Starting this Friday, more than twenty states in the United States are preparing for a rebound in the heat wave that will affect 150 million residents whose health is at “extreme risk” due to maximum temperatures that will exceed 53ºC in California.
The alerts extend throughout the southeast of the country, from New Orleans to New York, but the west will be the most affected area due to the enormous risk of fires in California, Nevada and Arizona. States further north like Oregon will not be spared from the danger either.
The Californian desert will exceed 50ºC, in Death Valley in particular, but the US National Meteorological Service warns all affected populations that this weekend “have good hydration on hand” because “it is the main cause of death related to the climate in the United States.
The agency has no illusions about the human cost of the coming days. “We are going to lose human lives in this heat wave,” the NWS office in San Francisco warned during a press conference reported by the Axios news portal.
