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Tuesday, July 2, 2013 – Daily News 5A Why this heat wave's so scary and what's behind it WASHINGTON (AP) — Excessive heat is the No. 1 weather killer in the United States and it's at its most dangerous when it doesn't cool down at night. The current heat wave over California, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico has temperatures hitting triple digits, with little relief at night. Hot weather is also baking the rest of the far West, including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Utah and Montana. Q: What's so disturbing about this current heat wave? A: It's unrelenting stubbornness. There is no relief at night. Phoenix set a record for highest nighttime temperature: 91. Las Vegas has gone three days without getting below 90, according to readings at the airport. ''Nighttime heat is especially bad,'' said Eli Jacks, chief of fire and public weather services at the National Weather Service. ''Not to get below 90 is crazy.'' Q: What's so dangerous about that? If you aren't in an airconditioned place, ''your body never has a chance to recover'' at night, Jacks said. Normally the ''feelslike'' index — which factors in temperature and humidity — has to get to 80 degrees or below for your body to recover from the daytime heat, Jacks said. The lack of nighttime cooling is more dangerous than the 117 degree alltime record in Las Vegas, experts said. Q: How do heat waves compare to other weather killers? A: In recent years, heat has been more deadly than other weather extremes in the United States. On average, heat waves are killing about 117 people a year, according to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. However, those numbers are incomplete and only based on reports during periods of extreme heat. The much more comprehensive numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that on average 658 people die each year from too much heat. Q: Who is most at risk? A: The elderly and children. The elderly make up 36 percent of heat deaths in the past decade, according to the CDC. And of all the excessive heat deaths, 69 percent are men. Also on average, 37 children left in car seats die from heat each year, according to a study at San Francisco State University. Q: What can you do to stay safe? A: Drink lots of water; the dry heat in the Southwest evaporates sweat so quickly that people don't notice they are perspiring and get dehydrated more quickly, Jacks said. Stay in the shade and out of the heat between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Use sunblock of SPF 15 or higher. Wear light-colored clothing and light clothing. Reduce use of caffeine and alcohol, which tend to dehydrate, and slow down. Q: So what's causing all this? A: Part of it is normal summer heat spurts, said meteorologist Kenneth James of the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md. But there's another factor and that's the jet stream. Normally the jet stream moves generally west-toeast, but when it slows and swings dramatically to the north or south, extreme weather can happen. What's happening now is ''a really big kink in the jet stream, about as big as you can see anytime, covering the whole western U.S.,'' said heat wave expert Ken Kunkel, a professor of atmospheric sciences at North Carolina State University. To the west of the kink, in Arizona and Nevada, there's a high pressure system just parked there with stagnant heat, Kunkel said. And to its east are cool — even record cool — temperatures in Texas, he said. Q: When will it end? A: The extreme heat should continue for about a week, but it won't set records, James said. Q: Is this related to the deadly Arizona fire? A: ''There's most assuredly a link'' between the heat wave and the fire, Jacks said. It gets hot with extremely dry air, and then a no-rain lightning strike ignites bone-dry fuel into a fire. Q: Is this global warming? A: No single event can be blamed solely on manmade global warming, scientists and meteorologists say. But this is the type of heat wave than scientists have long said will be more common as the world warms. Some, but not all, scientists also theorize that the jet stream is having more of these crazy kinks lately because of a warming Arctic and melting sea ice. Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said there's an element of randomness in the current weather. Yet with all-time heat records in the past few years being broken at three times the expected rate, he said, ''there can be little doubt that climate change and global warming are playing a role.'' ——— Online: NOAA on heat waves: http://www.noaawatch.go v/themes/heat.php NOAA beating the heat tips: http://www.noaa.gov/features/earthobs— 0508/heat.html CDC on heat waves: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/ Portable shelters couldn't save 19 firefighters PRESCOTT, Ariz. (AP) — Trapped by a wildfire that exploded tenfold in a matter of hours, a crack team of firefighting ''Hotshots'' broke out their portable emergency shelters and rushed to climb into the foil-lined, heatresistant bags before the flames swept over them. By the time the blaze had passed, 19 men lay dead in the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years. The tragedy Sunday evening all but wiped out the 20-member Granite Mountain Hotshots, a unit based at Prescott, authorities said Monday as the last of the bodies were retrieved from the mountain in the town of Yarnell. Only one member survived, and that was because he was moving the unit's truck at the time. The deaths plunged the two small towns into mourning as the wildfire continued to threaten one of them, Yarnell. Arizona's governor called it ''as dark a day as I can remember'' and ordered flags flown at half-staff. In a heartbreaking sight, a line of white vans carried the bodies to Phoenix for autopsies. ''I know that it is unbearable for many of you, but it also is unbearable for me. I know the pain that everyone is trying to overcome and deal with today,'' said Gov. Jan Brewer, her voice catching several times as she addressed reporters and residents at Prescott High School in the town of 40,000. The lightning-sparked fire — which spread to 13 square miles by Monday morning — destroyed about 50 homes and threatened 250 others in and around Yarnell, a town of 700 people in the mountains about 85 miles northwest of Phoenix, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Department said. About 200 more firefighters joined the battle Monday, bringing the total to 400. Among them were several other Hotshot teams, elite groups of firefighters sent in from around the country to battle the nation's fiercest wildfires. Residents huddled in shelters and restaurants, watching their homes burn on TV as flames lit up the night sky in the forest above the town. It was unclear exactly how the firefighters became trapped, and state officials were investigating. Brewer said the blaze ''exploded into a firestorm'' that overran the crew. Brian Klimowski, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Flagstaff, said there was a sudden increase and shift in wind around the time of the tragedy. The blaze grew from 200 acres to about 2,000 in a matter of hours. Southwest incident team leader Clay Templin said the crew and its commanders were following safety protocols, and it appears the fire's erratic nature simply overwhelmed them. The Hotshot team had spent recent weeks fighting fires in New Mexico and Prescott before being called to Yarnell, entering the smoky wilderness over the weekend with backpacks, chainsaws and other heavy gear to remove brush and trees as a heat wave across the Southwest sent temperatures into the triple digits. Arizona Forestry Division spokesman Mike Reichling said all 19 victims had deployed their emergency shelters as they were trained to do. When there is no way out, firefighters are supposed to step into them, lie face down on the ground and pull the fire-resistant fabric completely over themselves. ''It'll protect you, but only for a short amount of time. If the fire quickly burns over you, you'll probably survive that,'' said Prescott Fire Capt. Jeff Knotek. But ''if it burns intensely for any amount of time while you're in that thing, there's nothing that's going to save you from that.'' Autopsies were scheduled to determine exactly how the firefighters died. President Barack Obama offered his administration's help in investigating the tragedy and predicted it will force government leaders to answer broader questions about how they handle increasingly destructive and deadly wildfires. ''We are heartbroken about what happened,'' he said while on a visit to Africa. The U.S. has 110 Hotshot crews, according to the U.S. Forest Service website. They typically have about 20 members each and go through specialized training. Many of those killed were graduates of Prescott High, including Clayton Whitted, who would work out as firefighter on the same campus where he played football for the Prescott Badgers from 2000 to 2004. The school's football coach, Lou Beneitone, said Whitted was the type of athlete who ''worked his fanny off.'' ''He wasn't a big kid, and many times in the game, he was overpowered by big men, and he still got after it. He knew, 'This man in front of me is a lot bigger and stronger than KWIK KUTS Family Hair Salon 20 % off ANY RETAIL PRODUCT with any chemical service of $50 or more 2 Regular $ Haircut 00 off Reg. $13.95 Not good with other offers Expires 6/30/13 With coupon 1064 South Main St., Red Bluff • 529-3540 me,' but he'd try it and he'd smile trying it,'' Beneitone said. He and Whitted had talked a few months ago about how this year's fire season could be a ''rough one.'' ''I shook his hand, gave him a hug, and said, 'Be safe out there,''' Beneitone recalled. ''He said, 'I will, Coach.''' Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Yarnell area. In addition to the flames, downed power lines and exploding propane tanks continued to threaten what was left of the town, said fire information officer Steve Skurja. ''It's a very hazardous situation right now,'' Skurja said. Arizona is in the midst of a historic drought that has left large parts of the state highly flammable. ''Until we get a significant showing of the monsoons, it's showtime, and it's dangerous, really dangerous,'' incident commander Roy Hall said. The National Fire Protection Association website lists the last wildfire to kill more firefighters as the 1933 Griffith Park blaze in Los Angeles, which killed 29. The biggest loss of firefighters in U.S. history was 343, killed in the 9/11 attack on New York. In 1994, the Storm King Fire near Glenwood Springs, Colo., killed 14 firefighters who were overtaken by an explosion of flames. A makeshift memorial of flower bouquets and American flags formed at the Prescott fire station where the crew was based. Prescott resident Keith Gustafson showed up and placed 19 water bottles in the shape of a heart. ''When I heard about this, it just hit me hard,'' he said. ''It hit me like a ton of bricks.'' RUNNINGS ROOFING Sheet Metal Roofing Residential Commercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane "No Job Too Steep" " No Job Too Flat" Serving Tehama County No Money 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 CA. LIC#829089 Down! 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