Heat warnings are in effect for 45 million Americans in a dozen states.
An unrelenting heat wave that has hammered the southwestern United States in its throes is stretching across the Midwest on its way to the Northeast this week.
The National Weather Service issued heat warnings in effect Tuesday for 45 million Americans in a dozen states, from Southern California to Montana, through the Great Plains and back to South Florida.
The weather forecast for Tuesday shows temperatures reaching or exceeding 110 degrees in cities such as Palm Springs, California. Phoenix, Arizona? and Las Vegas, Nevada. Temperatures in the 100s are expected from Texas to Nebraska.
Heat index values – a measure of how hot it really is when the relative humidity is combined with the air temperature — are forecast to be in the 100s for even more places, including Kansas City, Missouri. It is the hottest time of the year for this region and these high temperatures are not very unusual there.
Arizona's capital is on a record 25 straight days with temperatures above 110 degrees. Overnight temperatures in Phoenix haven't dropped below 90 degrees in at least 15 days.
Staff at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix told ABC News on Monday that the burn unit was consistently full amid the brutal heat. They said about a third of the burn patients they currently see are people who have contact burns from falls and burns from hot ground. The Arizona Burn Center is a stand-alone facility at Valleywise Health Medical Center and is the state's only nationally verified burn center.
Doctors told ABC News that the majority of weather-related burns are on homeless people who have been outside for an extended period of time or, in some cases, on drugs or alcohol, which is extremely dangerous. temperatures. Valleywise Health Medical Center has taken part of its emergency room — previously used as an overflow unit for COVID-19 patients during the height of the pandemic — and converted it into a space to treat the most severe or near death cases of heat exhaustion. About a handful of people a day meet that criteria, doctors said.
Meanwhile, Tucson, Arizona, has been at or above 100 degrees for 39 days, tying its record set in 2013. The city is expected to break that record on Tuesday.
El Paso, Texas, has set a record 39 consecutive days with temperatures over 100 degrees. This is expected to continue this week and may finally end over the weekend. The previous city record of 23 consecutive days was set in 1994.
Miami, Florida has had a high heat index of 100 degrees for a record 44 days in a row, well ahead of the previous record of 32 days set in 2020.
Florida Marathon hit 99 degrees on Monday, tying the record set earlier this month for the city's hottest temperature ever.
For many Americans, temperatures will only rise as the week goes on. By Thursday, heat index values are expected to reach 100 degrees in Kansas City, Missouri. Reach 100 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. and be close to 100 along the Interstate 95 travel corridor from Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New York, New York. It could be the Northeast's first heat wave of the summer with three days in the 90s, though it will be short-lived.
The weather forecast for next week shows that temperatures will remain high in the South and West, while the Midwest and Northeast are getting some relief from the extreme heat.
ABC News' Mola Lenghi and Alyssa Pone contributed to this report.
