In California, a heat wave was developing but winds were light as firefighters battled a wildfire that threatens a grove of giant redwoods and a small community in Yosemite National Park. The Washburn fire on the west side of the Sierra Nevada mountains had burned about 5.8 square kilometers by Monday morning, an increase of about 120 hectares overnight, according to an incident update. The fire threatened more than 500 mature sequoia trees in the park’s Mariposa Grove and the nearby community of Wawona, which has been evacuated. The area in the southern part of Yosemite was closed to visitors, but the rest of the national park remained open. The Washburn Fire burns on a hillside in California’s Yosemite National Park on Saturday. The fire threatened more than 500 mature sequoias in the park’s Mariposa Grove, and a nearby community has been evacuated. (Stephen Lam/San Francisco Chronicle/AP)
Grove has been protected since 1864
Mariposa Grove and Yosemite Valley have been protected since President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation in 1864. A sprinkler system was installed inside the grove to maintain moisture, and there were no reports of serious damage to any of the signature trees, including the 3,000-year-old Giant Grizzly. “Fortunately, Mariposa Grove has a long history of prescribed burning, and studies have shown that these efforts reduce the effects of high-severity unwanted fire,” a National Park Service statement said. A heat advisory was issued for the Central Valley stretching under the Sierra Nevada, while a high of 31C was forecast for Wawona in the fire area. Giant sequoias, native to only about 70 groves spread along the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, were once considered impervious to flames, but have become increasingly vulnerable as wildfires, fueled by the accumulation of undergrowth from a century of fire suppression and the effects of drought exacerbated by climate change, have become more intense and destructive. Fires sparked by lightning in the past two years have killed up to a fifth of the estimated 75,000 big redwoods, which are the largest trees by volume and are a major draw for tourists.
2 large fires in Utah
There was no apparent natural spark for the fire that broke out Thursday along the park’s Washburn Trail. Smoke was reported by visitors walking in the grove. A fierce windstorm tore through the grove more than a year ago and felled 15 giant sequoias, along with countless other trees. Smoke from the Jacob City fire billows over Salt Lake County on Saturday. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP) Fallen trees, along with huge numbers of pines killed by beetles, provided plenty of fuel for the flames. So far in 2022, more than 35,000 fires have burned nearly 1.9 million hectares in the U.S., according to the National Interagency Fire Center, well above the average for both fires and acres burned. In Utah, smoke and ash from a growing wildfire in rural Tooele County engulfed Salt Lake City on Saturday. By Sunday afternoon, the Jacob City fire had grown to 15.3 square kilometers, with zero containment, officials said. Elsewhere in Utah, firefighters battling strong winds battled the 32.2 square kilometer Halfway Hill fire in Filmore. Law enforcement on Saturday arrested four men who investigators said abandoned a bonfire that ignited the fire.
Texas near capacity for energy reserves
Meanwhile, Texas’ power grid operator on Sunday urged residents in the state for the second time this year to conserve energy, warning of possible back-to-back blackouts amid predictions of high temperatures on Monday. The state faces a “potential shortage of backup capacity with no available market solution,” the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said on its website, adding a power emergency warning that advised of the possibility of rolling outages. Power lines are seen in Dallas on June 12. Temperatures for much of Texas were expected to be around 37C on Monday. (Shelby Tauber/Reuters) ERCOT oversees the delivery of energy to more than 26 million customers. Temperatures across the state set a record on Sunday, with 40.6 degrees Celsius at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport surpassing the record set in 1909, according to the US National Weather Service (NWS). High or dangerous heat levels are forecast for much of the state on Monday, with temperatures expected to top 37C. ERCOT asked residents to conserve electricity between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., saying demand could reach 79,934 megawatts (MW) on Monday and 80,104 MW on Tuesday, not far from Monday’s expected 80,200 MW of available reserves. One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes in the US on a typical day, but only about 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner advised police and fire chiefs in the nation’s fourth most populous city to “prepare in case the state’s power grid fails during extreme heat.” The state’s grid operator demanded more power from suppliers and asked large industrial consumers to reduce energy use.
