Floods, devastating fires, thunderstorms and a potentially dangerous heat wave for a third of the population: the United States suffered the brunt of a series of disasters linked to climate change on Tuesday as summer approaches.
Nearly 120 million Americans were affected to one degree or another by a heat wave alert, which hit parts of the Midwest and Southeast of the country. “A high-pressure dome is expected to produce above-normal or even record temperatures across the area today and tomorrow,” the National Meteorology Department warned.
At the northern fringe of this heat dome, high temperatures collide with masses of cool air and created severe thunderstorms on Monday, leaving several hundred thousand people without power in the Midwest. This cold front is likely to cause other destructive weather, such as hail or high winds.
Torrential rains in Yellowstone
Further west, images released by the national parks agency showed flood damage in Yellowstone Park. All entrances to this vast park of nearly 9000 km2, straddling the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, remained closed until further notice due to “extremely dangerous conditions”, caused by a river in floods and torrential rains.
Anyone still in the park was told to evacuate. The floods measured on the Yellowstone River are beyond record levels,” the national parks agency wrote on the Internet.
The floods have caused collapses or mudslides, which cut multiple sections of the road “and several bridges can also be affected”, she specifies.
Heatwave alerts have also been issued in several regions of California and Arizona, where temperatures and chronic drought further increase the risk of fires. Two fires, each having already covered more than 120,000 hectares, continued to burn on Tuesday in the state of New Mexico.
