Los Angeles: Hot weather alerts are in place for more than 30 million people across the western United States after the region’s second heat wave in weeks brought another round of record-equalling high temperatures.
Sweltering conditions have hit much of the Pacific seaboard and as far inland as the western edge of the Rocky Mountains over the weekend, with forecasters warning of more to come on Sunday.
Las Vegas matched its all-time record of 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service (NWS) -- a temperature recorded in the desert entertainment city once in 1942 and three other times since 2005.
Forecasters issued an excessive heat warning for the city along with several other urban centers including the southern city of Phoenix and San Jose, the center of the Silicon Valley tech industry south of San Francisco.
“Over 30 million people remain under either excessive heat warnings or heat advisories,” the NWS said on Saturday, adding that dangerous heat and dry conditions would continue through on Sunday.
The weekend’s hot weather follows another heat wave that struck the western United States and Canada at the end of June.
The scorching conditions saw the all-time record daily temperature broken three days in a row in the Canadian province of British Columbia.
The death toll is not yet known but is thought to run into the hundreds.
Last month was the hottest June on record in North America, according to data released by the European Union’s climate monitoring service.
Human activity has driven global temperatures up, stoking increasingly fierce storms, extreme heatwaves, droughts and wildfires.
The World Meteorological Organisation and Britain’s Met Office said in May there was a 40 percent chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily surpassing 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures within the next five years.
The past six years, including 2020, have been the six warmest on record.
Meanwhile, a heat wave enveloped much of Spain on Sunday, driving temperatures to extreme levels and sending locals and tourists scurrying for shade and cooling waters.
National weather office AEMET issued heat warnings for most of the country, with the thermometer expected to rise above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in Madrid and the southern city of Seville for the second day running.
Spain’s first bout of extreme heat of the year is forecast to spread east on Monday before easing. Only a sliver of Spain’s northern Atlantic coast will be spared.
Some sought respite from the scorching heat in the air conditioned galleries of Madrid’s Prado museum, whose collection includes works by Rembrandt, Rubens and El Greco.
“We thought this would be a good plan for a day like today,” said Rosa Alfageme, 44, waiting in line to enter the museum with her husband and six-year-old daughter.
“It’s like this every year, we almost forget,” said Alfageme, adding the family does not have air-conditioning at home.
Others headed to the nearby Retiro park, home to a large artificial lake, or to municipal swimming pools.
Tickets for all the capital’s 19 outdoor swimming pools were sold out on Sunday. Capacity was limited due to virus safety measures.
The authorities advised people to drink water frequently, wear light clothes and avoid prolonged exposure to the sun.
Meteorologists said the temperature could climb as high as 44 Celsius in the Guadalquivir valley near Seville on Sunday. Spain’s highest temperature on record is 49C.
