The Southern Plains, the Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes, and the Deep South are all experiencing scorching temperatures for the third week in a row, which has affected most of the country.
Heatwave in the central US
11 major cities set daily heat records to begin the week, with Minneapolis setting the record on Monday with a high of 101 degrees Fahrenheit.
88 degrees, the 1993 record high, was the previous high for that day.
In the Ohio Valley and the Southeast on Wednesday, 21 heat records were shattered. Both Nashville and Charlotte, North Carolina, broke previous records by reaching 101 degrees.
Meanwhile, Macon, Georgia, hit 105 degrees, breaking the previous record set in 1988 by four degrees.
The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for nearly 25 million people from Texas to southern Georgia as of Thursday morning.
This week, the Great Lakes area had daytime highs that were over 20 degrees above normal for the time of year, reaching the mid-90s.
This week's top temperature in Chicago was 99 degrees, while on Tuesday, Detroit tied a day record set in 1933 by reaching 96 degrees.
According to Alex Lamers, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, Rockford, Illinois, which is located approximately 80 miles northwest of Chicago, and Toledo, Ohio, both reached 100 degrees on Tuesday, tying records established in 1988.
This week's sweltering temperatures are a result of what meteorologists refer to as a "heat dome," a high-pressure phenomenon that functions as a pot lid.
According to Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, it was concentrated in those states early in the week: Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio.
Atlanta had a high of 95 on Tuesday, three degrees short of a record set in 1933.
Moist air often keeps temperatures out of the extreme range (even if the humidity seems severe).
On Wednesday, when it hit 98 degrees, the city also matched its previous record for heat from 1964.
On Wednesday, heat advisories were issued for a large portion of Sacramento and the Bay Area in Northern California. Highs were in the high 90s further away from the coast but did not exceed 100 degrees.
Northeastern states have mostly avoided the heat. However, other towns, including Philadelphia and Newark, are expected to warm up into the low 90s this weekend.
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Wildfires in Alaska break records
In Alaska, a record amount of acres have burnt this month, displacing Native Americans from their homes, deteriorating the air quality, and taxing available firefighting resources.
Officials said this weekend that more than 1 million acres have already burned, becoming last weekend the earliest time in history that the state has achieved that milestone.
More than 300 wildfires have started in recent weeks as a result of the unusually warm and dry weather that has been exacerbated by human-caused climate change.
The East Fork Fire, which has scorched more than 165,000 acres and is now the state's fifth-largest tundra fire on record, is one of the more than 100 that are currently raging.
Because longer growing seasons thicken tundra flora and have led to an increase in wildfire spread in recent years, the blazes are a reflection of some of the changes the state is going through as a result of climate change.
According to the International Arctic Research Center, there were more than 2.5 times as many acres burnt between 2001 and 2020 as there were during the preceding two decades.
The 600-person Indigenous Yup'ik town of Saint Mary's, which is only accessible by boat or bush aircraft and is located close to the mouth of the Yukon River, was under threat from the fire this month.
Officials decided to provide the option of evacuation to vulnerable residents as it grew close to the town.
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