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Hari Sreenivasan: Wildfires in California are burning homes and prompting evacuations. A fire that started last night in Goleta, west of Santa Barbara, forced nearly 2,500 people to leave their homes. And in San Diego county, a fire that broke out yesterday morning has burned hundreds of acres. Fighting these fires has been much more difficult due to extremely high temperatures. In southern California, a heat wave yesterday broke records. In downtown Los Angeles, it was 108, a record for the day. And two airports there reached all-time highs: Burbank airport at 114 degrees; Van Nuys airport hit 117 degrees. But California was not alone.
Global temperatures reached extreme highs this past week, something scientists have been warning of as part of the effects of climate change. This map, from the University of Maine, shows maximum temperatures around the globe yesterday. In the northern hemisphere, July is off to a record-breaking start. In Canada, authorities said that at least 50 people died from heat-related illnesses in the province of Quebec. The largest city there, Montréal, had a record high temperature of 97.9 degrees on Monday. In the U.S., a heat dome brought the northeast and Midwest record temperatures. Combined with the humidity, it pushed the feels like temperatures above 100 degrees. In Denver, Colorado, the city tied its record all-time high of 105 degrees on June 28.
Meanwhile, a new world record was set in the Middle East last week. Along the coast of Oman, the temperature never dropped below 108.7 degrees over a 24-hour period. And in Glasgow, Scotland, the temperature reached a record-breaking 89.4 degrees on June 28. That's more than 20 degrees hotter than its usual mild summer temperature.
