“We expect temperatures above normal and what it means for fires are generally unstable conditions,” Todd Shoemak, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, told CNN. “So if you start to see the fire grow, many times it can become quite explosive and gain power and heat really fast.”
The cities of Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Roswell, New Mexico, all have the potential to break or break records this weekend and early next week, making the weather in the Calf Canyon / Peak Hermit forest fires even worse.
“The high temperatures are difficult for our firefighters,” Isaac Sanchez, the battalion’s communications chief, told CalFire. “Simply living in these conditions is more difficult. Our ability to fight fire for a long time and the endurance of our firefighters are affected.
“When it happens so early in May, it takes time to acclimatize. But we must be ready to fight fires at all times. “
Sanchez emphasizes that the fuel (vegetation) is ready to burn much earlier in the year than normal, “the effect of drought, but also of climate change.”
Other factors are also at work, including very low humidity levels and many gusts of wind. In Santa Barbara, California, temperatures on Friday are expected to be at least 10 degrees above normal with gusts of wind between 30 and 40 miles per hour, in addition to humidity levels below 25 percent.
“High daytime temperatures and lower humidity mean fuel will react faster and easier,” Sanchez told CNN. “This creates a more receptive fuel layer.”
In essence, heat and low humidity together create a more hospitable environment for the spread of fires.
The hot temperatures will continue until next week, when the winds will intensify again, which will make the danger of fire even greater.
“The winds will become gusty on Monday and Tuesday with possible local critical weather conditions in some areas,” the NWS office in Albuquerque warned on Friday morning. “Then the winds will intensify in the middle and second half of the week, which will lead to growing fears about the time of the fire.” There are currently nine major active fires in the southern United States and have burned more than 300,000 acres so far. . All but two of these major fires are expected to see near record highs at some point in the next seven days.
Any improvement in wind conditions or humidity levels will be extremely helpful to firefighters who hope to increase fire containment next week.
But it’s not just the Southwest Desert that will see record heat; in many Gulf states that have been largely spared the worst intense heat to date, temperatures will begin to rise this weekend.
The heat is spreading to the southern United States
From Arizona to Louisiana, more than a dozen cities are expected to break record temperatures this weekend. From Phoenix to Amarillo, Texas, those records are expected to triple.
However, this heat wave will spread and will continue in the coming week. Some areas of Texas could break daily high-temperature records every day for at least the next seven days.
From Sunday in Roswell, New Mexico and Midland and Odessa in Texas, high temperatures will rise to 100 degrees and will remain there at least until Thursday of the coming week.
For much of East Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, the concern is not only about the temperatures themselves, but also about the long period of time during which the heat will remain.
Check the 10-day forecast to see how hot it will be where you live “This will be the last school week for many of our local children and air temperatures will be more like July than May,” the office said Friday. at NWS in Shreveport in the morning. “The average maximum values are from the low to the mid-80s for mid-May, but we will be a good 10 degrees above that every day. No doubt, as the earth continues to dry up, several readings from the top 90 degrees will rise above record levels by next Friday. “
Anyone who is out this weekend should take extra precautions.
“We have very dry conditions that are expected over the weekend with very low humidity,” Shoemak told CNN. “So combining the heat with these very dry conditions, dehydration can really become a quick problem. And if you’re outside, whether you’re working or exercising, take very frequent breaks.”
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