LUBBOCK, Texas - A prolonged heatwave blanketed a swath of the United States stretching from California to South Florida on Wednesday, with forecasters expecting temperatures that could shatter records in parts of the South-west in the coming days.
The National Weather Service issued excessive heat advisories, watches and warnings for areas in which about 100 million Americans reside. The sweltering conditions are expected to remain through the weekend and beyond.
While stifling temperatures gripped many parts of the country, Vermont and other North-eastern states began cleaning up from historic flooding triggered by intense downpours linked by climate experts to global warming.
In Las Vegas, Wednesday’s midday temperature reached 38 deg C and the daily high could top out at 42 deg C. The desert city’s all-time high mark of 47 deg C could topple on Sunday, the weather service said.
Ms Tiffany Boscoe, owner of The Jolt Coffee in downtown Las Vegas, said many customers were coming in for an iced drink and to get out of the scorching heat.
“The cold brew goes fast, and people order lots of blended iced drinks,” she said. “We have a computer centre and Wi-Fi, so people tend to hang out.”
In Phoenix, where thermometers read 37.7 deg C at midday, the high could reach above 43 deg C for the 13th successive day. The forecast puts the city’s daily highs above that mark at least through next Wednesday, which would shatter the record of 18 days above that mark set in June 1974.
At the family-owned Six Points Hardware store in Phoenix, fans and air-conditioner units have been flying off the shelves, said store manager Drew Materniak.
The heat means “business is good”, he said, noting the biggest seller has been large cooling fans, sold largely to businesses like auto shops that cannot air-condition their premises.
“Just stay inside, man, just stay inside,” was his advice for dealing with the heat.
Forecasters urged people facing the extreme heat, especially children and the elderly, to keep out of the unrelenting sun, to reschedule strenuous outdoor activities and to drink plenty of fluids during the next several days.
“Heatstroke can lead to death,” the weather service warned.
A ridge of stagnant air parked in the atmosphere was causing the excessive temperatures, said Mr Ashton Robinson Cook, a forecaster with the weather service’s Weather Prediction Centre. The mass blocks cooler air and storm systems from rolling through the area, so it’s “just full sun and heat,” he said.
In Texas, most will see temperatures in the upper 30s to above 37 deg C on Wednesday, while the heat index says it will feel like 46 deg C in some places through the weekend. Warm ocean water is causing the moist, humid air over much of the state that drives the heat index higher, Mr Cook said.
In a cooling centre in the West Texas city of Lubbock, where the temperature rose to 35.5 deg C by midday, Ms Courtney Martin, 41 and homeless for the past two weeks, sat quietly inside a public library doing needlepoint, keeping cool and staying hydrated with free bottles of water.
“I’m in here to beat the heat,” said Ms Martin, who recently moved to Lubbock from Michigan and is not accustomed to the high temperatures. “I don’t know what I’d do without the libraries as cooling centres.”
Ms Hannah Stewart, director of Lubbock’s library system, said hundreds of people have sought refuge from the hot weather in the main branch library alone over the past two weeks.
“We’re doing part of our duty to serve the community during this really horrendous heatwave,” she said.
Clean-up begins in Vermont
The growing frequency and intensity of severe weather across the US is symptomatic of global, human-driven climate change, experts in the field say.
In Montpelier, Vermont’s capital, floodwaters turned the city’s downtown into a swirling, brown waterway, damaged roads leading in and out of town and trapped some residents in their homes and businesses. At least 117 water rescues were carried out by teams across the North-east state as of Tuesday evening.
The catastrophic flooding may have compromised Montpelier’s water supply, the city said on Facebook.
Officials told the city’s 8,000 residents to boil their water before using it until further notice, and urged people to stay off the roads as cleanup crews assess the damage. REUTERS
Hottest spots in the US
Here are some of the hottest spots in the US, according to National Weather Service forecasts for Wednesday:
Phoenix
Forecast high: 45 deg C
All-time record: 50 deg C on June 26, 1990
The Arizona city has already had 13 days in a row with temperatures exceeding 43 deg C, and it could break the record 18-day streak of 43 deg C-plus days before the current heat wave ends. By July 15, temperatures could climb to 47 deg C, just four degrees shy of the all-time high.
Las Vegas
Forecast high: 43 deg C
All-time record: 47 deg C on July 26, 1931
The heat wave has descended on Las Vegas just two weeks after the desert city set a record for consecutive days below 37 deg C. The 291-day streak of relatively moderate temperatures broke the previous record of 290 days below the century reached in 1964 and 1965.
Dallas
Forecast high: 39 deg C
All-time record: 45 deg C on July 26-27, 1980
In conjunction with the extreme heat, strong winds and a lack of rain have put Central and West Texas counties at an elevated fire risk, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
Roswell, New Mexico
Forecast high: 42 deg C
All-time record: 45.5 deg C on June 27, 1994
Roswell, the legendary centre for UFO (unidentified flying objects) sightings, may experience more than three weeks of daily highs exceeding 37 deg C, according to NWS forecasts.
Death Valley, California
Forecast high: 47 deg C
All-time record: 56.6 deg C on July 10, 1913
Temperatures in Death Valley, one of the hottest places in the world during summer, are expected to soar over the next week, reaching up to 52 deg C by July 16. The outlook has led to concerns about the risk to visitors at Death Valley National Park. The record high of 56.6 deg C is also the highest ambient temperature ever recorded on the Earth’s surface. REUTERS
