Enlarge / The sun sets during a heat wave in Peoria, Arizona, July 11, 2023. (Image credit: Ash Ponders/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Just weeks after a third of the US population was hit by air quality alerts thanks to smoke from climate change-fueled fires in Canada, 100 million Americans are now under heat alerts. A hood of extra hot air, known as a heat dome, has settled over the west and south, driving temperatures relentlessly higher.
In the map below, excessive heat warnings are shown in purple and heat advisories in orange, and things are forecast to get worse over the weekend. Highs remain above 110° Fahrenheit in Phoenix; California’s Death Valley flirts with 130°; and the Texas grid struggles to keep the AC on.
(credit: NWS)
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