A treacherous one-two punch of heat and fire, compounded by the burning of oil and gas, scorched much of North America on Thursday, killing at least 15 people in the United States, sickening countless others, closing schools and cutting basic services. were tested who remain unprepared for the new dangers of summer.
Yet it is only June.
In the United States, a heat dome stretched from Texas to Florida all the way to the tip of Missouri, pushing the heat index — a combination of temperature and humidity — above 110 degrees Fahrenheit in some places.
There was no immediate peace in sight. Temperatures were expected to rise 15 to 20 degrees above normal throughout much of the region over the weekend.
And in the coming days, another heat dome was expected to form over California. Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley, a region where thousands of farm workers work outside for long hours, are facing extreme heat warnings, the weather service said.
Hundreds of fires continued to burn across Canada, drawing 1,500 firefighters from around the world.
In Toronto, air quality was briefly the worst in the world, while wildfire smoke from other parts of Canada blanketed the city and quickly drifted south, dousing the eastern United States in toxic soup. In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery shut down its sculpture garden”because of air quality.”
In the state of Nuevo León, in northern Mexico, schools closed Thursday, about a month ahead of schedule, after temperatures hit 113 degrees Fahrenheit in the state’s capital, Monterrey. “To take care of children, who are a priority, we decided it was not worth putting their health at risk,” said Samuel García Sepúlveda, the governor.
Kim Cobb, a climate scientist and director of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, said this week’s events epitomized the “multiple stressors associated with human-induced climate change” that the United Nations has warned about through its science panel on the global warming. “If there was ever a time to stop and reevaluate our fossil fuel emissions, it’s now,” she said.
Both extreme heat and wildfires are exacerbated by greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Those emissions not only make heat waves, which can occur naturally, more extreme, but can also amplify the drought that fuels catastrophic wildfires.
Temperatures around the world reached their highest level in decades in June, a reflection of two things: climate change caused by the accumulated release of heat-trapping gases and the return, after three years, of the natural climate pattern known as El Niño. Forecasters say this could usher in a multi-year period of extreme heat.
For nearly half of the United States, the heat index forecast, a measure of what the temperature actually feels like, fell into the “extreme caution” or “danger” categories. Moist air can prevent the body from cooling efficiently because the air is so saturated that moisture from a person’s skin has nowhere to evaporate, a necessity for cooling.
Adding to the danger, nighttime temperatures are expected to remain high in the South and Midwest this week, making it harder for the human body to cool down.
In downtown Jackson, Miss., where the heat index hit 113 Thursday, workers replacing a wastewater line took turns working in the sun for 30 minutes, resting under a tree in between. “My advice to everyone is to get some shade,” says Cody Adams, one of the employees of Miller Pipeline, an infrastructure company. “Drink plenty of fluids before going outside. It is hot here.”
Extremely dangerous heat stress is likely to continue in Jackson through Saturday, forecasters said, warning of the risks of heat stroke from prolonged outdoor activity.
In Dallas, where the heat index was 103, workers were repairing air conditioners that had overheated and were blowing out warm air instead of cool. “The compressors are failing left and right,” says Natalie Ortiz, owner of Alpha Heating & Cooling. As of Thursday morning, she had replaced four times as many air conditioning compressors as she would have done all summer in a normal year.
“That is not usual. We just started summer,” she said.
While part of Texas finally returns to near normal this weekend, parts of south Texas and locations near the Gulf of Mexico will continue to experience oppressive temperatures through Sunday.
Heat-related deaths are notoriously difficult to accurately explain, as heat can exacerbate pre-existing conditions such as kidney and heart disease. Nevertheless, the first casualty figures began to emerge.
In Webb County, Texas, one of the hardest hit parts of the country, the direct death toll from the heat rose to 10 as of Thursday afternoon. In Laredo, which is part of Webb County, the heat index was 109 degrees on Thursday and will expected to rise to 114 Friday.
Mexico has recorded at least 112 heat-related deaths so far this year, more than half of them in the state of Nuevo León, according to the health ministry. That compares to just four heat-related deaths recorded nationwide during the same period last year.
Temperatures in the northwest Mexico city of Hermosillo are expected to hover around 109 degrees all weekend, after rising to 121 degrees on Sunday, one of the highest temperatures recorded anywhere in the world that day.
It was Mexico’s third heat wave of the year.
Dan Bilefsky contributed reporting from Montreal; Mary Beth Gahan of Dallas; Jimmie Gates of Jackson, Miss.; Delgar Erdenesanaa, Judson Jones, Anushka Patil, Elena Shao and Raymond Zhong from New York City; and Emiliano Rodriguez Mega and Simon Romero of Mexico City.
