Another day of extreme heat is sweeping across the United States on Friday, with daily high temperature records broken Thursday in several cities including Phoenix at 119 degrees Fahrenheit and Imperial, California, at 118 F.
About 84 million people are under heat advisories. Parts of California, Oregon and Idaho that were previously untouched by the monthlong heat wave are now included in the alerts.
Phoenix is forecast to continue its now 22-day streak of consecutive daily high temperatures registered above 110 F.
The National Weather Service said it anticipates high temperatures to continue through the weekend for much of the Southwest, concentrated in the region surrounding Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Across parts of the South, the Southeast and the Gulf Coast, high temperatures and humidity will combine through Sunday to create widespread heat that feels more like 105-110 F.
In Europe, where cities in Spain, France and Italy broke records for high temperatures this week, the extreme heat is also expected to continue into the weekend. On Sunday, temperatures in Athens, Greece, are forecast to reach 108 F, and Antalya, Turkey, is expected to reach 111 F.
Climate scientists studying heat waves report that their frequency and duration has increased since the 1960s.
In its most recent assessment, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found with virtual certainty that the changing patterns of extreme heat are driven mainly by excess greenhouse gases trapping heat in the atmosphere — a phenomenon that has caused recent anthropogenic global warming.
