Scorching weekend heat expected to hit 30+ million people in West with temps up to 130 degrees – USA TODAY

Heat wave brings record highs to Pacific Northwest, residents react

Cities like Seattle and Portland are seeing record-setting temperatures.

Associated Press, USA TODAY

Another blistering, brutal heat wave is forecast to scorch much of the western U.S. this weekend, meteorologists say.

All-time record high temperatures could be registered in cities such as Las Vegas and Sacramento, while notorious hot spot Death Valley has already recorded a temperature only few degrees short of Earth's hottest ever measured.

Forecasters with the National Weather Servicesaid Death Valley hit 130 degrees Friday afternoon, but theobserved high temperaturewas considered preliminary and needs to be validated. Temperatures were creeping upward again Saturday and hit 123 degrees in the early afternoon.

"These extreme temps are NO joke! Be mindful before heading outdoors this weekend. Do not put yourself, nor first responders in danger!" the National Weather Service Las Vegas said.

Las Vegas' all-time high is 117 degrees andSacramento's is 115 degrees.

"Some locations may tie or break their high temperature record for the day,"the National Weather Service Sacramento wrote on Twitter early Saturday.

More than 32million people in the West live where an excessive heat warning or heat advisoryis in effect, the National Weather Service said.

Global warming to blame?: The heat wave in the West 'virtually impossible' without climate change

The savage heat comes as the U.S. is already reeling from itshottest June on record, according to a report released Friday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

June 2021 was the hottest June in 127 years of record-keeping, surpassing the record set in 2016, NOAA said.

Temperatures were so hot in thePacific Northwest andCanada last week, the heat mayhave killed more than one billion seashore animals living along the coastline, Chris Harley, a marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, told several news outlets.

The predicted exceptional temperatures this weekend are linked to a "heat dome,"or a ridge of high pressure, establishing itself over the Four Corners region of the Southwest U.S., the Capital Weather Gang said.

Heat domes have occurred more frequently as global temperatures have increased over the years.

Heat wave warning: Pacific Northwest heat wave shattered temperature records. Is another dangerous weather event developing this weekend?

"Extreme heat will significantly increase the potential for heat-related illnesses,"the weather service warned. "Confidence is very high for a dangerous heat wave to persist through Monday and maybe into Tuesday," the weather service said.

And as for the influence of human-caused climate change, every heat wave occurring today is made more likely and more intense by climate change, a study released this week found.

That study said thatlast weeksdeadly and record-breakingheat wavein parts of the Western U.S. and Canada would have been "virtually impossible" without the influence ofclimate change. It also said global warmingmade the extreme temperaturesat least 150 times more likely to occur.

Contributing: Grace Hauck

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Scorching weekend heat expected to hit 30+ million people in West with temps up to 130 degrees - USA TODAY