TV News LIES

A brush fire in Hawaii fanned by high winds raced through more than 500 acres within hours, forcing closure of Maui's Haleakala National Park on Thursday while residents of the picturesque island continue to grapple with fallout from last year's historic blaze − the nation's most deadly wildfire in more than a century.

Fire officials said the current fire was sweeping southeast, driven by 40 mph winds. No homes had burned, but authorities issued an alert at 3 a.m. local time warning area residents to prepare for possible evacuation orders. Dozens of firefighters and tankers were battling the flames, and the county website was providing residents with updates on the fire's spread.

"The safety of our community is our top priority, and we need your cooperation to ensure everyone's well being," the Maui Fire Department said in its alert.

More...

Las Vegas set a new record on Wednesday as it marked a fifth consecutive day over 115F (46C), amid a lingering hot spell that will continue scorching much of the US into the weekend.

The blazing hot temperatures climbed to 115F shortly after 1pm at Harry Reid international airport, breaking the old mark of four consecutive days above 115F set in July 2005.

The brutal milestone marks yet another record for the Nevada desert city this week: on Sunday, Las Vegas hit an all-time high of 120F (48.8C). Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking the city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented.

Tropical Storm Beryl was picking up strength Sunday evening on its march toward the Texas coast as forecasters warned the storm would regain hurricane status and slam ashore early Monday, potentially as a Category 2.

"Hurricane hunters find Beryl slightly stronger," the National Hurricane Center said in its 7 p.m. CT update, which noted the storm's sustained winds had increased to 70 mph, 4 short of a Category 1 hurricane.

Beryl's impacts − such as strong winds, heavy rain, and rough seas − will begin in coastal Texas well before landfall, the center warned. "Winds are first expected to reach tropical storm strength by late today (Sunday), making outdoor preparations difficult or dangerous," the center said.

More...

A long-running heatwave that has already broken records, sparked dozens of wildfires and left about 130 million people under a high-temperature threat is about to intensify enough that the National Weather Service has deemed it “potentially historic”.

The NWS on Saturday reported some type of extreme heat or advisory for nearly 133 million people across the nation – mostly in western states where the triple-digit heat, with temperatures 15F to 30F higher than average, is expected to last into next week.

Oppressive heat and humidity could team up to spike temperatures above 100F (about 38C) in parts of the Pacific north-west, the mid-Atlantic and the north-east, said Jacob Asherman, a meteorologist with the NWS.

Records were broken in at least four Oregon cities on Friday, the NWS reported. Medford, which had a high temperature of 102F set in 1926, saw temperatures soar to 109F. The biggest leap, however, was in North Bend, whose record of 74F set in 1913 was busted by a spike of 11 degrees when it hit 85F on Friday.

More...

Eruptions at Italy's Mount Etna and the smaller Stromboli volcano spewed hot ash and lava, raising alert levels on the Mediterranean island of Sicily and forcing a temporary shutdown of Catania Airport on Friday.

Climate change is taking a dramatic toll on glaciers in Alaska: Glacier melt in a major Alaskan icefield has accelerated and could reach an irreversible tipping point earlier than previously thought, a new scientific study released this week suggests.

Alaska has some of our planet’s largest icefields, and their melting is a major contributor to sea-level rise. As the ice melts, the level of the Earth's oceans rise, which will slowly put some of the world's coastal areas underwater.

"It’s incredibly worrying that our research found a rapid acceleration since the early 21st century in the rate of glacier loss across the Juneau icefield," study lead author Bethan Davies, a glaciologist in the U.K.'s Newcastle University, said in a statement.

A more complete picture emerged Wednesday of the extensive damage wrought by Hurricane Beryl's trek across the Windward Islands, revealing destruction and at least seven deaths.

At least three islands report more than 90% of the homes and buildings either destroyed or severely damaged, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency reported Wednesday. All three are within the chain of Grenadine Islands, where Beryl roared into the Caribbean on the southern end of the Windwards, between St. Vincent and Grenada.

With 19 participating states across the Caribbean, the agency was helping coordinate disaster response on Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines even as it continued to track Beryl’s movements across Jamaica, Cayman Islands and Belize. The eye of Beryl, still a Category 4 storm, raked Jamaica's coast Wednesday afternoon and was expected to pass near the Cayman Islands Thursday morning, before making landfall in the Yucatan on Friday morning.

More...

If forecasters are correct, and the summer's heatwave continues, Eastern California's Death Valley may soon break a world record.

The temperature in Death Valley National Park could skyrocket to 130 degrees next week, the National Weather Service is reporting.

If it does, it will set the record for the hottest temperature ever "reliably measured on earth", according to Scientific American.

Chris Outler, a forecaster with the weather service's Las Vegas office, which predicts weather in Death Valley, said there's a 20% chance the park will hit 130 degrees Monday and Tuesday.

"The threshold is certainly not out of the realm of possibility," Outler told USA TODAY.

More...