Dangerously high heat builds in California and south-central United States

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SACRAMENTO, Calif, July 3, (AP): Swaths of California sweltered Tuesday and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts.
The torrid conditions were being caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.
California’s capital, Sacramento, was under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 105 degrees and 115 degrees (40.5 and 46.1 Celsius).
John Mendoza, 35, called it a “firehose of heat” as he walked around the Capitol on Tuesday with an iced coffee in his hand. By 9 a.m. he had already been in a pool once – and planned to go back later in the day.
“I felt like I needed to be submerged in water,” he said.
About 70 miles (113 kilometers) north of Sacramento, crews working in scorching conditions were battling a wildfire in Butte County that forced the evacuation of about 13,000 people in and around Oroville. The blaze, dubbed the Thompson Fire, broke out before noon and sent up a huge plume of smoke as it swiftly grew to more than 3 square miles (7.7 square kilometers) by evening, with zero containment.
Firefighters lined roads, trying to keep the flames from reaching homes as helicopters dropped water on the fast-moving blaze.
The governor’s office announced late Tuesday that federal funding had been approved to help with firefighting efforts. Earlier this week, Gov Gavin Newsom activated the State Operations Center to coordinate California’s response, dispatch mutual aid and support local communities as they respond to threats of wildfire and excessive heat.

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