Tens of millions of Americans will remain under extreme heat warnings on Monday as a record-breaking heat wave spreads across parts of the central and eastern United States, threatening urban areas with “particularly severe” temperatures, forecasters warned.
A relentless heat wave that set dozens of records and killed at least 30 people in the West scorched much of the Western U.S. and parts of the South, Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and southern New England last week. More than 140 million Americans were under some form of heat warning on Monday, according to Heat.gov.
Heat warnings were issued along the East Coast from as far north as Maine to as far south as Florida.
“Widespread heat waves will continue from the Plains to the East Coast over the next few days, with particular intensity in many urban areas across the Southeast, the Ohio Valley and along the East Coast,” the National Weather Service said in a statement.
AccuWeather meteorologists warned that temperatures will be “above average” across a wide swath of the eastern U.S. through Tuesday.
Most urban areas in the Southeast, the Ohio Valley and along the East Coast will be at serious to extreme risk from the heat, the weather service said, adding that these conditions “can be dangerous and potentially deadly for people without sufficient means to effectively cool and hydrate.”
Numerous record-tying and record-breaking temperatures are possible along the East Coast and in parts of the Ohio Valley and Southeast, the weather service said.
Forecasters expect the combination of high temperatures and humidity to bring heat index values to the 105 to 110 degree range. Overnight temperatures are expected to be in the mid to upper 70s Fahrenheit, which will provide “little relief from the heat.”
A heat wave is also hitting residents in southeast Texas as hundreds of thousands of people remain without power after Hurricane Beryl ravaged the region earlier this week. As of Monday afternoon, more than 280,000 people were without power, according to Poweroutage.us.
Power shortages and high temperatures forced some residents to seek shelter in their cars, while others slept with relatives or at cooling centers. At least one death is believed to be related to heatstroke, and at least two people in Harris County have died of carbon monoxide poisoning, a major risk when running home generators, USA Today previously reported.
Do deaths from heat waves count?Don’t believe them, the real casualties are much greater.
Thunderstorms expected from the Northern Plains to the Upper Mississippi River Basin
As scorching heat blankets much of the United States, forecasters said Monday that multiple clusters of powerful thunderstorms were possible across parts of the north-central United States.
The weather service said damaging wind gusts were the main threat, with large hail and tornadoes also possible.
The Storm Prediction Center said there was an “elevated” risk of severe weather for parts of Illinois, Iowa and Indiana, where strong wind gusts were possible Monday afternoon and evening. The risk area includes the entire Chicago metropolitan area.
Heatwave causes millions of gallons of water to evaporate in Northern California
A weeks-long heat wave has caused hundreds of millions of gallons of water to disappear from major reservoirs in Northern California.
During the first nine days of July, more than 3,000 cubic feet of water per second, or about 2.2 billion gallons, evaporated from Lake Shasta, the man-made reservoir created by the construction of Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River. According to the Northern California Water Association, Shasta Reservoir is the largest man-made lake in California.
That’s a significant amount of water, said Don Bader, regional manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages Shasta Dam. The bureau also reported millions of gallons of water lost from other reservoirs in the first nine days of July, including 828.5 million gallons from Trinity Lake near Weaverville and 47.1 million gallons off Keswick Lake near Redding.
Contributors: Christopher Kang, USA TODAY, Damon Arthur and James Ward, USA TODAY Network
