Dangerously high heat builds in California and south-central US

A man cools off by the river in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, July 2, 2024. Swaths of California sweltered Tuesday, and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts. (AP Photo)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Swaths of California sweltered Tuesday and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts.

The torrid conditions were being caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.

California’s capital, Sacramento, was under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 105 degrees and 115 degrees (40.5 and 46 Celsius).

John Mendoza, 35, called it a “firehose of heat” as he walked around the Capitol on Tuesday morning with an iced coffee in his hand. By 9 a.m. he had already been in a pool once — and planned to go back later in the day.

“I felt like I needed to be submerged in water,” he said.

With the temperatures rising before noon in Sacramento, Katherine Powers sought refuge in the shade of Cathedral Square. Powers, who is homeless, sipped sparkling water while resting her bare feet on the shaded sidewalk.

Powers said she had loaned her shoes to a friend. She had not yet visited one of Sacramento County’s nine “cooling centers,” she said, because of the difficulty in bringing all the possessions she carries.

“I’m just going to go to a park with a water fountain just to stay cool, stay in the shade and just keep pouring water on me, basically,” she said. “There’s not too much that I can do.”

Darlene Crumedy, who lives in Fairfield about an hour’s drive from Sacramento, said she doesn’t use air conditioning because it’s too expensive.

“I’m good, I have a hundred fans,” she said, adding she tries to stay inside and drink cold water.

Kim Mims, a Sacramento native, said she prefers the heat — but only up to 100 degrees (38 C).

“Anything over that you start to feel that difference,” she said.

An analysis by The Associated Press found that heat killed more than 2,300 people in the United States last year, a record. That figure is likely a major undercount, dozens of experts told AP reporters.

Dr. Arthur Jey, an emergency services physician with Sutter Health in Sacramento, told reporters that getting out of the heat is important, along with wearing a hat and loose clothes, hydration and watching out for signs of heat stroke.

“With heat stroke, it looks like a stroke,” Jey said, describing symptoms that may include acting unusual, significant headaches, blurry vision, profuse sweating and then no sweating.

“And that’s a really big deal,” Jey said. “So we want to prevent them getting even close to heat stroke.”

California’s heat was expected to spread from north to south over the week, with the worst of it focused on interior areas including the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and the southern deserts. But warnings extended out to just short of the coast.

San Francisco, famous for its cool summers, was expected to have a high Tuesday in the upper 80s (31 C) downtown but mid-60s (18.3 C) at Ocean Beach, forecasters said.

“The high pressure dome will linger over California for at least a week, with more long range guidance suggesting that timeline may even be optimistic,” the Bay Area weather office wrote.

The heat arrived with gusty, dry winds in the northern part of the state, where the utility Pacific Gas & Electric implemented public safety power shutoffs in parts of 10 counties to prevent wildfires from being ignited by downed or damaged electrical wires.

About 12,000 customers were told their power could be cut and given information about centers where they could obtain ice, water, snacks, Wi-Fi and other necessities, PG&E said.

Crews were battling small wildfires that popped up Tuesday across California. The Thompson Fire in Butte County prompted evacuation orders for an unknown number of homes in and around Oroville, a town of about 15,000 residents 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Sacramento.

The blaze sent up a huge plume of smoke and swiftly grew to more than 2.5 square miles (6.4 square kilometers) by late afternoon, with zero containment.

California has had a spate of spring and early summer wildfires feeding on abundant grasses spawned by back-to-back wet winters. The largest current blaze, dubbed the Basin Fire, was 17% contained after charring more than 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) of the Sierra National Forest in eastern Fresno County since it was sparked June 26.