At 44 degrees Celsius, Las Vegas is suffocating and the desert region of Death Valley is expected to approach 49 degrees.
Extreme heat gripping the western United States is set to peak on Thursday, a wave that could herald a sweltering summer as the United Nations warns the planet is overheating. Las Vegas swells to 44 degrees Celsius and the desert region of Death Valley must approach 49 degrees due to an oppressive anti-cyclonic weather system.
According to scientists, repeated heat waves are an unequivocal marker of global warming, and these heat waves are expected to multiply, last longer and intensify. “Today, record highs and lows will likely be broken or tied between California, Nevada and Arizona.” according to the US Weather Service (NWS).
Specialists believe that these abnormally high temperatures as summer approaches could be a harbinger of a sweltering summer. Las Vegas is experiencing dangerous temperatures above seasonal norms, and authorities there have extended their heat alert until Saturday. Air-conditioned venues have opened to give respite to people without air-conditioning at home in America’s gaming capital.
“Particularly worrying”
“We haven’t really had time to get used to it heating up so much and so quickly”said Glen Simpson, director of an ambulance service at ABC affiliate Channel 13. “People are just not used to it, even when they grew up here, spent all their summers here, the body hasn’t really adjusted to it”. In California, the situation in the agricultural region of the Central Valley itself is the same “particularly worrying”according to federal authorities. “There will be little or no nighttime rest for those who do not have an efficient cooling system or cannot hydrate themselves adequately.”according to the NWS.
Temperatures are expected to drop slightly in the coming days, but the heat wave will extend north into Oregon and Washington state. May 2024 was the warmest May on record worldwide (on land and sea), the 12th month in a row to break its own record, according to the European Copernicus Observatory. And it is 80% likely that the global average temperature over a calendar year will exceed “temporary” by more than 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels by 2028, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned this week.
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