Wildfires - Nepal
Numerous small wildfires in Nepal have triggered dry landslides in many places on the Dipayal-Dadheldhura road section of KI Singh Highway, posing a threat to vehicles using the route.
Acting Forest Officer Laxmi Joshi deplored the local practice of setting fire to the forest and said, “While in many cases it’s the locals who do this to let new grass grow and the hunters, intent on poaching wildlife there, in other cases such wildfires are caused by the negligence of smokers.”
An avalanche hit a team of climbers on a high Himalayan peak Manaslu, the eighth highest mountain in the world, in northern Nepal on Sunday, leaving at least nine dead and six others missing. Ten other members of the team survived the avalanche but many were injured and were flown to hospitals by rescue helicopters.
Many of the world’s glaciers and ice sheets are retreating in the face of global warming, but a few are stable or growing — including glaciers in the western Himalaya Mountains, according to a new report. The mountains in the region form the headwaters of several major river systems — including the Ganges, Mekong, Yangtze, and Yellow rivers — which serve as sources of drinking water and irrigation supplies for about 1.5 billion people.
The US National Weather Service in Los Angeles released two notices of triple-digit record-breaking temperatures in Long Beach over the weekend. On Friday, a high of 104 degrees was recorded, breaking the old record of 96 set in 1979.
