Heavy snowfall is expected to bring relief in the U.S. state of Colorado on Friday, where high winds destroyed a fire that burned hundreds of homes and forced tens of thousands to evacuate.
Read more: In pictures | Hundreds of homes in Colorado were destroyed by fire
The U.S. Meteorological Agency (NWS) has issued a winter storm warning for parts of the mountainous western state and forecast heavy snowfall in the coming days.
Boulder NWS tweeted Friday morning that “it will be very cold by the time tonight marks the start of the New Year” and that “most parts of Denver will be snowing at midnight”.
These scales should provide relief to the people and be completely different from the marshal fire, which forced the evacuation of at least 33,000 people on Thursday.
Impressive flames tore through the sky and sometimes blew at speeds of up to 160km / h, complicating the task of firefighters against fires of extraordinary intensity for the season.
Part of the eviction orders were lifted overnight by local authorities.
AFP
But places like Superior, home to 13,000 people, are still unlimited. “Currently no one has the right to enter the city,” Townhall warned on Twitter.
Patrick Kilbride, 72, a resident of the city, was ordered to evacuate while on duty, but was only able to save his car and clothes. He said the house he lived in for three decades was “only ash” Denver Post.
In Louisville, all 20,000 residents are ordered to boil tap water or use bottles, and the city uses untreated water to fight fires.
Fifty kilometers from the state capital, Denver, Boulder County, home to 100,000 people, had hotels, shopping centers and more than 650 hectares of smog.
AFP
The fire, unlike the previous one, affected not only the countryside but also the suburbs.
“About 370 houses around Sagamore were destroyed. 210 homes may have been destroyed in the Old Town Superior, ”Boulder County Sheriff Joe Bell said Thursday.
Colorado, an already arid state like the western United States, has been battling exceptional drought for years.
With global warming, the intensity and frequency of drought and heat waves are likely to increase further, creating better conditions for forest or shrub fires. In recent years, the U.S. West has experienced unprecedented fires, especially in California and Oregon.
For Daniel Swain, a meteorologist at UCLA University, it is “hard to believe” that these fires will happen in December, which is not usually the case in the region.
“But so far this season there has been only two inches of snow.
Beyond the fire, the United States has experienced other extreme events recently, with Hurricane Ida making landfall in New York and New Jersey in September and in Kentucky in December. The latter, in relation to global warming, is still being explored.
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