The first day of summer is today and it is hot in some places. The trend of hot weather is going to continue. More triple-digit temperatures are expected this week, according to the National Weather Service.
70% of the US population will have experienced temperatures in the 90s between yesterday and Sunday. According to a report by CNN, 20% of the country could face temperatures in the 100 degree range this week.
The heat dome that was cooking California and the Southwest has moved east. It has been hovering over the Midwest and the Plains. According to the NWS, heat and humidity will expand east and include the Southeast by the middle of the week.
Some parts of the Midwest are under heat advisories. In California, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, Kansas, and Michigan, the NWS predicted high temperatures and heat index values up to or greater than 100 degrees on Tuesday. The highs are between 15 and 25 degrees above normal for this time of year.
High temperatures are expected to move from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. From Texas to Alabama to the Carolinas, triple digit temperatures are forecast. Some instances of record breaking heat will occur in the Southeast.
The hot temperatures have caused a lot of problems for the region. Thousands of cattle died of heat related illnesses in Kansas. The Minnesota Department of Transportation issued a statewide warning last week about heat-related road buckled.
Humans are more likely to die from heat waves than from cows or infrastructure. Hot temperatures can cause heat illness and stroke and increase the risk of dehydration.
Some people are more at risk than others. Half of the people who die from excessive heat in the US are homeless. 130 homeless people died in Phoenix, Arizona and the surrounding county because of the heat last year. Many of the people who died in the Pacific Northwest were also living outside.
There have been 1,804 daily records set for high temperatures in the U.S. in the last 7 days. According to the data, only 281 daily low records were set. It has been six times more likely for local temperatures to exceed the previous record high for the same date in the same place than it has been for the previous record low.
In the month of May, the national average temperature was above average. The rest of the country more than made up for the cooler weather in the Pacific Northwest.
The South, Midwest, and Northeast were ranked as being much above average. The hotter-than-average heat is causing fires in California and the Southwest. Texas appears to be having the worst warm season so far. The Lone Star State had a warm May.
Climate change is making heatwaves more frequent. The incidence of heatwaves has more than tripled since then, and the season in which they occur is almost 50 days longer. The EPA says that each heatwave is an average of a full day longer.
The same trends are applied outside of the U.S. In the last few days, multiple all-time temperature records have been broken.
The climate is changing. Our day-to- day weather is being dictated by it. Humans are dying now due to it. Fossil fuel emissions have to be stopped within an ever-narrowing window of time in order to avoid the most catastrophic consequences.
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