Record-breaking heat has been enveloping much of the US this summer and shows no signs of dissipating.
A heatwave has impacted various regions of America and is forecast to linger for days and possibly weeks.
The extreme heat has caused deaths, contributed to wildfires and posed challenges to firefighters and people going about their everyday lives.
Roughly 87.7million people, or 27% of the contiguous US population, reside in areas that are expected to experience dangerous heat levels, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Where is it hottest in the US?
The hottest parts of the US are currently the West and East coasts, with highs expected to rise to the mid to high 90s Fahrenheit. Temperatures have reached triple digits in desert areas including Death Valley.
‘Dangerous heat and record high temperatures to continue for much of the West into Thursday,’ according to the National Weather Service’s (NWS) Weather Prediction Center on Tuesday.
Temperatures are predicted to hit or exceed daily record highs in many places from Mexico to Canada, west of the Rockies.
‘In addition to the record high daily temperatures, the early morning lows are also expected to set records across large portions of the West over the coming two mornings,’ stated the NWS.
‘The multi-day length and record warm overnight temperatures will continue to cause heat stress to anyone without adequate cooling and hydration.’
In the East, high humidity will create heat indices of 100 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit from the Southeast to the Mid-Atlantic areas on Wednesday.
States under heat advisories in the West include Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. In the East, advisories have been issued for Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
At least four people have died in Oregon due to heat.
In Death Valley, California, a motorcyclist died of heat exposure while traveling as temperatures reached over 127 degrees Fahrenheit, or 53.3 degrees Celsius.
Still, hundreds of tourists from countries including the UK, France, Spain and Switzerland have flocking to Death Valley to take photos of the scorching landscape.
Meanwhile, the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl will continue moving northeastward through Wednesday ‘with an associated precipitation shield extending to its northeast ahead of a warm front’, according to the NWS.
Why is it so hot? Heat dome explainer
High temperatures are being fueled by a heat dome, which occurs when warm air is trapped under a stagnant area of high-pressure air, according to the Royal Meteorological Society.
They can stop weather from coming through and easing the heat.
‘It almost acts like a lid on a pot,’ Alex Lamers of the NWS told NPR last month.
‘If you’ve made grilled cheese in a pan and you put a lid on there, it melts the cheese faster because the lid helps trap the heat and makes it a little bit warmer.’
The heat dome is causing temperatures to sit 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit over normal for the time of the year, according to the NWS.
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