Another blistering, brutal heat wave was forecasted to scorch much of the western United States this weekend according to meteorologists.
All time record high temperatures could be registered in cities such as Las Vegas and Sacramento, while the notorious hotspot known as Death Valley has already recorded a temperature only a few degrees short of Earth’s hottest ever measured.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service said Death Valley hit 130 degrees Friday afternoon, but the observed high temperature was considered very important and needs to be validated. Temperatures were creeping upward again Saturday and hit 123 degrees in the early afternoon.
Las Vegas’ all-time high is 117 degrees and Sacramento’s is 115 degrees. “Some locations may tie or break their high temperature record for the day,” the National Weather Service Sacramento wrote on Twitter early Saturday.
More than 32 million people in the West live where an excessive heat warning or heat advisory is in effect, the National Weather Service said.
The intense heat comes as the United States is already dealing with the heat from its hottest June on record, according to a report released Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). June 2021 was the hottest June in 127 years of record-keeping, surpassing the record set in 2016, NOAA added in the report.
Temperatures were so hot in the Pacific Northwest and Canada last week that the heat may have killed more than one billion seashore animals living along the coastline according to experts.
The predicted exceptional temperatures this weekend are linked to a “heat dome,” or a ridge of high pressure, establishing itself over the Four Corners region of the Southwest United States..
Heat domes have occurred more frequently as global temperatures have increased over the recent years. “Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat-related illnesses,” the weather service warned. “Confidence is very high for a dangerous heat wave to persist through Monday and maybe into Tuesday,” the weather service also said.
The Weather service is asking that if you don’t need to go outside, just don’t. This is to keep yourself safe so that first responders can stay safe as well, they told reporters in a news conference.
