Wildfires have destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of land in North America with officials saying the situation is far from being under control.
Some 850,000 acres were on fire in the United States — mainly in western states such as Oregon, California and Arizona — while more than 300,000 acres smouldered in Canada's British Columbia alone, according to wildfire officials.After a brief lull from late June's previous heat wave, extreme temperatures in recent days reached as far inland as the edge of the Rocky Mountains — part of a dramatic trend that experts attribute directly to climate change.
The World Weather Attribution group said that global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, made the June heat wave at least 150 times more likely to happen. Last month was the hottest June on record in North America, according to data released by the European Union's climate monitoring service.The US National Weather Service warned dangerous temperatures were continuing in the region for the early part of the week, with temperatures up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit recorded in southern California on Monday, and a heat advisory issued for communities outside Los Angeles.