The US is in the middle of a heat wave that is expected to last through July.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas asked customers to limit power use because of the hot weather. High temperatures are drying out vegetation that is fueling the fires. The giant Sequoias are at risk from the fires.
USA Today reported that 50 million people were under a heat alert. The extreme temperatures are not over despite the fact that the number has dropped.
According to forecasts from the Climate Prediction Center, the heat will likely continue across the US for the rest of July and then move to the west coast. There is a map showing the center's projections.
The high-pressure system that is trapping heat over Texas will move west over the next two weeks.
According to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, this will bring an extremely broad region of hotter than usual temperatures to the western third of the country.
The coming heat wave will be "remarkable" due to the large land area it covers. The next two weeks of heat are likely to accelerate the fire season.
Hundreds of people are killed by extreme heat in the US each year. As global temperatures rise, heat waves are getting worse. The average heat wave season has increased by 45 days since the 1960s, according to the National Climate Assessment.
The summer is trying to show that trend. The Climate Prediction Center has a temperature outlook for the next three months. The entire US is expected to experience above-average heat this summer with the exception of two small pockets in the north.
I don't think we'll see record temperatures every day through the summer. At times through the summer, the conditions will be favorable to see at least rounds of well-above-normal temperatures.
This week's temperatures are on top of an extremely hot June. Before summer even began, heat had broken daily temperature records across the country, forced school closings, and killed more than 2,000 cattle. The June heat wave was amazing for how long it lasted.
The US is not the only country in a heat wave.
Europe and China are also experiencing heat waves. The Middle East and other parts of Asia are facing record heat.
The chief of NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office said in a statement that emissions of greenhouse gases by human activity are causing weather extremes that impact our living conditions.
The fires broke out as the high-pressure systems that trap heat rolled in and baked the land.
In Italy, the heat caused a glacier in the Dolomite mountains to collapse, killing 11 hikers. The heat in Spain has killed 84 people so far in July, according to the Health Ministry.
The UK declared a national extreme-heat warning for the first time on Friday, in anticipation of a heat wave next week.
This could be Europe's worst heat wave in 200 years, according to AccuWeather. It could go on for a while.
Extreme weather events are becoming more common and more severe in many parts of the world due to the changing climate.
Japan had its worst heat wave on record in June. India and Pakistan experienced a heat wave earlier this year.
The summer is almost over in the Northern Hemisphere.
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