(Los Angeles) Extreme heat hitting the western United States is set to peak Thursday, a wave that may herald a suffocating summer as the United Nations warns the planet is overheating.
Las Vegas swelters in 44 degrees Celsius and the desert region of Death Valley must approach 49 degrees, due to an oppressive anticyclonic weather system.
According to scientists, repeated heat waves are an unequivocal marker of global warming and these heat waves are expected to multiply, last longer and intensify.
“Record highs and lows will likely be broken or tied today between California, Nevada and Arizona,” according to the US Weather Service (NWS).
Las Vegas is experiencing dangerous temperatures above seasonal norms and authorities there have extended their heat alert until Saturday.
Specialists believe that these abnormally high temperatures as summer approaches may be a harbinger of a suffocating summer.
Air-conditioned venues have been opened to provide respite to people without air conditioning at home in America’s gaming capital.
“We haven’t really had time to acclimate to the fact that it’s warming up so much and so quickly,” Glen Simpson, an ambulance service director, told ABC affiliate Channel 13.
People just aren’t used to it even when they grew up here, spent all their summers here, the body doesn’t really get used to it.”
Glen Simpson
In California, the situation in the very agricultural region of the Central Valley is also “particularly worrying,” according to federal authorities. “There will be little or no nighttime respite for those who do not have an effective cooling system or cannot adequately hydrate,” according to the NWS.
Temperatures are expected to drop slightly in the coming days, but the heat wave will extend north into Oregon and Washington state.
May 2024 was the hottest May on record worldwide (on land and sea), on 12e month in a row to beat its own record, according to the European Copernicus Observatory.
And it is 80% likely that the global average temperature over a calendar year will “temporarily” exceed pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5°C by 2028, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned this week.