California [US], July 8: The Guardian reported on July 8 that a motorcyclist died from the heat, when the temperature reached 53.3 degrees Celsius in Death Valley, California, while another person in the group was hospitalized with severe symptoms and four others received medical care on the spot.
According to the Death Valley National Park Service, the group of tourists were riding motorcycles through the Badwater River Basin in the scorching heat. The identity of the deceased has not been released.
The incident occurred as the US is witnessing a record heat wave.
National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Bryan Jackson said the highest level of heat warnings were issued for about 36 million people, or about 10% of the US population.
Dozens of locations in the western and northwest Pacific are expected to surpass or break previous heat records, he said.
Previously, temperatures in many places in Northern California on July 7 exceeded 43.3 degrees Celsius, with the city of Redding recording a record temperature of 48.3 degrees Celsius. On the same day, the state of Oregon recorded a temperature of up to 39.4 degrees Celsius in the Salem area, surpassing the record of 37.2 degrees Celsius recorded in 1960.
The NWS map, updated several times per hour, shows that nearly all of California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington are under heat warnings, along with parts of Idaho and Arizona.
The agency notes that "anyone is at increased risk for dangerous heat illness, especially young children and older adults." According to the NWS, extreme heat and humidity "are among the leading causes of weather-related deaths in the United States, resulting in hundreds of deaths each year."
Nearly 1,220 people die from heat-related causes each year in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that number appears to be rising, with the Department of Health and Human Services reporting that 2,302 people died from heat- related causes last year .
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper