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Agencies

A brutal heatwave punishing the US west pushed temperatures toward all-time records for a third day on Sunday, as Death Valley in California, scorched at 56 degrees Celsius (133 Fahrenheit) was again one of the hottest spots on the planet.
Sweltering conditions hit much of the Pacific seaboard and as far inland as the western edge of the Rocky Mountains over the weekend.
The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings across much of the region and cautioned residents that the high temperatures could be hazardous to the their health and that of loved ones, especially small children and the elderly.
“I just came up here to see how hot it gets,” said Richard Rader of Scottsdale, Arizona, who said he had ridden his bike 16km across Death Valley on Sunday.

Other tourists got out of their air-conditioned cars only long enough to pose for pictures with the thermometer.
The sweltering heat, which extended across much of the Pacific northwest, pressured power grids and fuelled major wildfires, including a blaze burning in Southern Oregon that threatened homes and knocked out electricity.
In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire more than tripled in size between Friday and Sunday, gaining more than 100,000 acres, according to the US Forest Service.
After Covid-19, could next big killer be heatwaves?
In Canada, with wildfires continuing to spread – including 50 more blazes erupting in the past two days – the government announced new emergency measures aimed at preventing further fires.
Canadian transport minister Omar Alghabra on Sunday announced new emergency measures, including steps to slow or limit train traffic.
Trains are a common cause of wildfires, often when their spark-arresting devices are poorly maintained.

Several roads and highways in the area have been closed as the government rated the wildfire risk in much of the province as “extreme”. A dozen towns or locales remained under evacuation orders.
The Canadian government has sent investigators to the town of Lytton, 250km (150 miles) northeast of Vancouver, to see whether a passing cargo train might have caused a late June fire that destroyed 90 per cent of the town.
‘Heartbreaking’ destruction of Chinese-Canadian heritage
The overall death toll in British Columbia was not yet known but is thought to run into the hundreds.
As of Sunday morning, the number of wildfires across British Columbia was continuing to rise, hitting 298, authorities said.
Last month was the hottest June on record in North America, according to data released by the European Union’s climate monitoring service.
Human activity has driven global temperatures up, stoking increasingly fierce storms, extreme heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.
The World Meteorological Organization and Britain’s Met Office said in May there was a 40 per cent chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily surpassing 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures within the next five years.
The past six years, including 2020, have been the six warmest on record.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse


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Extreme weather

Death Valley tops 54 degrees Celsius as brutal heat bakes US west

Death Valley in California was one of the hottest places on Earth on Sunday. Photo: TNS

A person poses for a photo next to a thermometer in Death Valley, California, U.S., July 11, 2021. REUTERS/Bridget Bennett REFILE - CORRECTING CAPTION

The charred remnants of vehicles, destroyed by a wildfire on June 30, are seen during a media tour by authorities in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada July 9, 2021. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier

After Covid-19, could next big killer be heatwaves? Draft UN report paints grim picture for world

People sit at Odaiba beach in Tokyo Bay during a summer heatwave in August, 2020. File photo: AFP

(FILES) In this file photo taken on April 22, 2016 a child remains at an area affected by a drought on Earth Day in the southern outskirts of Tegucigalpa. - Hunger, drought and disease will afflict tens of millions more people within decades, according to a draft UN assessment that lays bare the dire human health consequences of a warming planet. After a pandemic year that saw the world turned on its head, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's forthcoming report offers a distressing vision of the decades to come: malnutrition, water insecurity, pestilence. (Photo by ORLANDO SIERRA / AFP)

(FILES) In this file photo taken on January 2, 2019 an Indian man walks across a shallow section of the Yamuna River amidst heavy smog in Agra in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. - Severe climate impacts will unavoidably ravage nature and humankind by mid-century or sooner, according to the draft of a landmark report from the UN's climate science advisory body obtained by AFP. Species extinction, ecosystem collapse, crippling health impacts from disease and heat, water shortages, migration from cities devastated by rising seas -- all will accelerate in the coming decades no matter how rapidly the carbon emissions that drive global warming are cut, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds. (Photo by XAVIER GALIANA / AFP)

‘Heartbreaking’ destruction of Chinese-Canadian heritage, as heatwave inferno consumes museum

The collection of the Lytton Chinese History Museum featured 1,600 artefacts. All were lost in the fire that destroyed the township on June 30. Photo: Lytton Chinese History Museum

This photo shared by Lorna Fandrich on the Facebook page of the Lytton Chinese History Museum on Friday July 2, 2021, shows that the museum, in the background across the road, has been reduced to ashes and rubble. Photo: Lytton Chinese History Museum

This photo taken circa 1885 shows the village of Lytton, British Columbia, with the Chinese temple, or "joss house", front and centre. Photo: City of Vancouver Archives

The charred remnants of homes and buildings, destroyed by a wildfire on June 30, are left behind in Lytton, British Columbia, Canada July 6, 2021, as seen in this aerial photograph. REUTERS/Jennifer Gauthier

Lorna Fandrich was the owner and driving force behind the Lytton Chinese History Museum, which opened in 2017 but was destroyed by fire on June 30, 2021. Photo: Lytton Chinese History Museum

The Lytton Chinese History Museum was opened in 2017 and was swiftly recognised as an important repository of artefacts documenting the role of Chinese-Canadians in the British Columbia interior. Photo: Lytton Chinese History Museum

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World

United States & Canada


Millions swelter in US west as Canada takes emergency steps
Death Valley in California is often America’s hottest spot



A brutal heatwave punishing the US west pushed temperatures toward all-time records.


Climate change

United States

Canada

Death Valley tops 54 degrees Celsius as brutal heat bakes US west

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Millions swelter in US west as Canada takes emergency steps Death Valley in California is often America’s hottest spot

Millions swelter in US west as Canada takes emergency steps

Death Valley in California is often America’s hottest spot