PHOENIX – Thousands and thousands of individuals throughout the Southwest live by way of a historic warmth wave, with even the heat-experienced desert metropolis of Phoenix being examined since temperatures have hit 110 levels Fahrenheit (43 levels Celsius) for 13 consecutive days.

Greater than 111 million individuals throughout the US have been underneath excessive warmth advisories, watches and warnings, The Nationwide Climate Service reported Wednesday. Large swaths of Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California have been experiencing temperatures above 90 levels F (32 C).

“To underscore just how expansive this heat is, based off the current forecast approximately 27 million people across the Lower 48 (states) will experience an air temperature or heat index above 110 (degrees F) over the next 7 days,” the Nationwide Climate Service mentioned in a separate bulletin. “It is imperative users take action to limit their exposure to the oppressive hot weather as it looks to stick around for the time being.”

Forecasters in Phoenix mentioned the long-duration warmth wave is extraordinarily harmful for individuals’s well being and will persist into subsequent week as a excessive strain dome strikes westerly from Texas into central California.

Temperatures in Phoenix, America’s hottest giant metropolis, are forecast to hit between 108 to 115 levels F (42 to 46 C) on Thursday and as excessive as 111 to 119 levels F (44 to 48 C) over the weekend. Town’s in a single day low for July 12 hit a report excessive of 94 levels (over 34 C) Wednesday morning, which suggests temperatures is probably not falling sufficient to let individuals get well after darkish.

Phoenix is an city warmth island the place concrete, asphalt, metal and tall buildings constructed intently collectively end in warmth accumulation. Due to this, temperatures do not drop rapidly after the solar units.

“It’s important for the temperatures to go down at night to offer relief to people needing to recover from the daytime heat,” mentioned Sean Benedict, lead meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service in Phoenix.

David Hondula, chief warmth officer for town of Phoenix, famous Wednesday that “any long period without a break from the heat is dangerous.” He mentioned the period of the warmth wave was “notable.”

As of Wednesday afternoon, Phoenix had sweltered by way of 13 consecutive days of 110 levels F (43 levels C) or larger when the mercury soared to 111 levels F (44 C), in line with the climate service. The longest recorded stretch of 110 degree-plus temperatures for town is eighteen days, which was recorded in 1974.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday, temperatures are forecast to hit 101 levels F (over 38 C). On Saturday, temperatures are anticipated to climb to 109 levels F (over 42 C) in inland areas of Southern California together with San Bernardino.

This weekend, Las Vegas may see temperatures attain between 116 and 118 levels F (46 and greater than 47 C), the climate service mentioned.

Ad infinitum, this week El Paso, Texas, endured its twenty seventh consecutive day of 100-plus diploma (38 C) temperatures on Wednesday. The earlier report for consecutive triple-digit highs was 23 days in 1994, when an all-time excessive of 114 levels F (45.5 C) was recorded.

“It’s unprecedented,” said Zak Aronson, a national weather service meteorologist in Santa Teresa, New Mexico. “It’s never happened here before in recorded history.”

He said temperature records for the area date back to 1887.

How Phoenix handles the extreme weather could become a model for other cities, especially those that are less accustomed to high temperatures but are now roiled by heat waves fueled by drought and climate change.

Two years ago, the city of Phoenix opened a small office with an annual budget of about $1 million to oversee heat response and mitigation. Since then, it has planted more shade trees; designed cool, white roadways to deflect heat; and expanded shelters for homeless people who have accounted for half of Phoenix metro’s heat-associated deaths.

Arizona’s Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, reported this week that so far this year there have been 12 confirmed heat-associated deaths going back to April, half of them people who were homeless. Another 55 deaths are under investigation.

There were 425 confirmed heat-associated deaths in Maricopa County last year, with more than half of them occurring in July. Eighty percent of the deaths occurred outside.

Fueling the current heat wave is the delayed arrival of this year’s monsoon rains. The season officially begins on June 15 and can bring powerful storms with bursts of precipitation.

Despite the extreme heat, Arizona’s largest county of 4.5 million people had the biggest gain in overall population of any U.S. county last year, with a jump to almost 57,000 new residents, mostly from people moving from other states.

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Related Press writers Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico contributed to this report.

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