‘Dangerously hot’ weather sizzles western US as brutal summer continues | West Coast

Scorching temperatures will continue to prevail across the Western United States this week, as a brutal heat wave could bring some of the highest temperatures of the summer.

Extreme heat warnings have been issued in parts of Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, affecting tens of millions of people. The harsh weather was expected to peak on Wednesday and last through the weekend.

According to a forecast from the National Weather Service (NWS), temperatures could reach 100°F (37.7°C) in the city of Los Angeles, while further inland temperatures could reach 110°F (43.3°C) or more. “Dangerously hot conditions possible with highs of 95°F to 110°F, hottest Thursday and Friday. Warm overnight lows will provide little relief from the heat,” the NWS warned in an alert.

Desert cities such as Palm Springs were expected to see several days of temperatures above 43 degrees Celsius, while in Death Valley National Park, currently experiencing the hottest summer on record, highs were expected to rise to as high as 47.7 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday.

Unusually high temperatures were also forecast in the Bay Area and Central Valley. Even in normally temperate San Francisco, temperatures of at least 13 degrees above average were forecast. That was so uncharacteristic for the city that the National Weather Service issued a heat warning.

“We’re talking about four days of heat,” meteorologist Mike Wofford told the Los Angeles Times. “We’ve had three or four days of hot weather before, but this is hotter and longer than most of the heat waves we’ve had so far.”

The heatwave will exacerbate the hardships of an already devastating summer across the region.

Californians just experienced the hottest July on record. The state’s average temperature for the month was 81°F (27.6°C). Many cities endured temperatures above 100°F (38°C) for several days, and several cities broke temperature records during a notable July heat wave.

For residents of other states, particularly in the southwestern United States, the situation is little better. Las Vegas, Nevada, also experienced its hottest July ever, breaking a new daily temperature record of 48.8 degrees Celsius. In Phoenix, Arizona, Monday was the 100th consecutive day of temperatures above 38 degrees Celsius, surpassing temperatures in the 1990s.

The scorching heat prepared the West for a season of explosive fires after a wet winter covered landscapes with grasses and other plants that quickly dried out and turned to tinder.

Fire season is still in full swing, and September’s heat wave could make matters worse. Oregon has seen more fires this year than any other country. By mid-August, nearly 1.5 million acres had burned. Dozens of wildfires continue to rage from Washington to Idaho to Arizona, while California has been battling the fourth-largest wildfire in its history, the Park Fire, since mid-July – although it is now almost completely contained.

While there has been some relief from the most extreme temperatures in recent weeks, firefighters fear there will be a significant fire risk in the West well into the fall.

“We’re about halfway through our season and it’s really busy. We’re getting the crew mentally and physically ready for the fact that we still have three months to go,” Dan Mallia, a firefighter who works with a special US Forest Service “hotshot” crew, told the Guardian last month. “We’ve just been doing one job after another,” he said. “It’s been challenging.”