Extreme heat sweeps West and East coasts, breaking daily highs: NPR

A worker adjusts his helmet on a construction site in the sun on Wednesday in Los Angeles as Southern California faces a heat wave.

Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

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Etienne Laurent/AFP via Getty Images

Extreme heat continues to affect large swaths of the United States this weekend, with parts of the West and East Coast bearing the brunt of the heat.

In total, more than 132 million people were under some form of heat warning as of Saturday night, according to Heat.gov.

“If not taken seriously, these conditions can be extremely dangerous and potentially fatal,” the National Weather Service said Saturday.

Human-caused climate change is causing longer, more intense heat waves and making dangerously high temperatures more common.

Record high temperatures on west coast

Heat warnings are in effect for the West Coast this weekend.

Temperatures in northwest and Midwestern Oregon, including Portland, are expected to remain between 100 and 105 degrees through Tuesday night. High temperatures are expected to remain warm overnight, limiting opportunities to recover from the heat, the National Weather Service said.

Several areas in the Pacific Northwest surpassed daily highs on Friday, including Portland and Salem, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

Salem’s high was 103 degrees, surpassing the previous record of 99 degrees set in 1960.

Further south, Death Valley, California, Las Vegas and Lake Havasu City, Arizona, are expected to set more heat records on Saturday, with temperatures well over 110 degrees.

In Santa Barbara, California, the Lake Fire, which started on Friday, was accompanied by extreme heat and large amounts of smoke. As of Saturday afternoon, more than 12,000 acres had burned, according to Cal Fire.

High temperatures persist on the East Coast

On the East Coast, heat warnings extend from upstate New York to southern Florida this weekend.

The heat index is expected to reach 104 degrees in several northern New Jersey counties, according to the National Weather Service. (The heat index measures how the weather actually feels when you factor in temperature and humidity.)

Meanwhile, major cities including Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey, are under heat warnings Saturday night, with the heat index expected to reach 106 degrees, the NWS reported. New York City’s heat index could reach 100.

Along Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay coast, Saturday’s heat index is expected to reach 110 degrees. Baltimore and Washington, D.C., are both under heat warnings, the National Weather Service said.

On Saturday, the heat index exceeded 100 degrees in southern areas. Parts of southeastern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia are expected to see heat indexes reaching 111 degrees.