Brits among hundreds of tourists flocking to Death Valley despite deadly US heatwave | US News

Dozens of locations across the West and Pacific Northwest broke previous heat records over the weekend, and are expected to continue doing so over the coming week. Record-high daytime temperatures in Oregon are believed to have caused at least four deaths in the Portland area.

Among the hundreds of tourists making their way to Death Valley National Park in the USA are Brits, even though the desolate region is hit by a severe heatwave.

English, French, Spanish and Swiss tourists set out on Monday to take photos of the barren landscape, which is considered one of the hottest places on earth.

Park officials urged visitors to be careful about their safety. Park ranger Mike Reynolds warned: “Such high heat can pose a real threat to your health.”

Dozens of locations across the West and Pacific Northwest broke all previous heat records over the weekend, and are expected to continue doing so throughout the week.

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Record-breaking daytime temperatures in Oregon are believed to have been responsible for at least four deaths in the Portland area.

On Monday, a heat warning was in effect for more than 146 million people across the United States.

Temperatures are not expected to be as high as those during a similar heatwave in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, which killed an estimated 600 people in Oregon, Washington and western Canada.

Officials warned that heat illnesses and injuries are cumulative and can build up over the course of one or more days.

In the desert of eastern California, maximum temperatures of 53.3 °C were measured in Death Valley National Park on Saturday and Sunday.

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Too hot for safe flights of rescue helicopters

A visitor who has not been identified died there on Saturday from heat exposure and another person was hospitalized, officials said.

They were among six bikers riding through the Badwater Basin area in sweltering weather, the park said in a statement. The other four were treated at the scene.

Rescue helicopters were unable to respond because temperatures above 48.8 degrees Celsius are generally unsafe for flight, officials said.

One of the most extreme environments in the world

Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world – the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 56.67 °C in July 1913 in the national park, although some experts dispute this measurement and say the true record is 54.4 °C recorded there in July 2021.

This came after global temperatures reached record highs in June for the 13th consecutive month, marking the 12th consecutive month in which the world above the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees global warmingexplained the European climate service Copernicus.