Excessive heat warning issued in California

The US National Weather Service (NWS) issued an excessive heat warning in California, predicting the region could face a new record high temperature this week.

"An upper level high pressure system centred over the desert southwest will continue to strengthen and expand westward through Saturday," the NWS said on Wednesday.

"This will bring widespread triple digit heat to interior sections through at least Saturday with advisory heat starting on Thursday."

The NWS estimates that on Friday and Saturday high temperature in many interior sections of Southwest California could be between 40.5 and 43.3 degrees Celsius, while it could approach 120 48.9 degrees Celsius in some places, reports Xinhua news agency.

In the Sierra Nevada mountain area located in central California, fire danger warnings were posted on Wednesday from Sequoia to Yosemite. Earlier, flood warnings due to snow melt were posted for northern Mono county in California and southern Lyon county in Nevada.

Moreover, the heatwave could cause a disaster for livestock. The Fresno Bee newspaper reported that last week, due to the unusual run of heat in June, including nine straight days of triple-digit temperatures, an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 livestock died.

Since Central California's largest rendering plant was overwhelmed by the number of cows that died during a June heatwave, the report said, Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties had to declare a state of emergency, giving dairies permission to bury or compost the carcasses on site under a strict set of temporary rules outlined by state water and agricultural agencies.

--IANS

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