An unrelenting heat wave that has sent temperatures into the triple digits brought Phoenix to its 18th straight day of high temperatures of 110 degrees or higher on Monday, tying a record set in 1974, officials said.
According to the National Weather Service, the heat, which put about a quarter of the US population under a heat advisory, was expected to continue to envelop South, Southwest and South Florida.
More than 70 million people across the country were facing dangerous levels of heat as of Monday morning, according to a New York Times analysis of current Weather Service advisories and LandScan population data.
The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 134 degrees Fahrenheit, or 56.7 degrees Celsius, a reading taken at Furnace Creek in Death Valley near the Nevada-California border in 1913, according to the Weather Organization world World Extreme Weather and Climate Archive.
Sunday, the temperature there it reached 126 degrees at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, according to the Weather Service. By early Monday afternoon, the temperature reached 120 degrees.
According to the Weather Service, record heat is expected by midweek from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley.
Phoenix has experienced two weeks of 110-degree days, one of its longest stretches, as a “heat dome” set records in the Southwest over the weekend.
Even the low temperatures in the city are setting records for being so extreme.
Phoenix recorded the longest number of days in a row (eight) with temperatures in the low 90s, the National Weather Service in Phoenix said Monday. Monday morning’s low was 95 degrees, the service said.
In South Florida, the Meteorological Service this Monday also warned of high temperatures in the 90s, with the heat index expected to approach 105 to 110 degrees. The heat index measures how hot it feels outside, taking into account temperature and humidity.
In Coral Gables, outside Miami, Travaris Dotson, 47, who works for a traffic control company, was sitting under a tree with co-workers drinking water to escape the heat.
“I got in and out of the truck to cool off,” he said. “You have to.”
A few meters away, Raul Roque, foreman of a construction company, was also taking a break under a tree. A native of Miami, Mr. Roque said he didn’t remember the heat being this bad.
He described it as a dry heat, “coming up from the ground.” To cope, he’s been drinking a gallon and a half of water every day, or “twice as much as normal,” to stay hydrated, he said.
For those who want to cool down, there will be little chance of doing so in the places most affected by the high temperatures, with daily minimum temperatures particularly high.
The heat can be especially devastating for people who already suffer from health problems.
In the Phoenix area, for example, 12 heat-related deaths have been reported this year through mid-June, and 40 more open cases where heat is being investigated as a factor, according to the county medical examiner of Maricopa. And in Texas, more than a dozen heat-related deaths have been reported in 2023, The Associated Press has reported
In the coming days, temperatures will be warmer in the desert Southwest, where highs could reach 110 degrees, with lows only in the 80s and 90s.
To stay safe on extremely hot days, the Weather Service on Monday advised people to drink plenty of fluids, stay in cooler rooms, stay out of the sun and check on family members and neighbors, especially people adults who live alone.
“Wear light-colored clothing,” Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service, he said on Twitter on Monday. “The loose fit helps too.”
Apart from the heat, other parts of the country are facing additional severe weather alerts, especially for rain.
“Severe thunderstorms and heavy rain will develop from the nation’s heartland into the Ohio Valley and Northeast through Tuesday,” the Weather Service warned.
The Northeast already experienced heavy rain and flash flooding over the weekend.
In Pennsylvania, flash rains lashed parts of Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, killing at least five people and trapping others in their cars. In one part of Long Island in New York, five inches of rain fell in less than two hours.
“We are in a very, very unstable weather condition,” said New York Governor Kathy Hochul. “Your car can go from a place of safety to a place of death.”
And if that wasn’t enough, smoke from ongoing wildfires in Canada will hit the U.S. again this week and could trigger air quality alerts in parts of the Northern High Plains, the Midwest, the Great Lakes and the northeast.
Camille Baker and Livia Albeck-Ripka contributed to this report.
