The National Weather Service has issued heat warnings and advisories through Friday for parts of the Midwest, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic regions, but the Pacific Northwest, especially, is bracing for a second round of dangerously hot temperatures this week. Portland is projected to top 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday and Friday and Seattle should hit the mid-90s; both cities "would break all-time records this week if the late June heat wave had not done so already," The Associated Press reports.
Oregon officially recorded 96 heat-related deaths from the June onslaught and Washington registered 95 deaths, but a new New York Times analysis of excess deaths suggests the real numbers were nearly 160 deaths in Oregon and 450 in Washington.
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Climate scientists concluded that the June heat wave would not have possible without the influence of human-caused climate change, and a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week warned that more extreme weather events are now inevitable. But heat deaths are largely preventable, Kristie Ebi, a professor in the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington, told the Times. "The more we understand about these deaths, the better we can prepare."
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