Climate change : New record heat hits California – homeless have to stay in hotels

California near 50 degrees hot

 

Of: 

 

Staffan Lindberg 

 

Published: Less than 40 min ago 

 

 

Los Angeles rush hour traffic. Los Angeles rush hour traffic. Photo: Damian Dovarganes / AP 

 

NEWS 

 

Summer should really have ended. 

 

But the extreme heat has taken a new hold on California - with temperatures exceeding 46 degrees. 

 

The homeless are allowed to stay in hotels - while the fear of fires increases. 

 

An extreme heat wave has once again swept across California. The state capital, Sacramento, measured 46.7 degrees on Tuesday. 

 

The day before, at least 11 different heat records had been broken in the state, according to CBS News.

Including in the city of Livermore east of San Fransisco. There, the thermometer rose to just over 46 degrees – beating the sixty-year-old record by almost five degrees. 

 

To escape the heat, the air conditioning is turned up in homes and offices. Something that puts pressure on the electricity grid - and which has led to extensive power outages. 

 

Governor Gavin Newsom is now appealing to the state's 40 million residents to conserve as much electricity as possible. 

 

- We need everyone - individuals, businesses, the state and energy producers - to do our part in the coming days and help California continue to meet this challenge, he says in a statement. 

 

 

A woman distributes water to the needy on the streets of Sacramento. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP 

 

  

 

Heat Warnings in Sacramento. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP 

 

 

116 degrees Fahrenheit equals 46.7 degrees Celsius. Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP 

 

Get motel vouchers 

 

A pool and water park in Brentwood has been forced to close while public buildings have been converted into so-called "cooling centers", where citizens can cool down, according to the San Franscisco Chronicle.

 

On their part, the authorities have been forced to start handing out motel vouchers to the homeless, so that they have somewhere to go in the dangerous heat, AP reports. Something that previously only happened during the coldest winter days. 

 

- Many can stay at home, but not everyone has a home to go to, says local spokeswoman Janna Haynes to the news agency. 

 

"Trying to survive" 

 

The direct explanation for the heat is that a colossal high-pressure system with hot air has parked over the western United States, forming a so-called heat dome. Fires are still raging in several places in California. 

 

         

Fires are still raging in several places in California. Photo: Ethan Swope/AP 

 

Photo: Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP 

At the same time, the connection to climate change is clear. According to a study from last year, similar heat waves would be next to impossible without human emissions of greenhouse gases. 

 

Karen Tapia, 22, has no air conditioning at home in the South Los Angeles apartment building where she lives with her parents and brothers and her seven-month-old baby. She is now forced to take her daughter to the grocery store to take advantage of the air conditioning there. 

 

- We are just trying to survive, she tells the Los Angeles Times. 

 

Houses are burning down 

 

The heat increases the risk of fires and makes them more difficult to fight once they break out. Over the weekend, four people died in various fires and at least 100 houses were destroyed. 4,000 firefighters have worked on extinguishing the fire. 

 

At the same time, several other natural disasters linked to the climate crisis are taking place around the world. Pakistan has been hit by a "monster monsoon" that created the worst floods in at least twelve years. All while millions of people in northern Africa are fleeing an extreme drought, which has wiped out crops and killed livestock.