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At least 86 large wildfires are active this Monday in the western United States, fueled by high temperatures and extremely dry conditions, forcing authorities to deploy more than 22,000 firefighters in 12 states.
The U.S. National Fire Fighting Center (NIFC), warned that the next two days the west of the country will be under extremely hot weather conditions that will make fire control tasks difficult.
High pressure that has settled over the Great Basin area, which covers parts of the states of Nevada, Utah, California, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming, will move dry air masses northward, NIFC added.
Conditions are not expected to improve until Tuesday, when the extreme temperature warning is scheduled to be canceled for Montana, Oregon and Idaho.
But NIFC also warned that intense thunderstorms are expected in the Southwest that could cause flooding in Arizona, western New Mexico, southern Utah and southern Colorado.
In California, the Dixie Fire, the largest fire in the state, about 200 kilometers north of Sacramento, has already consumed 780 square kilometers of land and is only 21 % controlled, according to the latest data from the firefighting agency Cal Fire.
In the last few hours, the fire has grown by 56 square kilometers.
More than 5,000 firefighters are battling the Dixie blaze, which started on July 14 and has forced numerous evacuations after destroying at least 16 structures.
Meanwhile, in Oregon, the Bootleg fire is still active and has consumed 1,654 square kilometers of land. Officials said that 2,216 firefighters are battling the blaze, which is 46 % controlled.
According to NIFC data, the 86 large fires that are active in the country have burned 6,063 square kilometers of land.
So far this year, the United States has suffered 36,467 fires that have scorched 11,211 square kilometers, the highest number of fires since 2017.
