Sweltering Heatwave Seizes Much of the U.S.

U.S.|Power outages adhd to the misery successful the Midwest arsenic sweltering vigor seizes overmuch of the U.S.

• Aug. 12, 2021, 5:28 a.m. ET

More that 150 cardinal radical crossed the United States were nether immoderate signifier of vigor alert connected Thursday with baking temperatures expected successful the Pacific Northwest, parts of the Plains and the South, and overmuch the Northeast.

In the Midwest, hundreds of thousands of radical were facing the imaginable of confronting boiling temperatures and stifling humidity without energy and aerial conditioning aft blustering winds and dense rains ripped done the Great Lakes this week. Gusts of up to 80 m.p.h. person toppled trees and powerfulness lines, causing wide power outages successful Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan.

“Food spoilage, nary aerial conditioning, medicine that needs to beryllium refrigerated,” said DeWayne Smoots, a lawman main with the c Fire Department, listing the concerns facing residents there. “How bash you enactment cool? Going extracurricular is not going to assistance you.”

On Wednesday, Mr. Smoots and his squad navigated roads strewn with uprooted trees to respond to dozens of calls crossed the metropolis astir downed powerfulness lines. Recovery efforts were challenged by continued terrible thunderstorms passim the portion Wednesday night, with overmuch of the authorities nether a tornado watch.

On Thursday, temperatures could scope into the 90s successful immoderate spot wherever the powerfulness has been retired successful confederate Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan.

Temperatures besides threaten to interruption records successful the Pacific Northwest connected Thursday, little than 2 months aft an utmost vigor question deed the region, starring to hundreds of deaths. Record-breaking temperatures are expected successful the Northeast Thursday, too. The vigor scale worth — which combines the aerial somesthesia with humidity to provide a number for what the aerial really feels similar — was forecast to scope arsenic precocious arsenic 106 successful New York City, and up to 110 successful Washington, D.C.

In Portland, Ore., a precocious of 100 was expected Thursday.

“Yes, it’s summer, but this benignant of vigor tin kill,” the National Weather Service warned connected Twitter, encouraging radical successful areas experiencing utmost vigor to debar strenuous enactment and enactment hydrated.

And successful California, firefighters were bracing for the continued dispersed of the Dixie Fire arsenic thunderstorms threatened to signifier implicit the blaze, which has present consumed much than 500,000 acres.

Dusty winds whipped up by the storms could origin “chaotic behavior,” said Rich Thompson, a National Weather Service who has been tracking the Dixie Fire. The storms are not expected to bring rainfall that would assistance temper the fire, helium said, though the nonstop tempest conditions wherever the occurrence is spreading were hard to predict.