Extreme heat begins pummeling California as crews battle wildfires
California’s most intense heat wave so far this year has arrived, walloping residents with record-breaking temperatures, intensifying wildfires and stretching the state’s electricity supplies. On Wednesday, temperatures in San Fernando Valley communities north of Los Angeles reached new daily highs of 112 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, while Lancaster, a city in the desert northeast of the city, tied a record of 109 degrees, set in 1948. … Local officials also said that high temperatures and bone-dry conditions were making it difficult to fight the Route fire, which had burned more than 5,200 acres of brush-covered hillsides in the Castaic area of Los Angeles County, prompting evacuation orders and road closures.
Related articles:
- The Washington Post: California fights Route and Border 32 fires amid heat warnings
- Phys.org: Wildfire rages as California bakes under heat dome
- Los Angeles Times: Record temperatures, raging fires, a strained power grid – California heat wave in full effect
- Associated Press: Crews face heat wave along with California wildfires
- The Guardian: Seven California firefighters in hospital as heatwave hampers wildfire response
- Fox 40 – Sacramento: Fire fuel loads near record high at the onset of extreme heat wave