The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat watches for Los Angeles as it prepares to host the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 13. An excessive-heat watch is issued when “extremely dangerous” heat is likely within three days and the NWS warned visitors from cooler regions may be at heightened risk for heat-related illnesses. More frequent and extreme heatwaves are one of the clearest signals of climate change, which is primarily caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. The unusual mid-winter heatwave — Los Angeles has only recorded seven 90°F days since 1948 — is proximately caused by a high-pressure system compressing, and thus heating and drying, the air over the region. (Washington Post $, NBC, SFGate, ABC7; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)
