SACRAMENTO (AP) – Swaths of California sweltered on Tuesday and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States (US), with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts.
The torrid conditions were being caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.
California’s capital, Sacramento, was under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 40.5 and 46.1 Celsius.
The governor’s office announced late Tuesday that federal funding had been approved to help with firefighting efforts.
Earlier this week, Governor Gavin Newsom activated the State Operations Center to coordinate California’s response, dispatch mutual aid and support local communities as they respond to threats of wildfire and excessive heat.
An analysis by The Associated Press found that heat killed more than 2,300 people in the US last year, a record. That figure is likely a major undercount, dozens of experts told AP reporters.
California’s heat was expected to spread from north to south over the week, with the worst of it focused on interior areas including the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and the southern deserts.
But warnings extended out to just short of the coast.
San Francisco, famous for its cool summers, was expected to have a high in the upper 80s (31 C) downtown but mid-60s (18.3 C) at Ocean Beach, forecasters said.
“The high pressure dome will linger over California for at least a week, with more long range guidance suggesting that timeline may even be optimistic,” the Bay Area weather office wrote.
