Motorcyclist dies from heat exposure in Death Valley as temperature reaches 58°C | Extreme heat

A visitor to Death Valley National Park died of heat exposure and another person was hospitalized on Sunday as temperatures reached 131 degrees Fahrenheit (53.3 degrees Celsius) in Eastern California, officials said.

The two visitors were part of a group of six motorcyclists who were riding through the Badwater Basin area in scorching hot weather, the park said.

The identity of the deceased person has not been determined. The other motorcyclist was taken to a Las Vegas hospital for “severe heat illness,” the statement said. The other four members of the group were treated at the scene.

“This kind of heat can pose a real health hazard,” said park ranger Mike Reynolds.

The death occurred as a prolonged heat wave broke temperature records across the United States.

The ongoing heat wave that has already broken all previous records in the United States is continuing and will continue to subject parts of the West to dangerous temperatures, meteorologists said Sunday.

An extreme heat warning – the highest warning level issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) – was in effect for about 36 million people, or about 10% of the U.S. population, said NWS meteorologist Bryan Jackson. Dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest were expected to match or break previous heat records, he said.

This was certainly the case over the weekend: Many areas in Northern California recorded temperatures above 110 °F (43.3 °C), with the city of Redding reaching the highest at 119 °F (48.3 °C). Phoenix set a new daily record for warmest low temperature on Sunday: the temperature never dropped below 92 °F (33.3 °C).

Triple-digit temperatures were common throughout Oregon, and several records were broken – including in Salem, where temperatures reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit (39.4 degrees Celsius) on Sunday, surpassing the 99 degrees Fahrenheit (37.2 degrees Celsius) mark set in 1960.

Isolated heat warnings were even extended to higher elevations, for example around Lake Tahoe on the border between California and Nevada. The weather service in Reno, Nevada, warned of “significant heat risks, even in the mountains.”

Temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were widespread along the wetter east coast, while Storm Beryl is expected to strengthen into a hurricane again and hit east Texas on Monday.

The Associated Press contributed to the reporting