By Brendan O’Brien and Rich McKay
(Reuters) – Dangerously hot conditions will dominate the rest of the long Independence Day weekend across much of the U.S. West Coast, Southeast and mid-Atlantic coast, forecasters said on Friday, as California firefighters battled one of the first major forest fires of the season. .
About 108 million Americans will spend the rest of the weekend under excessive heat warnings, with record temperatures forecast for many locations in California, southern Oregon and the Southwest, the National Weather Service said.
The West Coast will hover between 15 and 30 degrees above average, reaching 110 Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) on Friday.
“Expect only subtle changes in our daily high temperatures through the weekend,” the National Weather Service in Flagstaff, Arizona, said on X.
“Where did you go, monsoon? Come back soon,” it said, referring to a recent period of torrential rain in the area, which is usually dry at this time of year.
Some of the hottest spots will include Phoenix, where the temperature will be 115 F (46 C), Washington DC, where it is expected to rise to 100 F (38 C), and Palm Springs, California, where it will reach 119 F (48 C). . ). That’s nearly three times hotter than in Montana’s Yellowstone National Park, where temperatures were forecast to drop to 37°F on Friday night.
The weather service urged people to stay hydrated, out of sunlight and in buildings with sufficient air conditioning.
Sweltering heat will also prevail from Mississippi to Florida, and north along the East Coast to Pennsylvania, where temperatures will exceed 37°C (100°F).
The National Weather Service warned that hot overnight conditions across the Mississippi Valley could lead to “a dangerous situation for those who do not have access to adequate refrigeration.”
Hot, dry and windy conditions in the West have forced firefighters and meteorologists to issue warnings about the risk of wildfires.
The so-called Thompson Fire in Butte County, California, about 65 miles (105 km) north of Sacramento, has burned nearly 6 square miles (16 square kilometers) of brush and brush since it began on Tuesday.
As of Friday morning, the fire was 46% contained after forcing the evacuation of about 13,000 families.
Most evacuation orders were lifted Friday morning as firefighters made progress controlling the blaze, which damaged or destroyed about 30 structures, fire officials said.
South Texas faces a different kind of threat early next week when the remnants of Hurricane Beryl are expected to bring heavy rain to the region.
Beryl, the season’s first hurricane, hit Mexico on Friday after killing 11 people as it cut a path of destruction across the Caribbean earlier this week.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago and Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
