficult to anticipate.”
A fire whirl kicks up as the dixie fire burns through the area on August 16, 2021 near Janesville, California.
/ Getty Images
As of Tuesday morning, the York Fire had swept over 80,400 acres and is at 23% containment, according to official wildfire data. While the fire has since spread even farther to southern Utah, officials said “less fire activity than in the previous days” was observed.
The origins of the fire remain under investigation. Officials say it started on private land within the Mojave National Preserve.
“Limited visibility due to thick smoke is a challenge the firefighters are facing,” they said. “With visibility up to a mile or less in some areas it has a significant implication and causes hazardous conditions, hindering firefighting operations as it affects aerial support, ground crews’ movement, and communications between firefighting units.”
The death toll from the devastating wildfires charring parts of Southern Europe and North Africa climbed to at least 40 on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of people — both residents and tourists — have been forced to evacuate from several of Greece’s popular Mediterranean islands.
Large parts of the Mediterranean region have been sweltering under a series of heat waves, with temperatures expected to hit 113 degrees in central and southern Greece Wednesday, according to the national meteorological service.
The majority of the fatalities have been in Algeria, where 34 people had lost their lives as of Wednesday. Among the dead were 10 soldiers who became trapped by flames in the coastal Bejaia province.
People inspect the remains of a farm in the aftermath of a wildfire near the town of Melloula in northwest Tunisia, close to the border with Algeria, July 26, 2023. At least 300 people were evacuated by sea and by land from Melloula, according to the Tunisian national guard, as fires raged again there.
FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty
But the fires in Europe have also proven deadly. On the Italian island of Sicily, the bodies of a couple in their 70s were found in their burnt-out home on the outskirts of Palermo. Another woman in her late 80s died because an ambulance was unable to reach her due to fires in the area. In the Calabria region, a bedridden 98-year-old man was killed when a fire consumed his home.
In Greece, a 41-year-old man was found dead in a burned shack in a remote area of the island of Evia. A firefighting tanker plane crashed into a hillside on the same island Tuesday after it dropped water on a blaze, killing both pilots.
Greek authorities have evacuated more than 20,000 people from the popular summer destination of Rhodes in recent days, with some 3,000 tourists forced to cut their holidays short and make their way home.
Further north in Croatia, wildfires that broke out near the city of Dubrovnik triggered landmine explosions, according to local media reports. Areas around Dubrovnik are still contaminated by explosive devices left after the Croatian War of Independence in the 1990s.
More than 600 firefighters deployed to try to contain a fire near the popular holiday destination of Cascais, on the outskirts of Lisbon in Portugal, meanwhile.
Villagers watch the progression of a wildfire as it approaches Zambujeiro village in Cascais, Portugal, July 25, 2023.
PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images
Strong winds threatened to quickly spread the blaze in the Sintra-Cascais natural park, as desperate residents tried to protect their homes with buckets of water and garden hoses.
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said this week the heat waves that have hit parts of Europe and North America this month would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.
In an extreme contrast to the tinder-dry south, powerful storms have brought hurricane-force winds and torrential downpours in northern parts of Italy and in Germany. Falling trees killed a girl scout in her tent and another woman during powerful storms in northern Italy.
Rhodes, Greece — A third successive heat wave in Greece pushed temperatures back above 104 degrees across parts of the country Tuesday following more nighttime evacuations from fires that have raged out of control for days. The latest evacuations orders were issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia, while a blaze on the island of Rhodes continued to move inland, torching mountainous forest areas, including part of a nature reserve.
Two pilots died Tuesday when their water-bombing plane crashed while battling a blaze on Evia, officials said, with amateur video capturing the moment the plane hit the ground, sending up a huge fireball.
Desperate residents, many with wet towels around their necks to stave off the scorching heat, used shovels to beat back flames approaching their homes, while firefighting planes and helicopters resumed water drops at first light.
Record number of evacuations
Authorities said that more than 20,000 people has been involved in successive evacuations on the island, mostly tourists over the weekend, when fire swept through two coastal areas on the southeast of Rhodes.
The European Union has sent 500 firefighters, 100 vehicles and seven planes from 10 member states, while Turkey, Israel, Egypt and other countries have also sent help.
A firefighter looks on as wildfires burn a hillside near the village of Vati, just north of the coastal town of Gennadi, in the southern part of the Greek island of Rhodes, July 25, 2023.
SPYROS BAKALIS/AFP/Getty
“For the 12th day, under extreme conditions of heat and strong winds, we are fighting nonstop on dozens of forest fire fronts … The Greek Fire Service has battled more than 500 fires — more than 50 a day,” said Vassilis Kikilias, the minister for climate crisis and civil protection.
“We are at war and are exclusively geared towards the fire front,” Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told lawmakers Monday, warning that the country faced “another three difficult days ahead” before high temperatures were forecast to ease.
“All of us are standing guard,” he told his cabinet on Tuesday. “I will state the obvious: in the face of what the entire planet is facing, especially the Mediterranean which is a climate change hot-spot, there is no magical defense mechanism. If there was, we would have implemented it.”
Many regions of Greece remained on “red alert,” meaning there was an extreme risk of dangerous forest fires exacerbated by strong winds.
Heat wave after heat wave
In Athens, authorities resumed afternoon closing hours Tuesday at the ancient Acropolis as part of broader measures to cope with the high heat as Greece braced for a new wave of soaring temperatures.
People pour water onto a woman who was affected by the extreme heat as she visited the Acropolis Hill in Athens, Greece, July 23, 2023.
Costas Baltas/Anadolu Agency/Getty
In the capital city of Athens the mercury was expected to soar to 106 degrees, and up to 111 in central Greece, according to the national weather forecaster EMY.
The mercury hit 116 degrees in Gythio, in the southern Peloponnese peninsula on Sunday, just short of the hottest temperature ever recorded nationally at 118.
EU officials have blamed climate change for the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires across the European continent, noting that 2022 was the second-worst year for wildfire damage on record after 2017.
The severe heat in Greece has been reflected across much of southern Europe and Northern Africa.
Deadly fires in Algeria
In Algeria at least 34 people have died as wildfires raged through residential areas, forcing mass evacuations.
In southeastern France officials Monday issued a fire warning at the highest level in the Bouches-du-Rhone region, warning that the weather conditions make the risk of flames “very high compared to normal summers.”
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution group said Tuesday that the heat waves that have hit parts of Europe and North America this month would have been almost impossible without human-caused climate change.
More than a dozen states saw triple-digit temperatures Friday as hot and dry conditions in the Southwest were expected to continue well into next week. Danya Bacchus has more.
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Boiling heat and raging floods have taken the world by storm this week, plummeting millions of people across the world into dangerous and deadly conditions. But it’s not a temporary trip of bad luck – it is becoming the new norm.
The heat waves causing record temperatures, storms dumping record rain on cities and wildfires raging across thousands of acres of land are all the impact of an undeniable source: climate change.
Just last week, preliminary data showed that the world had its hottest week on record, following the hottest June on record. El Niño is believed to have spawned the latest events as it comes at the onset of warmer sea surface temperatures, but experts have warned that the current situation won’t suddenly vanish when El Niño departs.
“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall as El Niño develops further and these impacts will extend into 2024,” said Christopher Hewitt, head of international climate services for the World Meteorological Organization. “This is worrying news for the planet.”
In a news release Thursday, the WMO highlighted issues that included heat waves causing sweltering conditions in areas around the U.S. to North Africa.
“The extreme weather – an increasingly frequent occurrence in our warming climate – is having a major impact on human health, ecosystems, economies, agriculture, energy and water supplies,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the news release. “This underlines the increasing urgency of cutting greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and as deeply as possible.”
Here’s what the world has faced in recent days.
Dangerous heat waves across the world
Heataves are one of the deadliest hazards to emerge in extreme weather, and they’re occurring on a global scale.
The Southwest U.S. has been battling extreme heat for days, and as of Friday, the National Weather Service predicts that the “dangerous heat wave” will continue. At least 93 million people in the U.S. are under excessive heat warnings and advisories Friday morning as the intense heat continues its stretch from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast, the agency said.
The Southwest will see high temperatures surpassing 120 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts, while Texas and Louisiana could see temperatures up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the agency said.
And Death Valley, which holds the world record for the highest air temperature ever measured, is expected to see temperatures near that temperature. The record occurred on July 10, 1913, hitting 134 degrees Fahrenheit. This weekend, it could hit just shy of that at 130 degrees Fahrenheit, The Weather Channel’s Stephanie Abrams said on Friday, seeing a low of just around 100 degrees.
“This type of heat is going to continue through at least next week,” the meteorologist said. “Preliminary daily data shows that we passed the hottest average global temperature on July 3 and have been above that value every day since, setting a new record on July 6.”
Flagstaff, Arizona, is also nearing a record-high, with the NWS expecting it to hit 95 degrees on Sunday – just 2 degrees less than its all-time record hit in 1973.
But the extreme heat isn’t constrained to the U.S. – Europe has been facing its own battle.
Records were broken in France, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, the European Union’s earth observation service, Copernicus, said earlier this week. On Tuesday, satellite imagery determined that some areas of Spain saw land surface temperatures, which measure the temperature of soil, exceeding 60 degrees Celsius – 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Extreme land surface temperatures were seen in Spain earlier this week, in some places surpassing 60 degrees Celsius.
European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery
Spain’s State Meteorological Agency shared on Friday that parts of the country could reach 42 degrees Celsius (more than 107 degrees Fahrenheit). On Thursday, it was even warmer, reaching 44.9 degrees Celsius in The Village of San Nicolás.
And it’s not over. Over the next two weeks, the WMO said above-normal temperatures are expected across the Mediterranean, with weekly temperatures up to 5 degrees Celsius higher than the long-term average.
Canada’s wildfires continue their record season
Only seven months into 2023, Canada has already been faced with more than 4,000 wildfires that have burned up 9.6 million hectares of land, more than 37,000 square miles. As of Thursday, the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported 906 active fires across the nation, more than half of which are considered “out of control.”
On July 6, the Canadian government said this season “has already been Canada’s most severe on record.”
An aerial view of wildfire of Tatkin Lake in British Columbia, Canada on July 10, 2023.
BC Wildfire Service/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
“Current projections indicate that this may continue to be a significantly challenging summer for wildfires in parts of the country,” officials said, as projections continue to show “higher-than-normal fire activity” is possible for most of the country. Warm temperatures and ongoing drought are to blame, they said.
Deadly, record-breaking monsoon
India has been inundated with a Southwest monsoon that covered the entire country on July 2, India’s Meteorological Department said. Last week, the capital of the country, New Delhi, was hit with the highest-single day of rain in 40 years, getting half a foot of rain in a single day. The flash floods and landslides caused by the rain have killed dozens across the country.
Water from the capital city’s Yamuna River spilled over its river banks this week as its water level hit a 45-year high on Thursday at 684 feet. The previous record of 681 feet was hit in 1978. The record rain and water prompted officials to urge the 30 million people who live there to stay inside.
On Friday, flash flood threats of varying degrees continued throughout many areas in the country.
A man floats on thermacol through a flooded street after Yamuna River overflowed due to monsoon rains in New Delhi on July 14, 2023.
ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images
Record heat in the world’s oceans
Copernicus said Friday that it’s not just land and air experiencing extreme heat, but the oceans as well. The service found that the northern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea have both seen record temperatures in recent months.
Citing research institute Mercator Ocean and its own observations, the service said the western Mediterranean is seeing a “moderate” sea heatwave that “appears to be intensifying.”
“The Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly along the coasts of Southern Spain and North Africa was approximately +5°C above the reference value for the period, indicative of the escalating heatwave conditions,” Copernicus said Friday.
Data shows that the Atlantic and Mediterranean oceans are experiencing record-breaking temperatures.
European Union, Copernicus Marine Service Data
The data comes just a few months after researchers found that the oceans have been warming so rapidly, that it’s an amount equal to the energy of five atomic bombs detonating underwater “every second for 24 hours a day for the entire year.” It also comes just days after climate experts issued another warning that ocean temperatures have hit unprecedented levels that are “much higher than anything the models predicted.”
By September, NOAA believes that half of the world’s oceans could be experiencing heat wave conditions. Normally, only about 10% of oceans experience such conditions, experts said.
The future of extremes is now the present
The future of extreme weather that has the potential to devastate billions of people is no longer a far-off possibility. It’s happening here and now.
A wide range of experts – from global agencies to national organizations and individual climate experts – have been warning for decades of the impact that warming global temperatures could have on the state of the planet. As temperatures continue to rise across the world – mostly from the burning of fossil fuels – extreme weather will only intensify.
The impact of such extremes is hard to miss.
Major cities like Chicago are seeing ground temperatures so warm due to the rising air temperatures that it’s causing buildings to sink as underground materials shift. The heat also poses deadly consequences, with officials worldwide warning people to avoid extended periods of exposure. Extreme storms that swept through the Northeast last weekend have left cities totally isolated from floodwaters and businesses and homes completely destroyed. The smoke from Canada’s wildfires has had harsh ramifications for air quality across the U.S., even going as far as Europe.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” Hannah Cloke, a climate scientist and professor at Reading University, told Reuters, saying that the way to prevent extreme weather from getting even worse is by drastically – and quickly – reducing greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases, primarily emitted from the burning of fossil fuels, work to trap heat within the atmosphere, amplifying global temperatures.
But it’s important to realize, she added, that doing so will only prevent the absolute worst outcomes.
“We must realize we are locked into some of these changes now and we will continue to see records broken,” she said.
Large portions of the Midwest and Northeast are dealing with unhealthy air conditions due to smoke from hundreds of wildfires burning across Canada. Adriana Diaz has the latest.
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DETROIT (AP) — The Detroit area woke up Wednesday to some of the worst air quality in the United States as smoke from Canada’s wildfires settled over most of the Great Lakes region and unhealthy haze spread southward, as far as Missouri and Kentucky.
Drifting smoke from the wildfires has lowered curtains of haze on broad swaths of the United States, pushing into southern Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, and moving into parts of West Virginia.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow.gov site showed Detroit in the “hazardous” range and warned that “everyone should stay indoors and reduce activity levels.” Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Ohio; and Pittsburgh all have “very unhealthy” air. A wider circle of unhealthy air spread into St. Louis and Louisville, Ky.
“The more breaths you’re taking, you’re inhaling, literally, a fire, camp smoke, into your lungs,” said Detroit resident Darren Riley, who said he would wear a mask if he had to go outside at all on Wednesday.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) have issued an air quality alert for Southeast Michigan, which includes the City of Detroit, for Wednesday, June 28, 2023, and ending on Thursday, June 29, 2023, at noon.
The smoke is exacerbating air quality issues for poor and Black communities that already are more likely to live near polluting plants, and in rental housing with mold and other triggers.
Detroit’s southwest side is home to a number of sprawling refineries and manufacturing plants and has battled air pollution for decades. It is also one of the poorest parts of a mostly Black city, which has an overall poverty rate of about 30%. According to a 2022 report by the American Lung Association, the city’s ozone and short-term particle pollution ranked among the worst in the nation.
Freighters pass along the Detroit River with Windsor, Ontario in the background as smoke fills the sky reducing visibility Wednesday, June 28, 2023, as seen from Detroit. The Detroit area has some of the worst air quality in the United States as smoke from Canada’s wildfires spreads southward. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Riley’s own experiences being diagnosed with asthma in 2018 a few years after moving to Detroit and with the poor air quality in parts of the city prompted him to start JustAir, which provides air pollution monitoring.
“Just because you’re born in a certain ZIP code or you’re born into a certain family with a certain skin color doesn’t mean that you should have an unequal go at it,” said Riley, who is Black.
Elsewhere, Milwaukee County Emergency Medical Services has seen a spike in calls for residents with respiratory complaints, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Office of Emergency Management data show a disproportionate amount of calls for respiratory issues – 54.8% – have been for Blacks in Milwaukee, according to the newspaper. Milwaukee County’s population is 27.1% Black.
Acting Chief Public Health Officer Christina Floyd stated the Health Department is recommending that people limit their time outdoors and refrain from any outdoor strenuous activity.
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson urged young people, older adults and residents with health issues to spend more time indoors and pledged “swift action to ensure that vulnerable individuals have the resources they need to protect themselves and their families.”
Minnesota issued a record 23rd air quality alert for the year through late Wednesday night, as smoky skies obscured the skylines of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana were among other states issuing air quality alerts, and cities including Louisville also advised people to limit prolonged or intense outdoor activity.
“This is particularly thick smoke,” National Weather Service meteorologist Byran Jackson said Wednesday.
Jackson added that another round of smoky air is going through western New York, western Pennsylvania later Wednesday. “And then that continues over the northern Mid-Atlantic. It will persist there into Thursday,” he said.
Across Canada, 490 fires are burning, with 255 of them considered to be out of control.
The flags of Chicago Cubs’ Hall of Fame players Ernie Banks (14) Ron Santo (10) and Ferguson Jenkins fly off the Wrigley Field left field foul pole as a veil of haze from Canadian wildfires shroud high rise buildings along Lake Michigan before a baseball game between the Cubs and the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday, June 27, 2023, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday that 76,129 square kilometers (29,393 square miles) of land including forests has burned across Canada since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 75,596 square kilometers (29,187 square miles), according to the National Forestry Database.
Some wet weather in Quebec gave firefighters a chance to get ahead of some of the flames, but there hasn’t been enough rain to extinguish the wildfires. Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault said he expects rain to stop falling by Wednesday morning in the regions most affected by forest fires. Many of the fires burning in Canada are in Quebec and Ontario, nearer to North America’s most populated areas than western wilderness areas.
Earlier this month, massive fires burning stretches of Canadian forests blanketed the northeastern United States and the Great Lakes region with smoke, turning the air yellowish gray and prompting warnings for people to stay inside and keep windows closed.
Hazy skies continue today with occasional near-surface smoke from the Canadian wildfires. Smoke concentrations decrease a bit this evening before increasing again on Thursday. An Air Quality Alert remains in effect through midnight tonight. #miwxpic.twitter.com/Epzez3KTtv
The small particles in wildfire smoke can irritate the eyes, nose and throat, and can affect the heart and lungs, making it harder to breathe. Health officials say it’s important to limit outdoor activities as much as possible to avoid breathing in the particles.
President Joe Biden could see the impact first-hand Wednesday during a visit to Chicago, where he was expected to promote his renewable energy policies during a major address on the economy. Biden has described the Canadian wildfires as clear evidence of climate change.
The warming planet will produce hotter and longer heat waves, making for bigger, smokier fires, said Joel Thornton, professor and chair of the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.
“You can smell it bad,” said Priti Marwah, who was beginning a run along Chicago’s lakefront on Tuesday. “I run a hundred miles a week, so this is going to be dangerous today. You can feel it … just even parking right there and coming out, I can feel it in my lungs.”
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said a cold front will bring cleaner air from the west across the Great Lakes region by early Thursday.
Associated Press contributors include Trisha Ahmed and Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis, Ken Kusmer in Indianapolis, Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Ky., and Julie Walker in New York.
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Smoke from Canadian wildfires on Thursday affected residents along much of the East Coast, from New York City to Washington, D.C., impacting monuments, stadiums and restaurants. Doctors warned that young children and people with underlying health conditions were at greatest risk. Christina Ruffini has the latest.
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Travelers flying in or out of the Northeast may want to check on the status of their airport on Thursday, with wildfire smoke from Canada causing more flight disruptions for a second day.
On Thursday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration put a ground stop on departures from Philadelphia International Airport, citing low visibility, while departures from LaGuardia airport in New York City had an average ground delay of almost an hour, according to agency data.
The FAA tweeted Wednesday morning that it would “likely need to take steps to manage the flow of traffic safely into New York City, DC, Philadelphia and Charlotte.”
In addition to the ground stop on departing flights from Philadelphia, the agency added that it had paused in-bound flights on Wednesday morning to Philadelphia, as well as for New York City’s LaGuardia, coming from the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Ohio due to low visibility.
The agency also issued a ground delay for Newark airport on Thursday morning.
Reduced visibility from wildfire smoke will continue to impact air travel today. We will likely need to take steps to manage the flow of traffic safely into New York City, DC, Philadelphia and Charlotte.
The delays and ground stops come after all flights to LaGuardia were paused on Wednesday, while New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport experienced arrival and departure delays. Images from New York City on Wednesday showed an apocalyptic-looking scene, with its skyline dimmed by smoke and the air a burnt-orange color.
The Northeast has been blanketed by smoke from the Canadian wildfires, prompting warnings about air quality across the region and prompting schools to cancel after-school events and employers to tell workers to stay home.
Smoke from Canada’s wildfires is affecting visibility in our airspace and leading to delays. The FAA is fully prepared to modify operations as needed. Check real-time flight information at https://t.co/htXzk0f9zb.
— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) June 7, 2023
Passengers can check real-time flight information at the FAA’s website, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg tweeted on Wednesday evening.
Meanwhile, some airlines urged travelers to check their apps and websites to monitor for delays or other problems.
We are actively monitoring the air traffic impacts due to wildfire smoke and haze in the Northeast. Traveling today? Please keep an eye on your flight status at https://t.co/QJ1boQBM7L or on our app. https://t.co/mtc9rH9GjX
Such disruptions in ordinary urban life illustrates the wide-ranging economic toll of climate change, which experts say is making wildfires more intense and contributing to air pollution.
“It’s gray and the sun looked orange in the sky this morning, like Star Wars or something,” Paul Billings, national vice president for public policy at the American Lung Association, told CBS MoneyWatch from Washington, D.C.
“It’s really early in the season, we’re still in the spring, and we’re seeing these wildfires in Canada and the U.S. that are impacting air quality across the eastern United States. In New England, across the mid-Atlantic and into Minnesota, we’re seeing elevated levels of particulate matter or soot,” he added.
These tiny particles are especially dangerous for people with heart disease, asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but they carry risks for everyone, including risks of asthma attacks, heart attack, stroke or early death.
“Some people need to take their medication more — others end up in the emergency room,” Billings said.
Because the kind of particles found iin smoke are so small, they get past the body’s natural defenses, such as mucus membranes in the nose and throat as well as the body’s coughing mechanism.
“They penetrate deep in the lungs and where you have oxygen exchange systems,” Billings said. “These particles actually get into your blood and create a wide range of poor health outcomes, including stroke, heart attacks and different kinds of cancer.”
Forest fires aren’t the only source of particulate matter — diesel trucks and coal-fired power have historically contributed the lion’s share of air pollution. But wildfires are a growing factor. The increased frequency of wildfires in a hotter, drier climate has reversed some of the improvements in air quality since the 1970 Clean Air Act, the American Lung Association noted in an April report.
“Staggering” costs
The earth’s warming climate is contributing to the problem, with temperatures in Canada unseasonably high this year. Lytton, British Columbia — typically a temperate town — hit a record high of 121 degrees last week, tying California’s Death Valley. Hot, dry weather makes it more likely that a forest will catch fire and burn longer. Already, Canada’s wildfire season is on track to be the most destructive in the country’s history.
Globally, air pollution kills more than 3 million people a year, according to the World Health Association. In dollar terms, the costs are vast and reflected in increased hospitalizations, missed work and school days, and lower worker productivity.
“The costs are staggering,” Billings said
Air pollution adds $2,500 a year to a typical American’s medical bills, a recent study from the Natural Resources Defense Council found. Across the U.S., smoke, factory output and car exhaust cost the economy $800 billion a year, or about 3% of the nation’s total economic output, the NRDC found.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, high levels of air pollution also reduce earnings by making it harder and more unpleasant to work, adding a significant drag on the economy. Outdoor workers, such as delivery people, and landscapers and teachers are most affected, but office workers aren’t necessarily safe. Even indoor air pollution spikes to three or four times safe levels during a wildfire event, studies have found.
$125 billion in lost pay
Researchers at Stanford who mapped wildfire plumes across the U.S. found that a single day of smoke exposure lowers a person’s quarterly earnings by 0.1%, according to a recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Across the U.S. as a whole, workers lost $125 billion a year due to wildfire smoke, the paper found — about 2% of all labor income.
Aside from smoke, hotter air also increases production of ozone, a major component of smog and a lung irritant. “Some researchers have likened it to sunburn on the lungs — your cells get irritated and weep,” Billings said.
Workers in Washington, D.C., on June 07, 2023, as air quality fell to dangerous levels due to hundreds of Canadian wildfires.
Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
As with other kinds of pollution, the effects of ozone, smog and smoke aren’t evenly distributed, with low-income people and people of color more likely to be exposed, according to the ALA.
Businesses and governments can take some steps, like improving indoor filtration, not forcing workers to go outside and alerting issuing public service alerts about air quality. But reducing the toll of air pollution long-term means widespread electrification, Billings said. That would reduce emissions from transportation and factories.
“I think too often, people look at these as anomalous weather events,” he said. “This is not some happenstance of a fire. It’s early June. There have always been fires, but the big driver that is creating these hot, dry conditions that are creating the opportunities for these fires is climate change.”
