Parts of California and Arizona to experience triple-digit temperatures this week

By Monday morning, firefighters had built containment lines around three-quarters of the fire.

“The humidity is starting to drop,” Kurth said. “We’re seeing an increase in grass fires.”

He noted that the heat wave that began this week is not unusual for Central California in August, but because it started so quickly, it could become more severe because “people aren’t used to the heat.”

“If a heatwave occurs early in the season, the impact on people could be greater,” he said.

He said high early-season surf could also increase the risk of drowning in the Western mountains, where people often flock to rivers and streams fed by melting snow.

“The water is pretty cold and the currents are strong,” Kurth said. “Please be careful and wear your life jackets.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted last month that 2024 will be one of the five warmest years on record and could easily be the hottest year on record.

Last year, a prolonged heatwave hit much of the South and Southwest, causing a sharp rise in deaths.

More than 2,300 people who died in the United States last summer mentioned heat on their death certificates, the highest number in 45 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States, but its impact can be obscured in death certificate data because heat often aggravates underlying conditions like heart, respiratory and kidney disease. Researchers at Texas A&M University estimated that heat was responsible for 11,000 deaths last year that would not have occurred otherwise, according to the Associated Press.

A weather pattern, such as a ridge of high pressure that is expected to develop this week, is responsible for many of these deaths.

Temperatures in the Phoenix area topped 110 degrees Fahrenheit every day except one last July, according to data from the National Weather Service. Scientists later concluded that would be “virtually impossible” without the effects of climate change. At least 645 people died from heatstroke in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and many of its suburbs, last year, a 52% increase from the previous year.