As of Friday, 93% of the West is experiencing some form of drought. Add the threat of dry thunderstorms for some areas in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, California and Oregon and that creates the perfect conditions for wildfires to ignite, CNN meteorologist Rob Shackelford said.
“The risk of dry thunderstorms can spark wildfires, and the fact that so much of the entire West is under a drought, that could lead to wildfires popping up quite easily,” Shackelford said. “It just takes one spark from a powerline in some of these places to start.”
But he noted that wind gusts are expected to be high on Friday, which makes taming those potential fires much easier.
A historic heatwave has been searing much of the Pacific Northwest, where more than 20 record high temperatures could be broken through the weekend, Shackelford said.
Heatwave fuels wildfire threat
The consistent baking heat and little rain is alarming because it could fuel wildfires. Excessive heat warnings have been extended through the holiday weekend for much of eastern Washington, Idaho and Montana.
“This event will likely be one of the most extreme and prolonged heat waves in the recorded history of the Inland Northwest,” according to the NWS office in Spokane, Washington. “Unprecedented heat will not only threaten the health of residents in the Inland Northwest but will make our region increasingly vulnerable to wildfires and intensify the impacts of our ongoing drought,” it said.
Temperatures in the village in British Columbia hit 121 degrees on Tuesday — the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada.
More than 1,000 people in and around Lytton evacuated Wednesday night within a moment’s notice as flames engulfed the area, BC Premier John Horgan said.
“Lytton has been devastated and it will take an extraordinary amount of effort to get that historic location back to what it was,” Horgan said.
Hannah Gard, Monica Garrett, Dave Alsup, Brisa Colon, Sarah Moon, Jon Passantino and Rebekah Riess