It was burning in a remote area with limited access, hampering firefighters' efforts as it advanced eastward, fire officials said. The growth of the sprawling blaze had slowed, but thousands of homes remained threatened on its eastern side, authorities said. Such conditions are often from a combination of unusual random, short-term and natural weather patterns heightened by long-term, human-caused climate change. Although hot weather with afternoon winds posed a continued threat of spreading blazes, weekend forecasts also called for a chance of scattered thunderstorms in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and other states. More than 85 large wildfires were burning around the country, most of them in Western states, and they had burned over 14 lakh acres (2,135 square miles, or more than 5,53,000 hectares).

Source: The Hindu July 25, 2021 06:00 UTC