Unum
2025-01-12 17:17:18 UTC
https://archive.ph/CsInT#selection-4575.22-4575.67
Around the globe, extreme weather and searing heat killed thousands of people
last year and displaced millions, with pilgrims dying as temperatures soared
in Saudi Arabia. In Europe, extreme heat contributed to at least 47,000 deaths
in 2023. In the United States, heat-related deaths have doubled in recent
decades.
Last winter, Southern California got huge amounts of rain that led to
extensive vegetation growth. Now, months into what is typically the rainy
season, Los Angeles is experiencing a drought. The last time it rained more
than a tenth of an inch was on May 5. Since then, it has been the second-
driest period in the city’s recorded history.
Temperatures in the region have also been higher than normal. As a result,
many of the plants that grew last year are parched, turning trees, grasses
and bushes into kindling that was ready to explode.
That combination of heat and dryness, which scientists say is linked to
climate change, created the ideal conditions for an urban firestorm.
“Wintertime fires in Southern California require a lot of extreme climate and
weather events to occur at once,” said Park Williams, a climate scientist at
the University of California, Los Angeles. “And the warmer the temperatures,
the more intense the fires.”
A third factor fueling the fires, the fierce Santa Ana winds, which blow West
from Utah and Nevada, cannot be directly linked to climate change, scientists
say. But the winds this week have been particularly ferocious, gusting at more
than 100 miles per hour, as fierce as a Category 2 Hurricane.
Around the globe, extreme weather and searing heat killed thousands of people
last year and displaced millions, with pilgrims dying as temperatures soared
in Saudi Arabia. In Europe, extreme heat contributed to at least 47,000 deaths
in 2023. In the United States, heat-related deaths have doubled in recent
decades.
Last winter, Southern California got huge amounts of rain that led to
extensive vegetation growth. Now, months into what is typically the rainy
season, Los Angeles is experiencing a drought. The last time it rained more
than a tenth of an inch was on May 5. Since then, it has been the second-
driest period in the city’s recorded history.
Temperatures in the region have also been higher than normal. As a result,
many of the plants that grew last year are parched, turning trees, grasses
and bushes into kindling that was ready to explode.
That combination of heat and dryness, which scientists say is linked to
climate change, created the ideal conditions for an urban firestorm.
“Wintertime fires in Southern California require a lot of extreme climate and
weather events to occur at once,” said Park Williams, a climate scientist at
the University of California, Los Angeles. “And the warmer the temperatures,
the more intense the fires.”
A third factor fueling the fires, the fierce Santa Ana winds, which blow West
from Utah and Nevada, cannot be directly linked to climate change, scientists
say. But the winds this week have been particularly ferocious, gusting at more
than 100 miles per hour, as fierce as a Category 2 Hurricane.