A long-running heat wave that has already shattered previous records across the U.S. persisted on Sunday, baking parts of the West with dangerous temperatures that caused the death of a motorcyclist in Death Valley and held the East in its hot and humid grip.
An excessive heat warning — the National Weather Service’s highest alert — was in effect for about 36 million people, or about 10% of the population, said NWS meteorologist Bryan Jackson. Dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records.
Many areas in Northern California surpassed 110 degrees (43.3 C), with the city of Redding topping out at a record 119 (48.3 C). Phoenix set a new daily record Sunday for the warmest low temperature: it never got below 92 F (33.3 C).
A high temperature of 128 F (53.3 C) was recorded Saturday and Sunday at Death Valley National Park in eastern California, where a visitor died Saturday from heat exposure and another person was hospitalized, officials said.
We hit a record here in Seattle yesterday and are likely to tie one today. It’s usually in the high 70s at this time. It will be around 95°F today. Tomorrow will be hotter and likely set another record. Get to a cooling center if you don’t have AC. I honestly do not recall cooking centers being a thing prior to for our five years ago.
My dad back in Georgia called me yesterday because he saw on the weather channel that we hit 90 and he thought that a tad odd. I told him that this is in some ways more brutal than summer in Atlanta because at least all those buildings have industrial central air. I’ve got two portable units running just to keep my bedroom bearable
