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People sleep at a cooling shelter set up in Portland, Oregon.
(Reuters: Maranie Staab) |
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Key Points
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Daytime temperatures have been breaking records in places where many residents do not have air conditioning.
Shops have sold out of portable air conditioners, fans, water and sports drinks.
Cities have been reminding residents where pools and cooling centres are available and been urging people to stay hydrated, check on their neighbours and avoid strenuous activities.
"This is life-threatening heat," Jennifer Vines, health officer for Multnomah County in Oregon, said in a statement.
"People need to find some place cool to spend time during the coming days."
Multnomah County, which includes the state capital Portland, opened three cooling centres over the weekend, including one at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.
Sunday's forecast temperature of 44 degrees Celsius in Portland would break the temperature record of 42C, set just a day earlier. Another 44C day is predicted on Monday.
The temperature was expected to rise to an all-time record of 40C at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Sunday and surpass that to reach 43.9C on Monday, as the excessive heat warning continues for the region.
And so it begins. A record temperature has already been equaled. The low in Seattle this morning was 64. This ties the record high minimum for the date from 2017.At least one county closed several COVID-19 testing sites because of the heat.
If you're keeping a written list of the records that will fall, you might need a few pages by early next week. #wawx
— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) June 25, 2021
Seattle opened additional public library branches on Sunday, and will again on Monday, to provide additional cooling centres, The Seattle Times reported.
Cooling centres have also been opened in parts of California and elsewhere in the Pacific north-west as the heatwave has gripped the region.
Temperatures had soared due to a high-pressure dome that had built over US and Canada's upper north-west, the National Weather Service said, similar to the atmospheric conditions that punished south-western states earlier this month.
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The Salvation Army has been handing out bottled water.
(Reuters: Karen Ducey)
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"Unprecedented heat will not only threaten the health of residents in the inland north-west but will make our region increasingly vulnerable to wildfires and intensify the impacts of our ongoing drought," the service said.
The high temperatures were forecast to move into western Montana beginning Monday.
Experts say extreme weather events such as the late-spring heatwaves that have descended on parts of the US this year cannot be linked directly to climate change.
But more unusual weather patterns could become more common amid rising global temperatures, NWS meteorologist Eric Schoening said.
Links
- (USA NPR) The Drought In The Western U.S. Is Getting Bad. Climate Change Is Making It Worse
- Severe Drought, Worsened by Climate Change, Ravages the American West
- A very, very, very dry future for the U.S. West
- Drought stokes fears of severe fire season in West
- Drought Is the U.S. West’s Next Big Climate Disaster
- Large contribution from anthropogenic warming to an emerging North American megadrought
- Western U.S. may be entering its most severe drought in modern history
- Creeping toward Permanent Drought
- Megadrought emerging in western U.S. could be the worst in 1,200 years, study finds
- ‘Megadrought’ persists in western U.S., as another extremely dry year develops
- The megadrought parching 77 percent of the Western US, explained
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