Security staff members cool off near cooling fans at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas during a record-breaking heat wave in the U.S., July 6, 2024. /CFP
A long-running heat wave that has already shattered previous records across the U.S. persisted on Sunday, baking parts of the West with dangerous temperatures that caused the death of a motorcyclist in Death Valley and held the East in its hot and humid grip.
An excessive heat warning, which is the highest alert from the National Weather Service (NWS), was in effect for about 36 million people, or about 10 percent of the population, said NWS meteorologist Bryan Jackson. Dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest tied or broke previous heat records.
Many areas in Northern California surpassed 43.3 degrees Celsius, with the city of Redding topping out at a record 48.3 degrees Celsius. Phoenix set a new daily record Sunday for the warmest low temperature: it never got below 33.3 degrees Celsius.
A visitor reacts as he poses next to a thermometer reading "131F, 55C" at the Visitor Center in Death Valley National Park, near Furnace Creek, during a heat wave impacting Southern California, the U.S., July 7, 2024. /CFP
A high temperature over 55 degrees Celsius was recorded on Saturday and Sunday at Death Valley National Park in eastern California, where a visitor died on Saturday from heat exposure and another person was hospitalized, officials said.
The two visitors were part of a group of six motorcyclists riding through the Badwater Basin area amid scorching weather, the park said in a statement.
The other motorcyclist was transported to a Las Vegas hospital for "severe heat illness," the statement said. The other four members of the party were treated at the scene.
Officials warned that heat illness and injury are cumulative and can build over the course of a day or days.
"Besides not being able to cool down while riding due to high ambient air temperatures, experiencing Death Valley by motorcycle when it is this hot is further challenged by the necessary heavy safety gear worn to reduce injuries during an accident," the park statement said.
Rare heat advisories were extended even into higher elevations including around Lake Tahoe, on the border of California and Nevada, with the weather service in Reno, Nevada, warning of "major heat risk impacts, even in the mountains."
Two people cover themselves in white towels as they walk around Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, California, the U.S., July 7, 2024. /CFP
In Arizona's Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix, there have been at least 13 confirmed heat-related deaths this year, along with more than 160 other deaths suspected of being related to heat that are still under investigation, according to a recent report.
That does not include the death of a 10-year-old boy last week in Phoenix who suffered a "heat-related medical event" while hiking with family at South Mountain Park and Preserve, according to police.