Floods, devastating fires, storms and heat waves: it's a real bouquet of climate change that the United States is experiencing as summer approaches.

According to Alex Lamers, specialist in the American national weather forecast, if it is difficult to make a direct link between warming and an isolated meteorological phenomenon, climate change is undeniably an aggravating factor.

Especially with such a sequence.

“In every weather phenomenon, there is an element of bad luck (…) But all have the climate as a backdrop and to put it simply, climate change sucks the dice and increases the probability of having extreme events”, explains- he.

Thus, nearly 120 million Americans, or a third of the population, are affected to one degree or another by a heat wave alert that has hit part of the Midwest and Southeast of the country.

“A high pressure dome is expected to produce above normal to record high temperatures across the area today and tomorrow (Wednesday),” National Weather warned on Tuesday.

“This heat, combined with high humidity, is likely to generate temperatures well above 37°C in many places,” she warns.

In parts of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, the mercury is expected to reach 43°C.

It is this zone of high atmospheric pressure that triggers exceptional phenomena on its periphery, adds Alex Lamers.

"In many cases, if you have a strong enough heat wave, you're going to find all around its edge thunderstorms and tornadoes, flash floods, downpours," he explains.

At the northern fringe of this heat dome, high temperatures collide with masses of cool air and created severe thunderstorms on Monday, leaving several hundred thousand people without power in the Midwest.

Floods in Yellowstone, fires in California

Further west, images released by the national parks agency showed flood damage in Yellowstone Park.

All entrances to this vast park of nearly 9,000 km2, straddling the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho (northwest), remained closed until further notice due to the "extremely dangerous conditions" caused by a flooded river and torrential rains.

Anyone still in the park was told to evacuate.

"The floods measured on the Yellowstone River are beyond record levels," says the national parks agency on its website.

Heatwave alerts have also been issued in several regions of California and Arizona, where temperatures and chronic drought are further increasing the risk of fire.

Two fires, each having already covered more than 120,000 hectares, continued to burn Tuesday in the state of New Mexico.

Firefighters have been struggling for weeks to contain the flames at the Black Fire and Hermits Peak which are fueled by unusually dry vegetation.

“I fear that we have four, five or even six very difficult months ahead of us”

New Mexico and most of the southwestern United States are in the grip of a historic drought and dozens of fires have already broken out in the region before the start of summer.

Firefighters are finding that the frequency, size and intensity of forest and brush fires has steadily increased in recent years.

The year 2022 once again promises to be formidable from this point of view.

“Given the current state of the vegetation and the fires, I fear that we have four, five or even six very difficult months ahead of us,” said Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy recently.

Fires are common in the western United States but have become increasingly intense due to global warming caused by human activities, including fossil fuels.

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