TV News LIES

Hundreds of firefighters in Utah have struggled to suppress a wildfire that scorched an additional 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) as of Saturday, as low humidity and strong winds accelerated the fire spread, according to state officials.

The Cottonwood fire erupted on Monday in the Fishlake national forest, located in central Utah. The blaze intensified overnight, growing from about 70,000 acres (28,000 hectares) to more than 92,000 acres (37,000 hectares) on Saturday morning, according to the US Forest Service. The fire is at a 0% containment level and is the largest blaze currently burning in the US, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.

There have been no reported injuries or casualties. So far, the fire, whose cause remains under investigation, has left property damage at a ski resort in Beaver county and led to the closure of the national fores

Authorities expect slightly improved weather conditions on Saturday, but they warned that the afternoon may bring “extreme fire behavior” once more due to an increase in temperatures and wind speeds.

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Those who live anywhere east of the Rocky Mountains might want to start planning now to stay safe and cool through the July 4 weekend, as the National Weather Service warns days of "significant, dangerous heat" could be ahead.

And they're not talking normal summer heat. This is triple-digit heat indices and blazing hot temperatures that could break records and linger through Independence Day and beyond.

Temperatures are going to be "well above normal across much of the Central and Eastern U.S.," said Frank Pereira, a meteorologist at the Weather Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service.

From July 3-9, weather service forecasters are seeing increasing confidence for well above-normal and possibly record-breaking summertime temperatures and elevated extreme heat risks for many areas in the Midwest and Eastern U.S. The developing pattern could be favorable for another Omega block-like pattern bringing impacts that last further into July, the forecast discussion noted.

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Salt Lake City’s National Weather Service declared a “particularly dangerous situation red flag warning”, the first in the service’s history, according to a social media post.

“THIS IS EXTREMELY RARE … Wind gusts of 40-50+ mph, combined with hot temperatures and extremely dry air, could cause explosive wildfire growth. Any new fire that starts could spread rapidly and become difficult to control,” said Chase Thomason, a meteorologist for KUTV, Utah’s CBS affiliate.

On the same day that the red flag warning was announced, Utah governor Spencer Cox has announced a state of emergency and accompanying temporary prohibition on the use of personal fireworks until 5 July. The announcement comes as the state experiences an unprecedented wildfire season with blazes that have prompted evacuations in Eureka, a small town about 80 miles (130km) south of Salt Lake City.

Under the governor’s executive order, the state forester is allowed to ban the use of fireworks anywhere in the state. The order temporarily suspends a 2024 law that disallowed the forester from banning fireworks in cities across the state.

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Lake Powell ‒ the massive Colorado River reservoir that produces power for millions of homes across the West ‒ is the emptiest it has ever been entering the hottest part of the summer. And the worst is still to come.

Although the lake's levels have briefly fallen lower in years past, those low-water levels came in the spring, before melting snow refilled it. This year, that refill never happened.

As a result, Lake Powell will next spring fall to "minimum power pool," according to a newly released federal projection. If the water levels fall below that, the Glen Canyon Dam would stop generating electricity.

"This outcome is not a reflection of recent drought response actions, but rather a clear reminder that the Colorado River remains vulnerable," the federal Bureau of Reclamation wrote of its June 15 prediction.

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At least 188 people died and nearly 1,500 were injured June 24 after two devastating earthquakes hit a minute apart in northern Venezuela, the Caribbean nation with a long and deadly quake history.

The U.S. Geological Survey, using predictive modeling to estimate the death toll, said it would most likely run into the thousands, with a substantial probability of exceeding 10,000. A website set up to track missing people by leaders from the country's opposition said that about 24,000 people remain unaccounted for, Reuters reported.

The two quakes, with magnitudes of 7.2 and 7.5, struck shortly after 6 p.m. local time. They were two of the strongest quakes to hit Venezuela in more than a century.

Quakes of 7.0 to 7.9 magnitude are considered major, capable of causing severe, widespread damage.

Venezuela is vulnerable to powerful quakes because it’s on the active tectonic boundary between the Caribbean Plate and the South American Plate. The two giant plates grind past each other, building stress across several major faults.

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France recorded its hottest day ever Tuesday as an early heat wave gripped Europe, prompting the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum to restrict visiting hours and disrupting school and transportation schedules in multiple countries.

Punishing temperatures extended to the United Kingdom and Spain, where weather agencies issued red alerts — like France — about the risks of extreme heat for tens of millions of people.

The record of 29.8 C (85.6 F) for France's national thermal indicator — an average of temperatures measured at 30 weather stations — was only the latest in a series of never-before-registered highs heaped on Europe's largest country. The conditions were likely to persist at least until the weekend.

"Further record-breaking temperatures are expected, including some that could surpass all previous records, regardless of the time of year," the Meteo France weather service said.

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