News
Heat Wave: Millions Of People In US Under Heat Alerts
A relentless heat wave, sending temperatures into the hundreds and expected to set records continued on Monday to envelop the south.
While large part of Europe sweat through a very warm night, the heat wave has ramped up in some southern states of the US.
About 100 million people in the US are under various extreme heat advisories watched and warnings.
The highest temperature ever recorded on Earth is 134 degrees Fahrenheit (56.7 Celsius).
Which was recorded at Furnace Creek in Death Valley, near the border of Nevada and California in 1993.
On Sunday the temperature there raised to 125 degrees at the visitors center at Furnace Greek, according to the Weather Service.
As of noon local time on Monday, the temperature reached 119 Degrees.
Phoenix has experienced two weeks of 110 degrees days and is one of the longest ever and termed as “Heat dome”.
The “Heat dome”
A heat dome occurs when an area of high pressure pushes air toward the ground, compressing it and causing it to heat.
The warmer air then rises again, setting up a cycle in which air sinks through the center of the “dome” and rises up its sides.
The pressure also prevents other weather systems that would cool the area such as rain clouds from forming.
The NWS National Weather Service said the current system in the southwestern US is “one of the strongest”.
Even the cities’ low temperatures are setting records for being so extreme.
The National Weather Service says the heat wave will likely continue in the southwest of the US until 28 July.
About 1,100 people sleep rough on Phoenix’s street at any given time.
Dr. Nassser Hajiag, the medical director of Circle the City – an organization with two respite centers and outreach teams in the city said
“many unhoused in Phoenix don’t have someplace cool to go and they don’t have direct access to water”.
“It’s difficult because sometimes once we leave they are still on the streets,” he told the BBC news on Friday.
Southern and Eastern Europe, is expected to get even hotter this week, with 46C (115 Fahrenheit) forecast in Sardinia.
