Heatwave in south and wildfire smoke in north
buffet US from both sides
More than 80m Americans under air quality alerts while
temperatures hit triple digits in south and south-west
Sam Levine
and agency
Wed 28 Jun
2023 09.50 EDT
Huge swaths
of the United States continue to face extreme weather as temperatures persist
into the triple digits in the south and south-west while smoke pollution is
blighting the midwest.
Chicago and
Detroit both had the most unhealthy air in the world for several hours on
Tuesday evening, CNN reported, as smoke drifts from record Canadian wildfires.
More than 80 million people, largely from the midwest to the east coast, are
under air quality alerts.
“Until the
fires are out, there’s a risk,” said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the
National Weather Service. “If there’s any north component to the wind, there’s
a chance it’ll be smoky.” The warming planet will produce hotter and longer heatwaves,
making for bigger, smokier fires, said Joel Thornton, professor and chair of
the department of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.
In Chicago,
officials urged young people, older adults and residents with health issues to
spend more time indoors.
Priti
Marwah, jogging along Chicago’s lakefront on Tuesday, described the haze as
“bad”.
“Like, you
can smell it bad,” she said. “I run a hundred miles a week, so this is going to
be dangerous today. You can feel it … just even parking right there and coming
out, I can feel it in my lungs.”
“Just
driving into the zoo … you could just see around the buildings, kind of just
haze,” said Shelly Woinowski, who was visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
Some
daycare centers in the Chicago area told parents that their children would
remain indoors on Tuesday due to the poor air quality, while one youth sports
club said it adjusted its activities to add more time indoors.
“As these
unsafe conditions continue, the city will continue to provide updates and take
swift action to ensure that vulnerable individuals have the resources they need
to protect themselves and their families,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said in a
statement.
Skies were
so clouded in Detroit that observers were unable to see a flyover from the
Michigan national guard marking the 100th anniversary of the air force, the
Detroit News reported. The weather service in Grand Rapids tweeted that
“everyone should limit time outdoors”.
Fires in
northern Quebec and low pressure over the eastern Great Lakes are responsible
for the smoke, Jackson said. He added that a north wind would push the smoke
further south, moving into southern Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky overnight.
Meanwhile,
more than 40 million Americans are under excessive heat warnings as a heat dome
has settled over portions of the United States. Temperatures in Roswell, New
Mexico, have remained over 105F for nine straight days, a record there, ABC
News reported on Wednesday. Texas is also facing extreme temperatures and is
seeing record use on its power grid.
The extreme
heatwave was made five times more likely by the heating of Earth’s atmosphere
with fossil fuels, according to Climate Central, a non-profit group. The
heatwave comes as one of the strongest heat domes ever recorded has settled
over portions of the southern US. Heat domes occur when a high-pressure system
and warming air trap latent heat.
Texas is
also seeing an increase in heat-related visits to hospital emergency rooms,
Axios reported. In San Antonio, paramedics are experimenting with a new
procedure where they cool people facing dangerous heatstroke by placing them in
a bag with packs of iced water while they transport them to the hospital, ABC
News reported. In June alone, San Antonio’s fire department has responded to
more than 250 heat-related calls, a 53% increase from the same period last
year, the outlet reported.
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