(Portland) The northwestern United States will be swept by a heat wave over the next few days, and the mercury could approach 38 degrees Celsius in several places.
Posted yesterday at 1:30 p.m.
Such heat waves are historically rather rare in the Pacific Northwest region, but global warming is changing that.
“To have five days or a week of 32℃ or higher is very, very rare for the Pacific Northwest,” said climatologist Vivek Shandas of Portland State University.
Leaders and residents across the region are trying to prepare for longer and more intense heat waves since last summer’s deadly “heat dome”. In late June and early July 2021, some 800 people lost their lives in British Columbia, Oregon and Washington State during a heat wave that pushed the mercury to at 46.7℃ in Portland.
Heat records were broken in several towns in the region. Most of the victims were people who lived alone. The town of Lytton, British Columbia, was razed to the ground.
If the temperature is not expected to approach such peaks this week, the number of consecutive days of heat worries officials. It could be near 38℃ in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday. Above normal heat is also predicted for large portions of Oregon and Washington State this week.
The mercury might not drop below 20 degrees at night, making sleeping uncomfortable.
Most of the United States baked in above-normal heat in June, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The federal agency calculates that weather and climate disasters ― including tornadoes, hail and extreme drought ― have caused at least US9 billion in damage to the country since the start of the year.
The City of Portland adopted multiple measures after last year’s deadly heat wave, such as the opening of air-conditioned shelters and the free distribution, within five years, of 15,000 air conditioning units to the less fortunate.