SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A rare winter heat wave is sweeping across the U.S. West, bringing unusually high temperatures and threatening records fr…
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A tiny desert community in Southern California has tied the highest March temperature ever recorded in the U.S. The 108 degree day in North Shore, California, came amid a record-breaking winter heat wave in the Southwest that will stretch into the weekend and could produce even higher temperatures. The record it now shares with Rio Grande City, Texas, could be broken in a number of cities and towns by week’s end. Triple-digit temperatures also came earlier than ever before in Phoenix when the Arizona capital hit 101 degrees Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Phoenix's previous record was set almost 40 years ago, in 1988.
AP Wire
Extreme weather conditions from coast to coast put more than half the U.S. in the path of rough conditions. Airport delays and cancellations piled up Monday in some of the nation’s largest airports, with more than 4,700 canceled across the U.S. Many schools closed early in the mid-Atlantic states, where high winds were in the forecast. Blizzards buried parts of Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota while torrential rains flooded homes and washed out roads in Hawaii. California and Arizona are dealing with unusually high temperatures for this time of year that are likely stretch throughout the rest of the week. Phoenix is expected to have five straight days of triple digit temperatures this week.
A rare March heat wave is pushing San Francisco close to 90 degrees and setting records across the West. People were packing into sunny spots on Tuesday as the city sees its hottest March in at least two decades. The unusual weather is part of a winter heat wave baking the U.S. West this week. Phoenix is expected to top 100 degrees, something it usually does in early May and has never done so before March 26. Records were also falling in Los Angeles and across Southern California.
Triple-digit temperatures will impact Major League Baseball spring training games in Arizona for several days this week. Because of a forecasted heat wave in the Phoenix area, at least 10 Cactus League games at six different stadiums between Wednesday and Saturday have changed game times from early afternoon to early evening. Temperatures are expected to reach or exceed 100 degrees by Wednesday, with forecast highs of up to 106 degrees through what will be the final weekend of spring training for the 15 MLB teams there. While expected during the summer, that kind of heat is unusual in March.
AP Wire
The United States is getting slammed by a stretch of weather extremes, from flooding rain to record heat and late-season snow. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C., hit a record 86 degrees, then snow fell on Thursday. Meteorologists say the Southwest faces a heat dome with prolonged triple-digit temperatures. Polar cold will push into the Midwest and East. Two northern storms are likely to dump feet of snow, with one strengthening into a rare inland bomb cyclone. Hawaii is also dealing with an atmospheric river and flash flooding. Experts link the wild swings to a sharply dipping jet stream.
The Trump administration’s revocation of a scientific finding that climate change is a danger to public health is likely to affect communities of color the most. Extensive research has found that Black, Latino, Indigenous and other racial and ethnic groups are more vulnerable to the health consequences from climate change than white people. The Environmental Protection Agency, in a 2021 report, concluded the same. That EPA report found, for example, that Black people were 40% more likely to live in places with the highest projected increases in deaths because of extreme heat driven by climate change.