Los Angeles County hits 121 degrees as California wildfires set records
California wildfires have burned nearly 2.1 million acres so far in 2020, surpassing the record for the most land scorched in the state in a single year, CAL Fire Capt. Richard Cordova said Sunday. "This is crazy," Cordova said. "We haven't even got into the October and November fire season, and we've broken the all-time record."
Incredibly, this slipped in "under the radar" due to the more acute short-term wildfire crisis: 2020 has now eclipsed 2018 for the most acres burned in California in a single year during modern era (2,094,955 acres), & "offshore wind" season has not even arrived yet.#CAwx #CAfire pic.twitter.com/cP6cUYGHBq
— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) September 7, 2020
The news came as a record-setting heat wave created new challenges for exhausted firefighters who had finally started making headway containing some of the biggest blazes. The temperature in Woodland Hills, California, reached 121 degrees on Sunday, the highest ever recorded in Los Angeles County. The new record was two degrees above the previous high set in 2006. The National Weather Service said the area could get even hotter as a dangerous heat wave continues in California, Nevada, and Arizona, and records could be broken in other parts of the region. San Luis Obispo recorded a temperature of 120 degrees at the Cal Poly weather station, shattering the previous record of 115 degrees, which was set during a 2017 heat wave. "This is unmatched, just unprecedented, unreal," said John Lindsey, a meteorologist with Pacific Gas and Electric. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency in five counties.
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