From China to Death Valley, extreme weather blankets the globe
By Julia Harte and Charlie Devereux
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Asia, Europe and much of the United States baked under extreme heat on Monday as global temperatures soared toward alarming highs and U.S. leaders sought to reignite climate diplomacy with China.
The U.S. was scorched by record-setting heat in the West and South, lashed with flood-triggering rain in the Northeast, and choked by wildfire smoke in the Midwest.
A heat dome parked over the western U.S. pushed the temperature in California's Death Valley desert to 128 Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) on Sunday, and kept daily highs in Phoenix on track to exceed 110 degrees F (43 C) through the week. That would break a previous streak of 18 straight days above 110, according to forecasters.
Even as nearly a quarter of the US population fell under extreme heat advisories, heavy rains devastated the state of Vermont and parts of Pennsylvania, where flash floods killed five people and swept cars away over the weekend.
Meanwhile, smoke from Canadian wildfires wafted over the Great Lakes, High Plains and other parts of the Midwest, prompting air quality alerts and keeping the elderly and other vulnerable people indoors.
With scientists saying the target of keeping global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels is moving beyond reach, evidence of the crisis was apparent across the world.
A remote town in China's arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national record of 52.2 Celsius (126 Fahrenheit). Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C.
Italy's health ministry on Monday issued red weather alerts — signaling a possible health threat for anyone exposed to the heat — for 20 of the country's
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