Joe.My.God. LGBT News
CNN reports:
An already dangerous weekslong heat wave will only worsen this weekend as a heat dome intensifies and reaches peak strength over parts of the Western United States.
The heat dome is so formidable the National Weather Service in Phoenix called it “one of the strongest high pressure systems this region has ever seen.” Around 100 heat records could fall today through the weekend as it intensifies, piling onto the more than 1,000 high temperature records broken in the US since June.
More than 90 million people are under heat alerts after the heat dome expanded into places like California, which is now experiencing its first extreme heat wave of the year.
Axios reports:
Cooling stations were being activated across the Las Vegas Friday through Monday in response to the NWS warning the city on Thursday that the city was entering a period of potentially deadly “extreme” heat risk — the highest on the agency’s scale.
In Death Valley, Calif., one of the hottest places on Earth, the temperature is predicted to climb into the rare territory of 129-132°F this weekend. If it exceeds 130°F, this would set a record for the highest reliably recorded temperature on record for anywhere on Earth.
Florida is seeing extremely high heat indices, in part because Gulf of Mexico water temperatures are hot tub-like, in the mid-to-upper 90s, which is unheard of for any time of year. Extreme heat is the top weather-related killer during an average year in the U.S., per the NWS.