Tens of millions of people in the United States were facing dangerously high temperatures on Saturday, while record heat warnings loomed over Europe and Japan, in the latest example of global warming’s menace.
The US National Weather Service warned of an extremely hot and dangerous weekend as a severe heatwave ranging from California to Texas was set to peak.
In the west, daytime highs were expected to be 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.
On Sunday, the temperature in California’s Death Valley, one of the hottest areas on the planet, is expected to reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius).
Temperatures had already hit 48 degrees Celsius by midday on Saturday, while nightly lows could reach 38 degrees Celsius.
Authorities have issued a warning, recommending people avoid outdoor activities during the day and be cautious of dehydration.
A 28-year-old worker named Juan helped finish a wall at a construction site near Houston, Texas, amid the sweltering heat.
“Just taking a drink of water makes me dizzy, and I want to vomit because of the heat”, he explained.
The Las Vegas weather service advised that presuming high temperatures are a natural part of the region’s desert climate was a dangerous mindset!
“This heatwave is not typical of the desert”, it added.
Several wildfires are raging in Southern California, including one in Riverside County that has burned over 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) and triggered evacuation orders.
Further north, the Canadian government announced that wildfires have burned a record-breaking 10 million hectares this year, with additional devastation likely as the summer progresses.
In Europe, the health ministry has issued a red alert for 16 cities, including Rome, Bologna, and Florence, due to weekend forecasts of historic highs.
The weather service urged Italians to brace themselves for the most intense heatwave of the summer, as well as one of the most intense in history.
The thermometer in Rome is expected to reach 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) by Monday and even 43 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday, breaking the previous record of 40.5 degrees set in August 2007.
The European Space Agency warned that temperatures as high as 48 degrees Celsius might cause wilting on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia – “potentially the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Europe”.
For the third day in a row, the Athens Acropolis, one of Greece’s most popular tourist destinations, will be closed during the hottest hours on Sunday.
High heat and associated dryness are threatening France’s farming industry, prompting climatologists to criticize Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau on Saturday for dismissing conditions as normal enough for summer.
According to the national weather service, June was the second-hottest on record in France, and various sections of the country have been under a heatwave warning since Tuesday.
Spain’s weather service warned on Saturday that a new heatwave will bring temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius to the Canary Islands and southern Andalusia region from Monday through Wednesday.
Temperatures in parts of eastern Japan are predicted to reach 38 to 39 degrees Celsius on Sunday and Monday, with the meteorological agency warning that temperatures could break previous records.
According to the EU’s climate monitoring service, the world had its warmest June on record last month.
Also read: India To Establish DRDO Technical Office In France Embassy
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