More than 60 million people across the U.S. from Dallas to Burlington, Vermont, are under heat alerts as more extreme heat stifles the country. “Simply put, the next several days will be dangerously hot,” the National Weather Service office for Philadelphia wrote on Twitter. The heat, which comes on the heels of a stifling Labor Day weekend, is expected to break records across the country as well as force school closings and early dismissals from Detroit to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where insufficient cooling meant rooms were too hot to use for the whole day. Historic racist policies like redlining and de facto segregation today mean students of color are disproportionately harmed by extreme heat. (Heatwave: Washington Post $, New York Times $; Schools: NBC, NJ.com, Detroit Free Press, PennLive; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)
