China reports record temperature for mid-July at 52.2C

BEIJING, China - China on Monday said the mercury hit 52.2 degrees Celsius (126 degrees Fahrenheit) in the northwest of the country over the weekend, setting a record for mid-July.

A weather station in the Xinjiang region's Sanbao village "recorded a temperature peak of 52.2 degrees Celsius at 19:00 on July 16, breaking the historic heat record for the same period of the year", the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) said in a statement.

The previous record of 50.6C was set in July 2017, according to the statement.

Xin Xin, an analyst working for the CMA, said in post on his verified Weibo account that 52.2C was the "highest measured temperature at a regional station in our country that I have ever seen".

Sanbao lies on the outskirts of Turpan city, where authorities have told workers and students to stay home and ordered special vehicles to spray water on major thoroughfares, the meteorological body said.

Ground surface temperatures reached 80C in parts of Turpan on Sunday, according to the statement.

The Northern Hemisphere has endured record-setting summer heat waves in recent weeks, which scientists say are being exacerbated by climate change.

Chinese authorities have warned of extreme weather and "multiple natural disasters" this summer.

Agence France-Presse

Sizzling heat wave blankets US Southwest

LOS ANGELES - Much of the western United States baked for a third day on Wednesday under a punishing heat wave that has set temperature records, prompted health warnings and strained power grids.

Although a shift in the weather has provided some relief to northern states, including Montana and Idaho, the worst was still to come for California and parts of the Southwest, National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Schoening said.

"We're in a long-duration heat wave across the Western U.S.," Schoening said. "Across the desert Southwest extending into California we're still ramping up the temperatures throughout the rest of the week."

Salt Lake City, Utah, on Tuesday tied its all-time high temperature since record-keeping began in 1894, at 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius). Phoenix tied a record for this date at 115 degrees and Needles, California, in the Mojave Desert near the border of both Nevada and Arizona, hit 121 degrees, also tying a daily record.

The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings across the U.S. West, warning that such conditions can be dangerous, even fatal. No deaths had been reported from the brutally hot weather as of Wednesday afternoon.

"Try not to spend too much time outside during the hottest part of the day. Wear light clothing, stay hydrated," Schoening said, adding that residents should be "keeping an eye on pets, checking on the elderly, not leaving anyone, including kids or pets in hot cars."

WILDFIRE DANGERS

The weather service also issued red flag warnings of high fire danger in Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. Major wildfires were burning in Colorado and Arizona.

Wildfires scorched more than 6,500 square miles (17,000 square km) of land in 2020, destroying hundreds of Californian homes during a particularly fierce fire season.

The unusually severe late-spring heat wave was the result of a high-pressure ridge that built over southwestern deserts, weather service meteorologists say, and could not be blamed directly on global warming.

"But studies show that as the climate changes and it gets warmer, we will see more of these anomalous events over time," Schoening said.

The brutal heat triggered a surge in electricity demand as residents cranked up air conditioners and fans. Texas and California, the two most populous U.S. states, urged energy conservation.

California's grid operator issued a "Flex Alert" for Thursday evening, telling residents to turn off unneeded appliances and office equipment between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. and thermostats higher.

California and Texas both imposed rolling blackouts over the last year to avoid a power system collapse, California due to the heat in August 2020 and Texas in February 2021 after a deep freeze that left millions without heat.

Much of the U.S. Southwest is also in the grip of a drought that has cut hydropower supplies, leaving rivers running dry and prompting ranchers to sell livestock.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates most of the state's power system, projected demand would break the June record, set on Monday, in the coming days.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico, Aishwarya Nair in Bangalore and Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Leslie Adler)

-reuters-

Heat, water woes and coronavirus: India's perfect storm

NEW DELHI - Bollywood stars and political leaders have urged Indians to wash their hands to protect against coronavirus but that's a pipe dream for slum-dwellers like Bala Devi, now sweltering through a summer heatwave.

The 44-year-old widow and her family of eight are among tens of millions of people facing months of torrid weather while stuck at home, in lockdown, without regular access to clean water to keep cool and wash.

"It is so hot the children keep asking for water to drink. How can I give them water for washing their hands when we don't have even enough water to drink?" Devi said at her cramped home in New Delhi.

"Every drop of water is a luxury for us. We can't afford to spend it on bathing," she told AFP, pinching her nose at the waft of clogged drains as unwashed children milled around her.

Outside it is around 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) but her one-bedroom tenement house has just an improvised ceiling fan to keep its occupants cool.

There is a piped water connection but the supply is extremely erratic and a pump connected to the groundwater mostly spews air. Her family uses a common public toilet and their "bathroom" is a bucket behind a curtain.

"If we can't wash and clean and there is filth everywhere, obviously the virus will attack us, but what can we do?" asked Devi's neighbor Anita Bisht.

"Already our children are falling sick," she added, her half-naked toddler hanging from her arms.

LIQUID GOLD

Even before the coronavirus pandemic, water was in short supply for the 100 million people living in India's urban slums.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has listed water infrastructure as a key priority, promising to reach 145 million rural households by 2024.

But currently roughly a third of the country's 1.3 billion people cut back on washing and bathing during summer as taps run dry.

Trucks deliver water to areas suffering shortfalls during the summer months but fights regularly break out in long queues to the tap.

Last year the southern city of Chennai ran out of water entirely.

Heatwaves are increasing in frequency, and this week the mercury hit 50 Celsius in western Rajasthan state. Parts of Delhi recorded their hottest May temperatures in almost 20 years.

Heat stress has killed around 3,500 people around the country since 2015, according to government figures, while farmers have killed themselves because of droughts ravaging their crops.

Only around seven percent of Indian households have air conditioning, despite rising incomes making the luxury more affordable for some.

Tarun Gopalakrishnan from the Center for Science and Environment think-tank said India must brace for frequent periods of extreme heat in the future.

"When we look at the seasonal averages we sometimes miss the picture that the extremes are increasing, causing massive social disruptions," he told AFP.

MORE MISERY

India's coronavirus lockdown is slowly being eased but the restrictions have compounded the miseries of the current heatwave.

In Delhi, a sprawling city teeming with 20 million people, demand for water outstrips supply by an estimated 200 million gallons (760 million liters) per day.

The daily wait for water trucks in the capital has become even worse since the pandemic hit the city.

Lining up for hours with plastic buckets and bottles, slum dwellers are now meant to stand a suitable distance apart -- if the government truck ever comes.

Lakhpat, a resident of the Sanjay Niwas slum settlement, recently waited in vain for over two hours with dozens of others for the scheduled water tanker to arrive.

"Because of the water problem we can't follow social distancing rules. People stick together closely in the mad rush to get their buckets filled first," he said.

Agence France-Presse

Records tumble in Europe as heatwave bites

PARIS -- Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands recorded their highest ever temperatures as a European heatwave soared towards its peak on Wednesday, impacting rail transport and prompting a number of drownings with people taking to the water.

Cyclists in the Tour de France in southern France had to puff their way over the course in well over 30 degrees Celsius while in the Netherlands, farmers have been leaving their cows outside to sleep, rather than bringing them in at night.

Belgium registered an all-time high of 39.9 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) at the Kleine-Brogel military base, beating a record that dated back to June 1947.

In Germany the temperature soared to 40.5C (104.9F) in western Geilenkirchenthe, surpassing the previous record of 40.3 (104.5)

In the Netherlands, 38.8C at Gilze-Rijen, in the south, displaced a record dating back 75 years.

The second heatwave in less than a month has focused new attention on climate change and a host of French cities broke records on Tuesday. Wine capital Bordeaux hit 41.2C (106.16F) while the central city of Vichy climbed to 41.3C (106.3F).

Paris is facing its hottest day on Thursday with the French capital's 70-year-plus record of 40.4C (104.7F) forecast to fall. Cooler weather with rain was expected to provide relief from Friday.

"It's too much for us," said Sven Schenk, 29, a logistics worker from Germany who was visiting Paris. "We're not looking forward to tomorrow! But we haven't changed our plans."

RAIL CHAOS

Britain's Met Office predicted a chance that the UK temperature record of 38.5C (101.3F) which was recorded in Faversham, Kent, in August 2004, will also be exceeded on Thursday at the peak of the heat.

Britain's Network Rail said it was slowing down trains in response to the extreme weather. 

French trains were also slowed down and the national rail operator SNCF advised travelers in the worst affected areas to delay journeys planned at the peak of the heatwave Thursday.

Thalys and Eurostar train services between Brussels, Paris and London were disrupted by a failure on an overhead power line, although it was not immediately clear if this was due to the heatwave.

A Eurostar train bound for London tore down part of the cable support just outside Brussels. The 600 passengers were eventually taken back to Brussels, the Belga news agency said.

Across the area affected by the unusually high heat, people tried to cool off in lakes and rivers.

In London, police were searching for three people who went missing in the River Thames while swimming while three people have drowned in Germany since Tuesday.

Dutch media said hundreds of pigs died when a ventilator failed at Middelharnis.

TAKE CARE OF OTHERS

France's weather office said the scorching conditions "require particular care, notably for vulnerable or exposed people" with almost the entire country under an orange-level weather alert, the second highest level.

Paris in particular remains haunted by the early summer of 2003 when 15,000 deaths were blamed on the heat and the authorities were bitterly criticized for not mobilizing fast enough.

"We need to take care of ourselves but above all others, especially those who are alone, and be able to detect the first symptoms of heatstroke," said Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

Local authorities have placed restrictions on water usage in many areas due to drought-like conditions that have seen ground and river water levels fall dramatically.

CLIMATE CHANGE

This summer's second heatwave has amplified concerns in Europe that human activity is heating the planet at a dangerous rate.

The June 26-28 blast of heat in France was four degrees Celsius (7.2 Fahrenheit) hotter than an equally rare June heatwave would have been in 1900, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) team said this month. 

One study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said the deadly, weeks-long heatwave across northern Europe in 2018 would have been statistically impossible without climate change.

Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who has highlighted the problem of global warming through school strikes, warned MPs at France's parliament of dire consequences if "business as usual" continues until 2030.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Nearly 150 million people sweltering through deadly US heat wave

WASHINGTON -- The United States was sweating through a weekend of dangerously hot weather, with major cities including New York, Philadelphia and Washington experiencing temperatures approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

An oppressive heat wave stretching from the Midwestern plains to the Atlantic coast had nearly 150 million people struggling to stay cool amid scorching temperatures.

Heat index values -- combining the effect of heat and humidity -- could reach 110 to 115 degrees, particularly in the east, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

It warned that "dangerously high temperatures and humidity could quickly cause heat stress or heat stroke if precautions are not taken."

The heat was expected to continue through late Sunday as a high-pressure system off the Atlantic coast ushered in steamy, subtropical air.

People were being urged to stay hydrated, watch out for the sick and the elderly, stay inside as much as possible and not leave children or animals in cars.

The heat wave already claimed at least three lives, including two earlier in the week in the eastern state of Maryland. 

In Arkansas, former NFL player Mitch Petrus died Thursday after working outside his family's shop. The 32-year-old died of heat stroke, the Pulaski County coroner was quoted as saying in US media.

Heat warnings have also been issued for parts of eastern Canada.

In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a heat emergency. 

The New York City Triathlon, which had been scheduled for Sunday, was cancelled for the first time since its founding in 2001. 

The estimated 4,000 participants, many of whom had traveled long distances to race, will receive full refunds of entry fees of up to $399, organizers said.

The two-day OZY Fest, a food, comedy and music festival set for Central Park this weekend, was also called off. 

In Washington, a popular outdoor jazz concert at the National Galley of Art was cancelled.

'Serious, serious stuff'

New York City opened 500 cooling centers for residents.

"Saturday is going to be really, really bad, on through Sunday," de Blasio said in a warning to the city. "This is serious, serious stuff."

At least three public defenders said on Twitter that inmates in New York's notorious Rikers Island jail complex were suffering with no air conditioning, and that some guards had turned off fans as punishment, resulting in "deadly conditions." 

The Brooklyn Defender Services legal aid group said some inmates didn't have summer clothing, only long underwear provided by the group last winter.

Top officials from the city's Department of Corrections were at the facility monitoring the response to the heat wave to "protect health and safety of everyone in the facility," De Blasio wrote on Twitter. 

The department said in a statment to AFP that extra staff were on hand to distribute summer clothing, and clinics were open around the clock to treat heat-related symptoms. 

Those in units without air conditioning were given access to fans, ice, water and "multiple cool showers."

The city's electrical grid was so far handling the extra demand, which came just a week after a major outage, blamed on mechanical problems, left tens of thousands of Manhattan residents in the dark. 

In Washington, the morning low of 81 degrees was just one degree below the record set in 2015, with "a good chance to hit 100 today for the first time since 2016," The Washington Post reported.

Triple-digit temperatures in the US Northeast are unusual. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer suggested, tongue in cheek, that locals might want to seek relief in normally sweltering Miami or Phoenix, which would be up to 25 degrees cooler. 

Philadelphia looked likely to set a new record for the hottest July 20 since 1930.

In Boston, where the weather service said that Saturday and Sunday would be "major scorchers," city officials scrapped entry fees at public pools. 

In the far northwest, temperatures soared earlier this month in the state of Alaska, which straddles the Arctic Circle, with largest city Anchorage hitting an all-time high of 90 degrees.

Earlier in the week, the National Weather Service office in the Midwestern city of Omaha baked a tray of biscuits -- savory breakfast bread similar to scones -- on the dashboard of a parked car. After nearly eight hours and with temperatures on the pan reaching 185 degrees, the pastries were almost fully cooked.

Climate data showed June was the hottest month on record worldwide, with a heat wave across Europe smashing national records.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Heat wave threatens two-thirds of US

BOSTON — Dangerously hot temperatures are expected to spread across the Central and Eastern United States on Wednesday through the weekend, with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (around 38 degrees Celsius) in the hardest-hit places, the National Weather Service has warned.

And even when the sun dips below the horizon, temperatures in many places are expected to remain in the 80s.

The hottest part of the country? Smack dab in the middle.

Everyone living in the region stretching from northern Oklahoma and central Nebraska through Iowa, Missouri and western Illinois should brace for a “prolonged period of dangerously hot temperatures and high humidity,” the warnings say. People in central and south central Kansas should expect to endure highs of about 102 degrees; the temperature in Des Moines, Iowa, was expected to hover around 100.

Excessive heat warnings have also been posted farther east, for parts of New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

All told, at least 15 million people across the United States are being warned of dangerously high temperatures that could affect human health between Wednesday and Friday.

By the weekend, what meteorologists are calling a “heat dome” in the middle part of the country is expected to spread into the Great Lakes and the East Coast.

Extreme heat can kill. Here’s what you can do to stay safe.

“The combination of heat and humidity can take its toll on someone who is outside and overdoing it,” said Richard Bann, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center. “It can be life-threatening.”

Last year, 108 people died from extreme heat, compared to just 30 who died from cold, according to statistics on weather-related fatalities released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Here are four safety recommendations from the National Weather Service:

— Drink plenty of fluids.

— Stay in an air-conditioned room.

— Stay out of the sun.

— Check on relatives and neighbors, especially the elderly.

Some of the country’s biggest cities can expect to swelter.

So far, Philadelphia is the only major city on the East Coast under an excessive heat warning. Meteorologists are predicting highs there of 100 degrees. But New York, Washington, D.C., and Boston are expected to be uncomfortably hot, with temperatures soaring into the high 90s and above; Chicago can expect the same.

Saturday’s expected highs are 97 in Boston, 100 in Washington and 98 in New York. Chicago is expected to see a high of 97 degrees Friday and 94 on Saturday.

Gentry Trotter, founder of Cool Down St. Louis, a nonprofit that provides utility assistance for low-income families and donates air conditioners to people who are elderly or have disabilities, said that the organization has assisted in more than 1,900 emergency situations over the past three weeks and received 63 percent more requests this year than it did last year.

“It has just been brutal,” he said. “Yesterday we went in a home of an 80-year-old lady, and the heat almost knocked us over.”

In Iowa, football practice is off, but the 2020 campaign rolls on.

Heat warnings have Iowa farmers worrying about their corn, after planting was delayed by a soggy spring that has not left the plants much time to take root.

Despite the scorching heat, Democratic candidates for president have continued to crisscross the state. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota marched 3 miles over the weekend in sauna-like heat, and earlier this week, Pete Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, Indiana, sweated through a forum on gun violence. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is expected to attend an AARP forum in Sioux City

But ordinary people are shuffling everything from church picnics to sporting activities.

Steven Rogers, director of operations for Eastern Iowa Elite, a middle-school football club, said that two football practices have already been canceled and the team tryouts this coming Saturday have been moved indoors.

“You can’t really expect the kids to perform at the highest level if they are outside in this heat, beyond the fact that its totally dangerous,” he said. “There have been a couple of kids having some pretty bad health issues related to heat and overexertion. It’s just not safe.”

Is this heat wave caused by climate change?

Hot weather is nothing new, of course, especially in July. But climate change is making heat waves like this one more common.

“The meteorological ingredients that make heat waves today are the same ingredients that made them in the past, but climate change is bringing those ingredients together more often, generally speaking,” said Deke Arndt, chief of the climate monitoring branch of the National Centers for Environmental Information.

The 2018 National Climate Assessment, a major scientific report by 13 federal agencies, notes that while the peak of extreme heat in the United States occurred during the 1930s Dust Bowl, the number of hot days is increasing, and the frequency of heat waves in the United States jumped from an average of two per year in the 1960s to six per year by the 2010s. Also, the season for heat waves has stretched to be 45 days longer than it was in the 1960s, according to the report.

It is all part of an overall warming trend: The five warmest years in the history of accurate worldwide record-keeping have been the past five years, and 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2001; worldwide, June was the hottest ever recorded.

Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center, noted that the jet stream, which generally helps to move weather systems across the country, has been unusually wavy in June and early July. That “always spells trouble,” she said, and can lead to conditions like heat waves stalling in place.


2019 New York Times News Service

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Heat wave kills 19 in Canada

MONTREAL, Canada - A heat wave in Quebec has killed at least 19 people in the past week as high summer temperatures scorched eastern Canada, health officials said Wednesday.

Twelve of the dead were reported in the eastern province's capital Montreal, said regional public health director Mylene Drouin.

The Tribune newspaper said five of the deaths occurred in the past 48 hours in the Eastern Townships, a rural area just east of the city. 

And late Wednesday two more deaths blamed on the heat were recorded in a Montreal suburb, Radio Canada reported.

"My thoughts are with the loved ones of those who have died in Quebec during this heat wave," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Twitter.

"The record temperatures are expected to continue in central and eastern Canada, so make sure you know how to protect yourself and your family," Trudeau said.

Drouin said the victims were part of "the very vulnerable population, the elderly or people suffering from chronic or mental illnesses."

Temperatures soared to 34 degrees Celsius (93 Fahrenheit) with a humidity that made it feel closer to 40 degrees, the meteorological service said.

The mercury has regularly topped 30 degrees since Friday in southern Quebec, accompanied by stifling humidity levels.

A government heat warning is in place for the region, but meteorologists are forecasting a drop in temperatures at the end of the week.

No deaths had been reported for the same period in the neighboring province of Ontario, which has also sizzled under extremely high temperatures.

In 2010, a heat wave killed around 100 people in the Montreal area.

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'Lucifer' heat wave holds Italy, eastern Europe in fiery grip

SARAJEVO/BELGRADE - Swathes of southern and eastern Europe sweltered in temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104°F) on Friday in a heat wave nicknamed "Lucifer" that has fanned forest fires, triggered weather warning alerts and damaged crops.

Italy and the Balkans were worst affected, though areas as far north as southern Poland also basked in abnormally hot temperatures, and European weather hub Meteoalarm issued its highest grade "red" warnings for 10 countries.


At least two people have died from the heat - one in Romania and one in Poland - and many more have been taken to hospital suffering from sunstroke and other heat-related conditions.

In Albania, 300 firefighters and soldiers struggled to contain as many as 75 forest fires and the country asked the European Union for emergency help. Firefighters were also busy in Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia and Croatia.

With temperatures expected to stay around 40 degrees Celsius into next week, authorities advised people to increase their water intake and Red Cross volunteers across Europe visited the homeless and elderly and other people at risk.

"This prolonged period of extremely hot weather is particularly dangerous for people with existing health problems such heart conditions, high blood pressure and asthma, as well as older people and children," said Jeya Kulasingam, health coordinator for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Europe.

"It is vital that people stay hydrated and drink plenty of water, keep out of the sun and avoid over-exertion."

Wine growers in Italy have started gathering the grape harvest weeks earlier than usual due to the extreme heat.

Carlo Petrini, founder of the Slow Food movement, wrote in La Stampa newspaper that the grape harvest had never started before Aug. 15 in living memory.

"The health of the grapes is severely tested by this weather," Petrini wrote, adding that growers ran the risk of finding the fruit "cooked by the sun and the burning heat".

Italian authorities have issued weather risk warnings for 26 cities, including tourist hubs Venice and Rome, where many of the fountains have been turned off due to a lengthy drought.

The world-famous Uffizi art galleries in Florence had to shut temporarily on Friday when the air conditioning system broke down, their director told ANSA news agency.

POLAR BEARS, CROPS SUFFER

In Hungary, keepers at Budapest Zoo provided huge ice blocks to cool down two polar bears, who were also fed ice-cold water melon.

Bosnian officials said the heat wave and drought had nearly halved agricultural output, which accounts for 10 percent of the country's economic output. Neighbouring Serbia reported a similar situation and experts said drought could slash corn and soybean production by a third.

In neighbouring Croatia the heat wave and peak tourist season has driven power demand and spot prices to record levels, officials said on Friday.

Temperatures along parts of Croatia's Adriatic coast, including the major tourist hub of Dubrovnik, already stood at around 32 degrees early on Friday morning and were expected to nudge up to 42 degrees during the day, the weather service said.

The Red Cross distributed water and hand fans to people suffering from the heat in Croatia – especially tourists visiting outdoor events and motorists stuck in typical summer traffic jams.

"In two hours of my shift today I saw four people fainting on the street and complaining of heat exhaustion," a traffic warden who identified himself as Goran told Reuters in the Serbian capital Belgrade. (Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Gareth Jones; editing by Mark Heinrich and Richard Balmforth)

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California's Death Valley heat to reach a searing 127 F

LOS ANGELES - In Death Valley in eastern California and in the town of Needles near the Arizona border, temperatures are expected to reach 127 degrees Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) this week, National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Fisher said on Monday.

The extreme heat, brought on by a high-pressure system camped over the Four Corners region, has already boosted temperatures above normal across much of the Southwest, with the worst forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday.

The heat wave was expected to push temperatures even higher by mid-week, taxing power grids and prompting airlines to warn that flights could be disrupted.

Fisher said the sweltering weather could break records in some areas but was part of a cyclical pattern and not brought on by climate change or any other unusual phenomenon.

"It's not unprecedented at all, things oscillate around," he said. "We've had a fairly cool spring, had 'May Gray' and 'June Gloom', this our first real warmth of the season."

Temperatures were expected to drop by five to 10 degrees F (about 2.5 C to 5 C) later in the week but in the meantime the National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings and advisories across the Southwest. Even in typically cooler San Francisco, residents baked in sultry 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 C).

The National Park Service in Death Valley, known as the hottest place in America, cautioned tourists about the "EXTREME SUMMER HEAT" in a warning on its website.

"Expect high temperatures of 100°F to over 120°F (38°C to over 49°C). Drink plenty of water and carry extra. Avoid hiking (after 10 am). Travel prepared to survive. In the case of a heat related illness, get to a cool place and seek help ASAP!" the park service said.

"Temperatures like this happen less than once per year on avg. High risk of heat illness if doing strenuous activity outdoors," the Phoenix office of the National Weather Service said in a tweet on Monday morning.

There were no reports of severe heat-related illnesses as of Monday afternoon. Power grid operators and utility companies urged customers to conserve electricity at peak times to avoid the possibility of blackouts.

American Airlines advised passengers flying in or out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport that the intense heat, which can affect the operation of jet airline engines, could cause flight delays or cancellations.

The airline said that Phoenix passengers with flights scheduled to arrive or depart between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. local time would be allowed to change their travel plans without incurring additional fees.

A study in the journal Nature Climate Change published on Monday said that the number of extreme heat waves was expected to climb to affect half of the Earth's population by the year 2100 (Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Sandra Maler)

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Heat wave hits Japan

TOKYO - Severe heat wave conditions hit the Japanese archipelago on Saturday with temperatures reaching 40.7 C in western Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Saturday.

The city of Shimanto in Kochi Prefecture recorded the highest temperature of the day, while over 600 observation points saw temperatures above 30 C, the agency said.

As of noon, the temperature reached 38.1 C in Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, 37.9 C in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, and 37.8 C in the village of Nishimera in Miyazaki Prefecture, the agency said, adding the temperature in central Tokyo soared to 36.9 C.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

New York heat wave kills four

NEW YORK CITY - The heat wave that hit New York last week killed four elderly people, the office of the city's chief medical examiner (OCME)said Monday.

The four victims all succumbed to hyperthermia, which occurs when a body absorbs more heat than it can release. Two women, 81 and 83, died of the condition on Saturday, a day after two men, aged 78 and 88, succumbed in similar circumstances.

The deaths came towards the end of a seven-day heat wave in which temperatures soared as high as 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42.7 Celsius).

The heat wave started to ease on Sunday and the peak temperature on Monday was a much more comfortable 80 Fahrenheit (27C).

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