Charred rows of houses and streets are what remains of Lytton. The place had been reporting maximum temperatures around 50 degrees for several days. Then a fire broke out. The cause of the intense heat: a “thermal dome”.
On Monday, people got into their cars to drive to Leyton to get a feel of the hot air, to “experience a piece of Canadian history,” as someone described it on Twitter on Tuesday. “Thermal tourism” is what the neighbors call, thermal tourism. Leighton went on Friday.
The Canadian city located in the western province of British Columbia burned. Having reported new national maximum temperatures of close to 50°C every day, A fire broke out in Lytton on Wednesday. Then on Thursday: the place of rubble and ash burnt in the scorching heat.
90% burnt out
In a very short time, the small community has been engulfed by a ball of fire. Canadian MP Brad Weiss announced Thursday that 90 percent of Lytton has burned, including the entire city center. More than a thousand people were forced to flee in haste.
Mayor Jean Polderman described the outbreak on Thursday as seeing white smoke on the city’s southern edge – and only 15 to 20 minutes later the flames spread across the city. Pictures and videos showed completely charred rows of houses and streets. At first there were no official figures for potential victims. Electricity and telephone were cut off in many places. According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, people have fled in all directions to farther places, many without their belongings.
Before the fire disaster on Wednesday night, Lytton, about 260 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, had set Canada-wide temperature records for three consecutive days. According to the Meteorological Authority, on Tuesday, the thermometer showed 49.6 degrees Celsius, which is the highest level in the world Canada measured temperature.
Where does the extreme heat come from?
The phenomenon of heat is responsible for the extreme heat “Hitzekuppel”, That is, the high pressure in the atmosphere traps the hot air in the area. The temperate climate zones are usually affected on the west coast of North America Canada’s western provinces, including the mountainous regions, the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, and the states of Oregon and Washington.
According to weather experts from The Washington Post, intensity This thermal dome is “statistically so rare that it can only be expected on average once every few thousand years.” man made Climate change However, it “makes these kinds of unusual events more likely.”
Forest fires caused by lightning
On Thursday, authorities said the fire, which broke out in an area of 65 square kilometers, was “out of control”. The weather is still dry, hot and windy. In other parts of the Canadian province of British Columbia, dozens of wildfires broke out within 24 hours, many of them the result of lightning strikes.
Hot, dry weather and high winds have also exacerbated the fire situation in California. And in the north of the most populous US state, more than 1,000 firefighters battled three major wildfires Thursday. One of the fires near Wade Village extended over 80 square kilometres. Several thousand people were asked to leave their homes in the danger zone. Despite a large-scale fire brigade operation that lasted several days, only 25 percent of the flames were contained on Thursday.
In 2020, California experienced the most devastating wildfire season by area since records began. The fires raged hard from mid-August until the end of October. More than 30 people were killed and more than 10,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
(Ag./epos)
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