28-6-2023 (TEXAS) The extreme heat wave that has engulfed much of the southern United States is spreading to other regions, with over 55 million people now under heat alerts. The life-threatening “oppressive” heat dome has produced “dangerous heat and humidity in Texas and spread into the lower Mississippi River Valley,” according to the US National Weather Service (NWS). The heat wave has scorched Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, among other southern parts over the past week, setting or challenging all-time records.
The heat wave is continuing to bake Texas and will expand in the coming days across much of the southern Plains, the Deep South, the Lower Mississippi Valley, and the Gulf Coast, according to the NWS. Excessive heat warnings are plastered across much of Texas, parts of New Mexico and Arizona, and along the Gulf Coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, while heat advisories stretch from northern Florida to southern New Mexico.
The high-pressure system building over Southern California is expected to cause the first heat wave of the summer, focused across interior areas, later this week into the holiday weekend. Triple-digit temperatures are expected across the hottest interior areas of Southern California, according to the NWS.
Health officials have urged people, particularly vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and individuals with chronic illnesses, to take precautions during the heat wave. Extreme heat has been the greatest weather-related cause of death in the United States for the past 30 years, killing over 700 people per year, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The heat crisis disproportionately affects Native American and Black communities, as well as those living in urban or rural neighborhoods, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Studies have shown that climate change is making heat waves both more frequent and more intense, increasing the risks of heat-related illnesses and deaths, droughts, and wildfires. As of Tuesday morning, more than 55 million people in the United States were under some form of heat advisory, watch, or warning.
