After causing deaths and breaking records in the West over the weekend, a prolonged heat wave will hit the United States again on Monday, with scorching temperatures also forecast across much of the East Coast and South.
Dangerous temperatures killed motorcyclist in Death Valley
The US heatwave comes as global temperatures in June hit a record high for the 13the consecutive month and that it is the 12the consecutive month in which the world has been 1.5°C warmer than in the pre-industrial era, the European climate service Copernicus has warned.
An excessive heat warning, the National Weather Service’s highest alert, was in effect Monday for parts of states including California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, while parts of the East Coast as well as states including Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi were under heat advisories.
Dozens of locations across the Pacific West and Northwest tied or broke heat records over the weekend.
A maximum temperature of 53.3 degrees Celsius was recorded Saturday and Sunday in Death Valley National Park in eastern California, where a visitor died Saturday from heat exposure and another person was hospitalized, authorities said.
The two visitors were part of a group of six motorcyclists riding through the Badwater Basin area in scorching weather, the park said in a statement.
The person who died has not been identified. The other motorcyclist was taken to a Las Vegas hospital with “severe heat illness,” the statement said. Due to the high temperatures, emergency medical helicopters were unable to respond, as they typically cannot safely fly above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius), authorities said.
The other four members of the group were treated on site.
“While this is a very exciting time to experience potentially record-breaking temperatures in Death Valley, we encourage visitors to choose their activities carefully, avoiding extended periods outside of a vehicle or air-conditioned building when temperatures are this high,” said Mike Reynolds, park superintendent.
Officials warned that heat illnesses and injuries are cumulative and can build up over the course of a day or several days.
“In addition to the inability to cool down while riding due to high ambient air temperatures, experiencing Death Valley on a motorcycle in such hot weather is made even more challenging by the need to wear heavy safety gear to reduce injuries in the event of an accident,” the park said in a statement.
Warmth, even in the mountains
Across the desert in Nevada, Las Vegas set a record high of 48.8 degrees Celsius on Sunday.
High temperatures were common in Oregon, where several records were broken, including in Salem, where the temperature reached 39.4°C on Sunday, surpassing the record of 37.2°C set in 1960.
“Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check in on family and neighbors,” the weather service said in a Baltimore area advisory. “Small children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles.”
The rare heat advisories have even been extended to higher elevations, including around Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. The weather service in Reno, Nevada, warned of “significant heat risks, even in the mountains.”
“How hot are we talking about? High temperatures in western Nevada and northeastern California won’t drop below 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit until next weekend, the weather service said online. And unfortunately, there won’t be any letup tonight either.”
More extreme high temperatures are expected, including a midweek high of 130.5°F (54.4°C) in Furnace Creek, California, in Death Valley. The highest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 131.5°F (56.67°C) in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the true record is 131.5°F (54.4°C) recorded there in July 2021.