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Dangerous temperatures across the US southwest will continue to rise this week, reaching above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius) in some areas, exacerbating already severe drought conditions in the region and increasing the risk of new fires.
You’ll feel the sweltering heat throughout much of Utah, along with southern and central California, Nevada, and Arizona.
More than 48 million people across the West are now under advisory heat monitoring or warnings from the National Weather Service, which expects statewide records to be broken in Nevada and Arizona, along with hundreds of new daily record temperatures in cities in the coming days.
“This type of heat is unusual in June,” said Julie Malingowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS), adding that most heat waves that have historically affected the western United States occurred in July and August. The triple-digit heat is expected to extend from Tuesday to Saturday in some areas, with a slight overnight respite, and the NWS Climate Prediction Center expects temperatures to continue to be higher than normal during the summer.
The heat wave has raised fears of wildfires in the West, which is already in the grip of a drought disaster. Significant fire potential across six states has been declared by the Interagency National Fire Center, and the heat has the potential to push gusty winds in excess of 40 miles per hour across the parched landscape along the Pacific Coast.
Fire weather in parts of the West will be more active for the next couple of days. Extremely dry and windy conditions are expected in parts of the Great Basin. High fire weather will occur with sunset winds in Southern California. Dry thunderstorms are possible in the southwest. pic.twitter.com/2yDhsyqaWm
– NWS Storm Prediction Center (NWSSPC) June 14, 2021
“We are in the middle of a drought, and the vegetation is really tense,” Malingowski said, adding that fires start more easily and spread faster in hot, dry weather. Hundreds of thousands of acres burned across the West, and California actually went through last year — a record fire season when more than 4.2 million acres burned — in terms of the number of acres burned so far.
The California power grid operator has also issued warnings that hot weather could stress the system and encourage residents to conserve the environment when possible. “While no power outages or other disruptions are expected at this time, ISO can take a number of measures to reduce demand and access additional power,” the California Independent System Operator (ISO) said in a statement.
Those without access to air conditioning will suffer the worst of heat waves, especially the non-residential and other at-risk populations, and there will be little relief from the sweltering heat overnight.
“That’s the real danger with these heat waves,” Malingowski said. “It’s very, very hot during the day, of course, but the overnight temperatures just don’t get cold enough to give that relief.” It encouraged residents across the region to stay indoors if they were able to drink water and to make sure people and animals were not left to wait in cars, where deaths could happen quickly. “That’s what causes the long-term effects of heat.”
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