The US weather service had previously warned people in large parts of the country of an “extremely hot and dangerous weekend”. Heat warnings were in place for tens of millions of people in states from Florida in the southeast through Louisiana and Texas to Arizona, Nevada and California in the southwest.
The region has been suffering from intense heat for days and sometimes even weeks. In Arizona’s capital, Phoenix, temperatures have exceeded 43 degrees for 16 days. The inhabitants of the megacity are called upon to go outside as little as possible because of the “extreme heat”, drink a lot and wear airy clothing.
In Texas, in the city of El Paso on the border with Mexico, temperatures exceeded 38 degrees for 29 consecutive days. In Houston, the energy supplier Reliant Energy called on people to save electricity from Saturday to Monday from 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. because air conditioning systems have massively increased consumption.
Temperatures of 38 to 43 degrees were predicted for southern and central California on Saturday. And so far, no cooling is in sight: Meteorologists expect that the heat in the western US will last at least all weekend and that it will be even hotter in the south by early next week.
A so-called heat dome has formed over the southern United States, a high pressure area that traps the heat like a lid in a region. Heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the United States most years. According to scientists, climate change is making heat waves more frequent, hotter and longer lasting.
