About 70% of the US population will deal with temperatures in the 90s this week, and more than 55 million Americans are predicted to face triple-digit highs with overnight lows remaining in the upper 70s to lower 80s. Over 100 daily high temperature records are expected to be broken amid the latest heat wave, as climate change continues to make the trend of extreme summer heat the new normal. In the 1960s, Americans experienced an average of two heat waves a year, but by the 2010s, the average increased to six per year, according to the EPA.
June 2021 was the warmest in the Lower 48 since records began more than a century ago, Alex Lamers, a meteorologist for the Weather Prediction Center, told CNN. Hundreds of thousands of people, including around 180,000 people in Ohio, are still dealing with power outages caused by above average temperatures, and the spiking temperatures could portend wildfire concerns or “flash droughts” across the country. (CNN 1, CNN 2, Washington Post $, The Guardian $, Axios)