Climate change hits western US with a record-breaking heatwave, putting lives in danger
- 162 million people are in areas under active heat warnings; federal emergency in Texas after storm Beryl leaves 2 million without power
Security staff members cool off near cooling fans at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas during a record-breaking heat wave in the US. Photo: AFPThe West Coast of the United States continued to be in the grip of a record-breaking heatwave. The weather conditions are smashing records and endangering lives with little relief in sight.
Approximately 162 million people – nearly one-half of the US population – were living in areas under active heat warnings, according to the National Weather Service.
It said in a post on X the “dangerous heat” was expected to remain in the western part of the country for the rest of the week before moving eastward over the weekend. The weather service has warned that “the persistent and record-breaking heat is extremely dangerous to those without access to cooling”.
Among places that saw records shattered was Las Vegas, Nevada, which recorded its all-time high temperature of 48.9 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
In Texas, the White House declared a federal emergency after the storm Beryl had left some 2 million without power as of Tuesday evening.
“The greatest concern right now is the power outages and extreme heat that is impacting Texans,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
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Meanwhile the southeastern United States and East Coast saw sweltering temperatures of their own, with heat advisories and excessive heat warnings in effect from Florida to Massachusetts.
The heat has been directly attributed to several deaths along the US West Coast.
In Death Valley, California, on Saturday, a motorcyclist died of suspected heat exposure and another was hospitalised, according to National Park Service officials.
The area, known as one of the hottest places on Earth, recorded a temperature of 53 degrees Celsius.
Further north, four men in the Portland, Oregon area have died since Friday as a result of heat-related illnesses, according to local newspaper The Oregonian.
The Pacific northwest is known as being generally more temperate than the deserts in the US Southwest. However, temperatures there remained elevated Tuesday after the Oregon capital Salem hit a daily record of 39.3 degrees Celsius over the weekend.
“This is a record-breaking heatwave,” Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles, said during an online news conference over the weekend.
Some people in California, he said, had seen “not only the hottest day they’ve ever experienced but also the hottest day that their parents or grandparents ever would have experienced.”
The high temperatures also contributed to extreme fire conditions in California, where thousands of acres burned in active wildfires up and down the state.
The heatwave comes in the aftermath of the Earth’s hottest June ever recorded, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Recurring heatwaves are a marker of climate change caused by humanity’s use of fossil fuels, according to scientists.