Disasters

"Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery."

"In the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, soil repels water across the burn scar of the 2020 Bighorn Fire. Steep slopes and an imminent monsoon mean the hydrophobic ground is ripe for erosion."

"A rapidly-developing feature in the Atlantic has set a new record for the earliest E-named storm in the basin's recorded history."

"Brenda and Francis Dairy's small ranch house, tucked into the Oregon woods, was built to withstand a wildfire. The siding was concrete, the roof metal. It didn't matter. On Sept. 7 of last year, as the sky turned dark orange and the air grew thick with smoke, flames tore through nearby trees and engulfed the house entirely."

"President Joe Biden on Wednesday said climate change is driving an increased threat from wildfires as he announced new federal response plans during a meeting with governors from western states facing a record-breaking heat wave."

"A small B.C. village that endured the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Canada for days on end this week was engulfed in flames Wednesday night and residents were forced to flee, many without their belongings."

"Police in Metro Vancouver say they've responded to more than 100 sudden deaths since an extreme heat wave took hold in the province, and the danger is expected to continue in the face of unrelenting heat still in the forecast over the next several days."

"After a forest burns, the resulting erosion can contaminate drinking water supplies for up to a decade."

"The heat wave baking the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Canada, is of an intensity never recorded by modern humans. By one measure it is more rare than a once in a 1,000 year event — which means that if you could live in this particular spot for 1,000 years, you'd likely only experience a heat dome like this once, if ever."