As of: December 31, 2021 3:39 a.m.
Due to devastating forest fires in the USA, the authorities have asked tens of thousands of people to move to safety. The weather service calls the situation “life-threatening”. Wind also made the extinguishing work more difficult.
In the US state of Colorado, authorities have asked thousands of people to escape from rapidly spreading forest fires. Colorado Governor Jared Polis called on Twitter for “prayers for thousands of families evacuated from the fires in Superior and Boulder Counties.”
The 20,000 residents of the city of Louisville and an additional 13,000 residents of Superior have been asked to leave the area. The National Weather Service described the situation as “life-threatening”.
Forest fires in winter are very uncommon in the region. Like much of the western United States, however, Colorado is suffering from a drought that has left the area vulnerable to forest fires. Power lines overturned by gusts of wind had started a series of smaller fires that spread across the bone-dry countryside of Boulder County. The winch also made it difficult to extinguish the fire.
A house burns after rapid wildfire swept through a neighborhood in Louisville.
Image: AFP
Alaska reports heat record
In the northern state of Alaska, the authorities warned against an “Icemageddon” – alluding to the word “Armageddon” (German: Disaster). By that they meant the sudden masses of ice blocking streets in Fairbanks town.
Hours earlier, the thermometer on Kodiak Island in southern Alaska had reached 19.4 degrees Celsius – a historic heat record for December in the state. There was more rain than it had in decades, and it froze on the ground when the temperatures fell below zero again.
The freak weather with snow and rain also caused traffic problems and evacuations in Washington State and California.
Scientists see the cause in climate change
Scientists attribute the increasingly unpredictable extreme weather of recent months in the USA to man-made climate change. Both forest fires and storms are increasing in intensity and causing great damage.