US north-east braces for heatwave as California tackles wildfires

Parts of the country wrestle with high temperatures as official start of summer nears

Steam rises as people cross a street in Manhattan on June 16, 2024. Reuters

New York City and the rest of the US north-east on Monday are preparing for what is expected to be a record-breaking heatwave, while California is fending off wildfires.

Firefighters increased their containment of two large wildfires fuelled by explosive, wind-driven growth in Los Angeles County, as well as another outside San Francisco in Northern California.

Manhattan’s Central Park is set to reach 37°C by Friday, the National Weather Service said.

The worst of the heat will spread through the Midwest, upstate New York and New England this week before descending on New York City and Washington, DC.

A heat advisory will probably be posted on Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference.

“The first heatwave of the season is here and we are ready,” Mr Adams said. “This is extremely hot for June, with climate change leading to more frequent and intense heat. Summers are different than they were before.”

While summer doesn’t officially start until Thursday, across the US more than 120 daily high temperature records may be broken or tied, with the majority of them in the Midwest, mid-Atlantic and New England, the US Weather Prediction Centre said. Humidity will make conditions feel hotter, driving up power demand as people crank up air conditioners.

At the weekend, New York Governor Kathy Hochul warned residents that the looming heatwave was “no joke”.

Heat is the number one weather-related cause of death, she said. It can also warp railway tracks and slow down commutes in the large eastern cities that rely on trains to move people.

The most intense heat will likely be across New England, Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster at the Weather Prediction Centre, told Bloomberg.

Scorching weather will also spread into Canada, with Montreal hitting 33°C and Toronto 32°C, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

A large high-pressure system is building over the eastern US and that will trap the heat over the area, allowing it to intensify, Mr Oravec said. While the sizzling conditions will ease over New England later in the week, New York and Washington will likely stay hot through the weekend.

“It is going to be the story of the week,” Mr Oravec said. The heat is “pretty expansive, it gets anchored and doesn’t move for the entire week."

On the other coast of the US, the Post Fire in California was eight per cent surrounded after scorching nearly 60 square kilometres and forcing the evacuation of at least 1,200 campers, off-roaders and hikers from the Hungry Valley recreation area on Saturday.

“That 8 per cent is good because it means we are increasing and bolstering our containment lines,” Kenichi Haskett, a Los Angeles County Fire Department section chief, told the Associated Press.

A firefighter walks towards flames from the Post Fire on June 16, 2024, in Lebec, California. AP

Firefighters hoped to hold the fire at its current size, but further growth was possible, Mr Haskett said.

The fire broke out as weather turned hot and windy in a region where grasses spawned by a rainy winter have long since dried out and easily burn.

The massive columns of smoke that marked the fire's initial rampage were gone by Monday morning.

In Northern California, a wildfire sparked on Sunday prompted evacuation orders and warnings for a sparsely populated area near Lake Sonoma.

Known as the Point Fire, it was 20 per cent surrounded on Monday after charring nearly 5 square kilometres about 130 kilometres north of San Francisco, and destroyed at least one structure.