Western US hit by wildfires amid shockingly high temperatures

Firefighters struggled to contain a fast-moving northern California wildfire under blazing temperatures as another heatwave blanketed the west of the US, prompting an excessive heat warning for inland and desert areas.

Temperatures in Death Valley in southeast California’s Mojave Desert reached 53 degrees on Saturday, according to the US National Weather Service’s reading at Furnace Creek. The shockingly high temperature was actually lower than the previous day’s reading of 54 degrees.

If confirmed as accurate, that would be the highest recorded there since July 1913, when Furnace Creek desert hit 57 degrees, considered the highest measured temperature on Earth.

Nearly 500km northwest of the sizzling desert, the largest wildfire of the year in California was raging along the border with Nevada.

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The Beckwourth Complex Fire – a combination of two lightning-caused fires burning 70km north of Lake Tahoe – showed no sign of slowing its rush northeast from the Sierra Nevada forest region after doubling in size between Friday and Saturday.

On Saturday evening, flames were threatening properties in Nevada's Washoe County. "Take immediate steps to protect large animals and livestock," the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District tweeted as the blaze, which was only 8 per cent contained, rapidly increased to 220sq km.

It was one of several threatening homes across western states that sweltered through the weekend as a high-pressure zone blanketed the region.

Pushed by strong winds, a wildfire in southern Oregon doubled in size to 300sq km on Saturday as it raced through heavy timber in the Fremont-Winema National Forest near the Klamath County town of Sprague River.

The California Independent System Operator warned of a potential power shortage, not only because of mounting heat, but because a wildfire in southern Oregon was threatening transmission lines that carry imported power to California.

Record high

Palm Springs in southern California hit a record high temperature of 49 degrees on Saturday. It was the fourth time temperatures have reached that level so far this year, the Desert Sun reported.

Late on Saturday afternoon Las Vegas experienced a record-equalling high of 47 degrees, the National Weather Service said. The city has recorded that temperature four other times, most recently in June 2017.

On Saturday a brush fire sparked by a burning big rig in eastern San Diego County, southern California, forced evacuations of two Native American reservations, while local media in Mohave County, Arizona, reported that two firefighters died after an aircraft they were in to respond to a small wildfire crashed.

Canada on Sunday ordered rail transport restrictions for areas where there is a high wildfire risk in both British Columbia and nationally after a blaze wiped out the town of Lytton and killed two people earlier this month. The order will require both the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway to take a number of precautions to protect against wildfires, including reducing train speeds, according to a transport ministry statement.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Friday said it was deploying teams of investigators to see if freight trains were potentially responsible for sparking two fires, including the one that ravaged Lytton. The Lytton blaze erupted after the town broke Canada’s more than 80-year-old heat record with a 49.6-degree temperature.

There are 297 wildfires burning in British Columbia on Sunday, an increase of 97 in two days, according to official data.