Colorado Governor Jared Polis called on Twitter for “prayers for thousands of families evacuated from the fires in Superior and Boulder Counties.” Forest fires in winter are very uncommon in the region.
Persistent drought and squalls
Like much of the western United States, however, Colorado is suffering from a drought that has left the area vulnerable to forest fires. Power lines overturned by gusts of wind had started a series of smaller fires that spread across the dry and dusty countryside of Boulder County. The winch also made it difficult to extinguish the fire. The city of Louisville, which has a population of 20,000, and the 13,000 residents of Superior were asked to leave the region. The National Weather Service described the situation as “life-threatening”.
Heat record and «icemageddon» in Alaska
In the northern state of Alaska, the authorities warned of an “icemageddon” (alluding to the word “Armageddon” for an absolute disaster). By that they meant the sudden masses of ice blocking streets in Fairbanks City. Hours earlier, the thermometer on Kodiak Island in southern Alaska had reached 19.4 degrees Celsius – a historic heat record for December in the state. There was more rain than it had in decades, and it froze on the ground when the temperatures fell below zero again.
The freak weather with snow and rain also caused traffic problems and evacuations in Washington State and California.
Scientists attribute the increasingly unpredictable extreme weather of recent months in the USA to man-made climate change. Both forest fires and storms are increasing in intensity and causing great damage.