Almost 37M people in US face threat of extreme heat

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) - Almost 37 million people from the US Northwest to Southeast face the threat of dangerous hot weather, according to National Weather Service forecasts released Tuesday.

Extreme temperatures will continue to affect a region stretching from the Pacific Northwest to deserts in the Southwest and Florida in the Southeast, the service said in a statement.

The service called on around 37 million residents living in the affected regions to protect themselves from temperatures that can be life threatening.

The extreme temperatures will continue until the end of the week, and there may be a spike in heat-related diseases, it warned.

Temperatures in Phoenix, capital of the Southwestern state of Arizona, which were above 43C (109.4F) for nine consecutive days last year, and this year is expected to have twice that many.

The weather is predicted to stay around 45C (113F) until July 17 in Phoenix, and the mercury will reach 43C (109.4F) by July 16 in some parts of Florida, one of the country’s most densely populated states.

The statement said the temperature in El Paso, Texas, on the Gulf of Mexico in the southern US, rose above 42C (107.6F) for the first time since 1951.

On July 6, the world's "hottest day on record," the global average temperature reached 17.2C (about 63F).