Over 480,000 people are without power as of Monday afternoon due to a heatwave hitting parts of the country, according to PowerOutage.us.
States with the highest number of outages are concentrated in the Southeast, California and Michigan. Tennessee is currently experiencing the worst of the wave, with almost 100,000 people without power. Rhode Island is experiencing the least impact on its population, as less than 10 are without power.
Around 45 million people are being affected by the expanding heatwave, according to Axios. Without power, risk of ailments caused by heat exposure increases and could potentially lead to deaths. In 2022, Europe faced a similar wave where over 20,000 excess deaths have been estimated, according to Reuters.
The extreme conditions are due to high atmospheric pressure, forming what’s called a heat dome. Temperature records are expected to be broken in Texas, and areas like the southwest and Mississippi valley are now prone to dangerously hot weather, according to Axios. (Related: One Of The Most Extreme Ocean Events In History Is Happening Right Now)
The North Sea is the most anomalously warm body of open water on Earth today@NOAA have classed it as a Category 4 (extreme) marine heat wave. What does this mean?
– nutrient & oxygen disruption
– disruption of marine food webs
– harm to fisheries
– extreme weather downwind pic.twitter.com/C8tIGkr88K— Dr Thomas Smith 🔥🌏 (@DrTELS) June 19, 2023
Some areas are experiencing category five heatwave levels, the highest level of intensity, but the event is labeled a category four in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s scale, according to the Washington Post.