Warning to shut windows after Essex fire breaks out
Firefighters from Maldon, Witham, West Mersea, Billericay and Chelmsford were sent to the scene. The service previously said: "If you live in the area, please keep all your windows and doors shut as there is a lot of smoke coming from the incident."
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The Guardian
17 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Two wildfires in US west spur ‘fire clouds' with erratic weather systems
Two wildfires burning in the western United States – including one that has become a 'mega-fire' on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon – are so hot that they are spurring the formation of 'fire clouds' that can create their own erratic weather systems. In Arizona, the wind-whipped wildfire that destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge is 9% contained and has charred more than 164 sq miles (424 sq km) to become the largest fire now burning in the continental US and one of the top 10 largest in recorded Arizona history. Getting around it would be roughly like driving from New York City to Washington DC. Another large fire in Monroe, Utah, has burned 75 sq miles (194 sq km) since 13 July and is 11% contained, officials said on Thursday. Evacuation orders were issued on Wednesday for several towns in the fire's path, and scorched power poles caused electricity to be shut off in other nearby communities in south-central Utah. Spencer Cox, Utah's governor, declared an emergency on Thursday as wildfires grew around the state and planned to visit Monroe on Friday. Towering convection clouds known as pyrocumulus clouds have been spotted over Arizona's blaze for seven consecutive days, fueling the fire with dry, powerful winds, fire information officer Lisa Jennings said. They form when air over the fire becomes superheated and rises in a large smoke column. The giant billowing clouds can be seen for hundreds of miles and can resemble an anvil. Their more treacherous big brother, a fire-fueled thunderstorm known as the pyrocumulonimbus cloud, sent rapid winds shooting in all directions this week as a smoke column formed from the Utah fire then collapsed on itself, fire team information officer Jess Clark said. 'If they get high enough, they can also create downdrafts, and that's something we really watch out for because that can quickly spread the fire and can be very dangerous for firefighters who are doing their work on the ground,' Jennings said. Multiple fire crews in Utah were forced to retreat on Wednesday as the unpredictable climate created by the clouds threatened their safety, officials said. Fire crews in both Utah and Arizona had better control of the blazes, but containment has been slipping as the fires grow rapidly. The same type of cloud, which the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has dubbed the 'fire-breathing dragon of clouds', recently formed a fire tornado that tore through an eastern Utah neighborhood with wind speeds estimated at 122 miles per hour. 'Think of the fire as kind of like a hot-air balloon, so it adds buoyancy and things rise as a result,' said Derek Mallia, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Utah who studies pyrocumulonimbus clouds and tracks fires in Utah and Arizona. 'You get this towering thunderstorm over the fire, and just like any other thunderstorm it gets really windy underneath it. Because it's the west, these thunderstorms tend to be very dry.' These clouds, he said, may appear more frequently as the climate crisis causes a longer fire season, drought conditions and extreme weather events. A megafire, although not a formal scientific term, generally is a fire that has burned at least 156 sq miles, or about half the size of New York City. The Dragon Bravo fire on the North Rim of Grand Canyon national park surpassed that mark in the latest update on Thursday. It was sparked by lightning on 4 July and being managed by the park to benefit the landscape. About a week later, officials switched to suppressing it as conditions deteriorated, with hot, dry and windy weather pushing the flames toward the Grand Canyon Lodge and the historic cabins that surround it. The fire destroyed dozens of buildings and forced the closure of the North Rim for the rest of the season as hundreds of firefighters struggled to gain an upper hand. Thursday marked the eighth straight day of historically dry conditions, Jennings said. Humidity levels have been in the single digits, fuel moisture levels are extremely low and wind gusts were expected to crank up to 35mph. The pyrocumulus clouds have reached heights of at least 25,000ft (7,620 meters), and fire behavior analyst Arthur Gonzales said they could go higher. The direction of the wind has been fairly consistent for crews working the Dragon Bravo fire. Although they have been strong, the predictability has allowed fire managers to more easily position crews on the fire lines. But when pyrocumulus clouds form and the winds become less predictable, Jennings said firefighters often have to be pulled back to safety. Hot, dry winds fanned the flames of the Monroe Canyon fire on Thursday as firefighters worked to contain the spread. The fire has burned 12 power poles, and many homes have been without electricity since Wednesday afternoon. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for extreme fire danger in much of central and south-west Utah this week. In Antimony, Utah, 54 miles south of Monroe, the town's 123 residents were without power on Thursday afternoon. Mayor Kasey King, who was helping people gather food and supplies at a community center, said they could be without power for a week. The power company, Garkane Energy Cooperative, said it was working to restore power as quickly as possible and has brought in backup generators. Marnie Reynolds, a resident of Antimony, worried for the town's many elderly residents. She has been using a camp stove to offer hot meals to neighbors and is using a generator to help people refrigerate groceries and medications. 'We have been facing a lot of challenges, but we have the best community,' she said. In Richfield, Utah, 10 miles north of Monroe, Lee Stevens said his yard was coated in ash. He and his wife, who has asthma and is sensitive to the smoke, have not yet been told to evacuate but are making preparations in case the fire spreads. The National Interagency Fire Center said on Thursday that even with fewer square miles having burned so far this year than average, many parts of the country remain vulnerable to new starts and fast-moving flames.
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
How to remake our houses and cities for hotter weather
Forget the price of Oasis tickets or the shrinking size of strawberries — the big debate of the British summer is how to adapt our homes and cities to cope with heatwaves. As temperatures spike, 80 per cent of households report they're overheating, soaring from 18 per cent in 2011, according to a study from the University of East London. Meanwhile our city streets turn into 'urban heat islands', where, according to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, temperatures can now be 10-15C higher than rural surroundings. The Savills City Heat Resilience Index assesses 30 global cities based on their risk of extreme heat and resilience to it. London is in the bottom half, at No 13, between Madrid (12) and New York (14). A trio of Nordic cities, where days over 30C are rare, Helsinki, Copenhagen and Stockholm fare best. Cairo comes last. • Read more expert advice on property, interiors and home improvement 'The heat creeps in through south-facing glass, across bare concrete pavements, into bedrooms that don't cool at night,' says Stefan Pitman, founder of the architects and chartered surveyors SPASE Design. 'Our homes, designed for damp and draughts, are becoming glasshouses. Cities and homes trap heat they can't release. We are far too reliant on mechanical cooling that isn't sustainable.' Learning from places that have long lived with heat and embracing the modern principles of Passivhaus is the way forward, say experts. This means buildings thick walls, shaded courtyards and cross-breezes, and also controlling solar gain, insulating well and aiming for airtightness balanced with mechanical ventilation. The UK's urban planners look overseas for solutions, from the cool roofs now mandatory in Los Angeles, to the green urban walls of Colombia and the fountains of Paris. 'We need insulated windows for both winter and summer, so indoors keeps both warm and cool,' says the architect Marion Baeli, principal of sustainability and transformation at 10 Design. 'Architects think of a home like a Thermos flask, in winter retaining heat, in summer keeping heat out.' Baeli and her husband, Robert Prewett, a fellow architect, have transformed their 1960s home in Sydenham, southeast London, on Passivhaus principles to maintain a steady indoor temperature, even during heatwaves. They have fitted triple glazing to help achieve this. Solar control coatings can help to mitigate heat as well. 'Passive solar design plays a key role [in keeping homes cool], but historic recommendations, such as large south-facing glazing, are being re-evaluated in light of current overheating risks,' says the architect Richard Dudzicki, director of RDA Architects. External shading is gradually becoming a feature of new-builds. The building services engineering specialist Dan Watt, director of sustainability at the civil engineers Civic, highlights a Birmingham apartment development where horizontal brise soleil fins were incorporated for shading and heat reduction in summer, but allowing lower winter sunlight through. • Heatwaves are hell in my new-build flat Deeper window reveals also help to reduce direct solar gain. Quick fixes include awnings and shutters. Internal blinds are another easy add. Baeli uses cloth dust sheets, strong hooks and bungee cord to fashion a makeshift blind for the hottest days: 'It works tremendously. I'm not ready to invest thousands on motorised blinds.' Ventilation is key to keeping homes cool, says Ian Pritchett, a physicist and the co-founder of the sustainable developer Greencore Homes. 'The best way to let heat out is by opening doors and windows, if safe to do so, early in the morning and/or late at night to let hot air out and cool air in. Maximise impact by creating natural cross-ventilation, opening opposite windows to create a good flow of air.' If you can, practise 'stack ventilation': 'This is where high-level windows or roof lights are opened as well as low-level windows. The hot air goes out of the upper windows while cooler air is drawn in through the lower windows.' Struggling to sleep in a heatwave? You're not alone. A study by Loughborough University in partnership with the BRE (Building Research Establishment) found that 4.6 million English bedrooms — some 19 per cent of housing stock — overheat in summer. 'Thoughtful layout plays a big part. Where possible we'll sometimes place bedrooms on the cooler, shaded side of the house, or even downstairs where it naturally stays cooler,' says Venetia Rudebeck, co-founder at the interior design company Studio Vero. You've got to be flexible if you're working from hom, says Baeli. 'In a heatwave you're not working where your desk is, you're working where it's coolest,' she says. 'In our house the ground floor has a lot of thermal mass, thanks to the party walls and tiles on the floor [it absorbs heat during the day, releasing it slowly at night]. I usually work at the top of the house, but when it's hot I migrate down to the kitchen table.' Even the smallest balcony or garden can be effectively cooled if you choose container-friendly specimens — such as dwarf field maple or the compact Juneberry (Amelanchier × grandiflora 'Ballerina'), says Dean Meadows, principal arboriculturist and tree risk lead at the ecology consultancy Arbtech. 'Start by noting where the sun strikes your home and garden at different times. Once you know which areas need protection from intense sunlight, choose a deciduous tree whose mature canopy will intercept those rays and whose roots can spread without causing damage.' Meadows recommends field maple or silver birch: 'These give dappled spring light and full shade through the summer, yet let winter sun through their bare branches.' Thinking about overheating when planning home design should become second nature, says senior project architect George Yallop at the design studio De Rosee Sa, who introduced multiple cooling techniques in a recent project in Dulwich, southeast London. 'The extension in our Garden House project was designed with passive cooling in mind,' Yallop explains. 'The extension itself is slightly elevated from the garden, enhancing airflow beneath and through the room, while full-width sliding doors allow the home to be completely opened once the sun has set.' Yallop added a narrow, solar-coated rooflight to bring in light without overheating, while mature garden trees were retained for natural shade and cooling. Being smarter about choice of building materials, is a straightforward way to address overheating, says Simon McWhirter, CEO of the UK Green Building Council: 'Each type of material is better or worse at controlling the speed at which heat passes through it. Lots of natural materials such as hemp or clay plasters are much better at slowing down the heat, so whether it's winter or summer, they are much better at keeping the heat in and keeping the heat out.' For some homes, from flats with single-aspect windows to period properties that can't be significantly altered, it's air conditioning. 'In a new-build tower, with apartments, you have to accept that even with all the improvements you can think of, fitting air conditioning will be the only answer [to overheating],' says Baeli. 'However, I do know someone who lives in such an apartment and made an agreement with their opposite neighbour that they would leave their front doors and windows open to encourage a cool flow of air.' Colombia's second-largest city, Medellín, has created an entire metropolis of shade with its Green Corridors project. This transformed roads and waterways into green cycling lanes and walkways connecting the city's parks, reducing temperatures in these areas by 3C. Meanwhile, in central Manchester, McWhirter cites Mayfield, a 24-acre brownfield site transformed into a 'pocket park' as a stand-out UK example of how green spaces can help to keep urban temperatures cool and improve general wellbeing. 'Nature is good at doing the heavy lifting,' he says. Also in Greater Manchester, at Stretford Kingsway, Trafford, part of a dual carriageway has been reclaimed into a green walkway and cycleway, with a shade-giving weeping willow tree and sustainable urban drainage. Blue corridors are urban bodies of water — rivers, canals, docks — which provide respite from scorching heat. Helping to reduce the temperature of the air around them, they also provide a chance to cool off (subject to pollution levels of course) with wild swimming, paddleboarding and other water sports. • Inside the model estate testing the government's plans for eco-homes One stand-out example is Eden Dock (formerly Middle Dock) in the concrete jungle of Canary Wharf, London, designed by the architectural partnership Howells and HTA. Surrounded by timber decking and lush planting, it connects workers and residents with surrounding water and nature. 'Urban trees act as natural air conditioners and serve as a critical nature-based solution to rising temperatures in towns and cities,' says Meadows. Trees work their magic in three ways: shading streets and buildings; evapotranspiration, in which trees draw water from the soil, releasing it as water vapour through their leaves to create a cooling effect; and by helping urban airflow, replacing warm, stagnant air with cooler air drawn from surrounding green spaces. US cities such as Los Angeles and Phoenix are coating roads with a heat-reflecting white/grey coating that can reduce the surface temperature by up to 9C. Standard asphalt creates a heat sink by absorbing huge amounts of sunlight then emitting it back into the air as heat. It's said that this super-thin coating works by reflecting sunlight away. Cities across India, plus New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Toronto in Canada are already painting rooftops with white reflective paint. It could work in London too. According to research published last year by University College London, this kind of approach is more successful at heat mitigation than green roofs, covered in vegetation. In London, it could lower outdoor urban temperatures by at least 1.2C. Increasing public tree cover helps to keep cities cooler, but it's expensive and planting is limited by underground infrastructure, says Tom Fox, associate partner at We Made That, a research, urban design and architecture practice. He adds: 'This means awnings and shade structures are important to providing sufficient shade to have a meaningful impact on temperatures.' In Seville, Spain, which in 2022 became the first city to start naming its heatwaves, Antonio Muñoz, the mayor at the time, ordered the installation of awnings across the city as part of a 'policy of shade', which also included planting 5,000 trees a year and building more public fountains. Parisians benefit from a network of more than 800 'cool islands', accessible city spaces including parks, misting fountains, swimming pools and museums, providing relief from vicious heat. There's even a mapping app, Extrema, to help residents find their nearest chilled outpost. 'These developments are necessary because Europe is warming faster than the global average,' says Elena Rivilla-Lutterkort, Savills's head of sustainability in France. 'Paris is working under an assumption that an average increase of 4C is a likely scenario.' In dense urban environments, heat emitting from buildings contributes to scorching outdoor temperatures. In Abu Dhabi, where the mercury can climb to more than 50C, architecture practice Aedas designed the twin 25-storey Al Bahar Towers using mashrabiya, an ancient Arabic cooling technique using honeycomb-like latticed screens. These 1,000 unfolding hexagonal shades have built-in sensors, responding to the sun. The architects estimate this reduces solar gain by more than 50 per cent, diminishing the need for air conditioning. Dubai also has district cooling. Water is collected and chilled at a centralised location and then piped into residential and commercial buildings. According to Savills, district cooling achieves energy-efficiency index ratings between five and ten times higher than conventional air-conditioning units.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
Exact hour Storm Floris will hit UK with 85mph winds as ‘danger to life' warning blankets half of nation
STORM Floris is expected to hit the UK in just days with forecasters issuing a 'danger to life' warning for many parts of the nation. Britain will be battered by "unseasonably strong winds" of up to 85mph, says the Met Office. 4 The yellow wind warnings will be in place from 6am on Monday morning. As well as strong gusts, torrential rain is also expected to fall across huge sections of the country. Scottish coastlines and high ground may even see wind gusts of up to 85mph. A yellow wind warning has been issued for Scotland, Northern England, Northern Ireland, and north Wales on Monday. The warning is expected to stay in force until 6am on Tuesday. "Injuries and danger to life could occur from large waves and beach material being thrown onto sea fronts, coastal roads and properties," said the weather agency. Brits have also been warned of property damage such as "tiles blown from roofs" and risk of injury from "flying debris". "Power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage," the warning added. Disruption to public transport services and delays on the roads are also predicted. The strong winds will first begin to ease in the west on late Monday, but remain very strong until early Tuesday in the east. Ireland set for major weather shakeup over Bank Holiday as storm to bring 'unseasonably' high winds & potential warnings Matthew Lehnert, a Met Office Chief Meteorologist, said: 'Across the warning area, many inland areas are likely to see gusts of 40-50mph, with 60-70mph more likely at higher elevations and around exposed coasts in Scotland. "There is a small chance that some locations here could even record gusts of 85mph.' A spokesperson for the weather agency added on X: "Storm Floris has been named. "Unseasonably strong winds, gales in the north, locally severe and accompanied by heavy rain. Disruption possible." RAC breakdown service's Rod Dennis said: 'This unseasonable bout of stormy weather will mean drivers in the north and west of the UK need to take extra care at the start of next week. 'It's the height of the holiday season, so those towing trailers and caravans, as well as those with roof and tent boxes, must ensure their loads are properly secured.' He advised motorists driver slower in poor conditions and leave later if the weather is too bad. The expert also urged drivers to avoid exposed highland and coastal routes. Storm Floris is the sixth named storm of this Storm Naming season. It comes after Storm Éowyn which hit in late January and sparked several weather warnings. Gusts of 100mph were recorded at Drumalbin in Scotland, the Met Office said. 4 4 UK five day weather forecast Today A dry day for most on Friday with sunny spells. Showers developing across central and eastern England, some turning locally heavy in the afternoon with the odd rumble of thunder possible. Near average temperatures, feeling pleasant in the sunshine. Tonight Any afternoon showers fading away leaving a dry evening for most with some late sunshine. Dry overnight with clear periods and turning cool in the countryside with patchy fog possible. Saturday A dry day with plenty of sunshine and generally small amounts of cloud. Feeling warm in the sunshine with light winds, though a little breezy in some coastal areas. Outlook for Sunday to Tuesday Breezier on Sunday with rain clearing to sunnier skies later. Turning unsettled and unseasonably windy on Monday with some disruption possible. Drier but still rather windy on Tuesday.
