President hails proposal to protect millions of Americans from extreme heat – the top weather-related US killer
President Biden on Tuesday trumpeted new rules from his administration that aim to protect Americans from extreme heat.
“Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer in the United States,” he said at the Washington DC Emergency Operations Center. “More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined.”
Continue reading...Sweltering conditions and power shutoffs may overlap with errant fireworks or badly tended campfires
A brutal and long-lasting heatwave is threatening to wreak havoc across the US west this week, as sweltering conditions, power shutoffs and a severe uptick in wildfire risks coincide with Fourth of July celebrations.
Nearly 90 million people were under heat alerts from the National Weather Service on Tuesday morning, as swaths of the south-central and western US were scorched. As pressure builds over the west through the week, the dangerous weather event is expected to stretch for days with little reprieve.
Continue reading...Apache fire, which prompted evacuation orders, was contained 15% due to ‘favorable’ weather conditions
A wildfire is threatening a community in rural northern California near Paradise, where the state’s deadliest wildfire struck six years ago.
The blaze, dubbed the Apache fire, broke out on Monday and had grown to more than 600 acres (243 hectares), prompting evacuation orders.
Continue reading...Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia all saw record heat while one person died during flooding in South Dakota
Millions of Americans sweated through a scorching weekend as temperatures soared across the US – while residents were also rescued from floodwaters that forced evacuations across the midwest. One person died during flooding in South Dakota, the governor there said.
From the mid-Atlantic to Maine, across the Great Lakes region, and throughout the west to California, public officials cautioned residents about the dangers of excessive heat and humidity. Forecasters say the heatwave will continue early in the week in the south-east, portions of the south and the Plains, providing the biggest worry in affected areas.
Continue reading...Tropical storm due to form in Gulf of Mexico, adding to extreme weather as north-east and midwest bake
Potential Tropical Cyclone One – a slow churning system of low atmospheric pressure in the Gulf of Mexico – was badgering the Texas coast but had not fully developed, meteorologists said on Wednesday.
The storm, which will be named Tropical Storm Alberto when it forms fully, is set to unleash powerful winds, heavy rain and flood threats across the entire southern US, Mexico and Central America. Storm-force winds, which stretch more than 400 miles (640km) from the storm’s center, are already affecting southern Texas.
This article was amended on 19 June 2024 to correct a quotation from Bill Nye.
Continue reading...Increasing use of fans, air coolers and air conditioners is placing ‘serious’ strain on grid in north of country
Engineers in India have warned of the possibility of prolonged power outages in the north, where a heatwave has brought misery for millions of people.
Demand for electricity has soared due to fans, air coolers and air conditioners being run constantly, placing a strain on the grid in Delhi and elsewhere in the north. Manufacturers of air conditioners and air coolers report sales rising by 40-50% compared with last summer.
Continue reading...Cities in midwest and north-east brace for heatwave with some to experience highs of 105F – 25 degrees above normal
Extreme heat has begun to hit the US, delivered by a high-pressure weather pattern that the federal weather prediction center says will be “potentially the longest experienced in decades for some locations”.
According to meteorologists with WeatherBELL Analytics, about 265 million people in the US are forecast to see air temperatures reach or exceed 90F (32C), with many of them experiencing heat indices of about 105F by next Sunday.
Continue reading...Jordanians died in Saudi Arabia after suffering heatstroke, said officials, with temperatures reaching 47C in Mecca
At least 14 Jordanian pilgrims have died while on the hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia as temperatures soar in the kingdom.
Jordan’s foreign ministry said “14 Jordanian pilgrims died and 17 others were missing” during the performance of hajj rituals. It said its nationals had died “after suffering sun stroke due to the extreme heatwave” and that it had coordinated with Saudi authorities to bury the dead in Saudi Arabia, or transfer them to Jordan.
Continue reading...Meteorologists warn that heat will spread east through the week, with ‘heat dome’ expected to trap high temperatures
Millions of Americans are facing “dangerously hot conditions”, the National Weather Service said, with a heatwave set to hit the midwest and north-east US from Monday.
Michigan, Ohio and western Pennsylvania were all under heat warnings starting Monday, with alerts in place until Friday evening. Meteorologists warned that the heat will spread east through the week, with a “heat dome” expected to trap high temperatures across New York, Washington DC and Boston.
Continue reading...Scorching temperatures have already swept south-east where Florida is now grappling with severe flooding
The scorching heatwave that has swept the US south-east in recent weeks will soon spread to the country’s midwest and north-east regions, affecting nearly 250 million Americans.
Temperatures are stuck at 90F (32C) or above for at least the next week in much of the US, the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted. The NWS defines a heatwave as a period of temperatures exceeding 90F for two or more days, and this one could last until 26 June.
Continue reading...Supporters hospitalized following rallies in Las Vegas and Phoenix, where temperatures have broken records
Dozens of Donald Trump’s supporters have been requiring medical help at his rallies in the scorching US south-west but it seems lost on him that his plans to reverse climate policies and “drill, baby, drill” for fossil fuels will only worsen extreme weather, campaigners say.
A total of 24 people at a Trump rally in Las Vegas on Sunday required medical attention due to the heat, according to the Clark county fire department, with six taken to hospital for treatment. The hospitalizations come after a further 11 people needed to be admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion as they waited for Trump to speak at a rally in Phoenix on Thursday.
Continue reading...El Paso, Texas, saw temperatures of 106F, with border patrol identifying ‘heatstroke and dehydration’ as cause of death
At least four people have died crossing the US-Mexico border near El Paso, Texas, amid the searing heatwave gripping the south-west.
Temperatures in El Paso peaked at 106F (41C) on Thursday, and some 34 million people – from the southern tip of Texas across Arizona and up into California and Nevada – were under heat alerts.
Continue reading...Technique known as cold-water immersion adopted by Phoenix hospitals after county saw 645 heat-related deaths last year
The season’s first heatwave is already baking the south-west with triple-digit temperatures as firefighters in Phoenix – America’s hottest big city – employ new tactics in hopes of saving more lives in a county that saw 645 heat-related deaths last year.
Starting this season, the Phoenix fire department is immersing heatstroke victims in ice on the way to area hospitals. The medical technique, known as cold-water immersion, is familiar to marathon runners and military service members and has also recently been adopted by Phoenix hospitals as a go-to protocol, according to fire captain John Prato.
Continue reading...Meteorologists found 52.9C reading to be false, though new record does appear to have been set
A record temperature registered this week for the Indian capital of 52.9C (127.22F) was too high by 3C, the Indian government has said.
The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) had investigated Wednesday’s reading by the weather station at Mungeshpur, a densely packed corner of New Delhi, “and found a 3C sensor error”, the earth sciences minister, Kiren Rijiju, said.
Continue reading...Research that looked at 53 million births says Black and Hispanic mothers and those in lower socioeconomic groups most at risk
Heatwaves increase rates of preterm births, which can lead to poorer health outcomes for babies and impact their long-term health, a new study found.
Black and Hispanic mothers, as well as those in lower socioeconomic groups, are particularly at risk of delivering early following heat waves.
Continue reading...High temperatures in Mexico have been linked to dozens and perhaps hundreds of deaths of howler monkeys
It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees.
At least 83 of the midsize primates, who are known for their roaring vocal calls, were found dead in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco. Others were rescued by residents, including five that were rushed to a local veterinarian who battled to save them.
Continue reading...Human-caused climate crisis brought soaring temperatures across Asia, from Gaza to Delhi to Manila
The record-breaking heatwave that scorched the Philippines in April would have been impossible without the climate crisis, scientists have found. Searing heat above 40C (104F) struck across Asia in April, causing deaths, water shortages, crop losses and widespread school closures.
The extreme heat was made 45 times more likely in India and five times more likely in Israel and Palestine, the study found. The scientists said the high temperatures compounded the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where displaced people are living in overcrowded shelters with little access to water.
Continue reading...After a long spell of intense heat and little rain, water levels have fallen to reveal parts of a sunken church, tombstones and foundations at Pantabangan
Ruins of a centuries-old town have emerged at a dam parched by drought in the northern Philippines.
After a prolonged spell of intense heat and little rain, water levels in the dam have fallen to reveal parts of a sunken church, tombstones and the foundations of structures from the 300-year-old town in Nueva Ecija province.
Continue reading...Europeans are dying from hot weather 30% more than they did two decades ago, report finds
Scorching weather has baked Europe in more days of “extreme heat stress” than its scientists have ever seen.
Heat-trapping pollutants that clog the atmosphere helped push temperatures in Europe last year to the highest or second-highest levels ever recorded, according to the EU’s Earth-watching service Copernicus and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Continue reading...Governments across region grappling for response as temperatures soar to unseasonable highs
Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so high that scientists fear coral could be destroyed.
A “historic heatwave” is being experienced across south-east Asia, according to Maximiliano Herrera, a climatologist and weather historian. In updates posted on X, he said heat that was unprecedented for early April had been recorded at monitoring stations across the region this week, including in Minbu, in central Myanmar, where 44C was recorded – the first time in south-east Asia’s climatic history that such high temperatures had been reached so early in the month. In Hat Yai, in Thailand’s far south, 40.2 C was reached, an all-time record, while Yên Châu in north-west Vietnam hit 40.6C, unprecedented for this time of year.
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