PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Temperatures in Portland, Ore., could top 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, making it likely the hottest day of a week-long heat wave in the region of the Pacific Northwest that rarely looks so scorching. the weather.
Forecasters issued an excessive heat warning for parts of Oregon and Washington state. Temperatures could reach 90 F (32 C) in Seattle and 110 F (43.3 C) in eastern parts of Oregon and Washington.
While inland parts of the states tend to experience high temperatures, these kinds of hot blasts don’t happen as often in Portland and Seattle.
“Having stretches of five days or a stretch of a week above 90 degrees is very, very rare for the Pacific Northwest,” said Vivek Shandas, a professor of climate adaptation at Portland State University.
As the northwestern United States warmed, the warming on the East Coast appeared to have broken, with few areas east of the Mississippi River under heat advisories.
Philadelphia reached 99 degrees (37 degrees Celsius) on Sunday before factoring in the humidity. Newark, New Jersey, had its fifth consecutive day of 100 degrees or more, the longest such streak since records began in 1931. Boston also reached 100 degrees, surpassing the previous daily record of 98 degrees (36.6 degrees Celsius) established in 1933.
Tuesday’s forecast highs in Philadelphia, New York and Boston were all in the mid-80s (about 29 degrees Celsius).
Residents and officials in the Northwest have been trying to adjust to the likely reality of longer and warmer heat waves after last summer’s deadly “heat dome” weather phenomenon that sent temperatures and record deaths
In response, the Portland Office of Housing, which oversees the city’s housing policy, will require newly constructed subsidized housing to have air conditioning in the future.
A new Oregon law will require all new homes built after April 2024 to have air conditioning installed in at least one room. The law already prohibits landlords in most cases from restricting tenants from installing cooling devices in their rental units.
The measures were in response to the heat wave of late June and early July 2021, when about 800 people died in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. The temperature soared to 116 degrees F (46.7 C) in Portland and broke heat records in cities and towns across the region. Many of those who died were elderly and lived alone.
Although temperatures this week are not expected to be that high, the predicted number of consecutive hot days raised concerns among officials.
Portland, Ore., could top 100 degrees F (37.8 C) on Tuesday, and temperatures across large swaths of western Oregon and Washington are expected to be well above historic averages throughout the week.
“It’s nothing we haven’t seen before in terms of magnitude, but the length of the event is pretty unusual,” said John Bumgardner, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Portland office.
Portland’s Office of Emergency Management is opening cooling centers in public buildings and installing misting stations in parks. In Seattle, community centers and libraries will serve as cooling stations.
Multnomah County, which includes Portland, will open four overnight emergency cooling shelters starting Tuesday where people can spend the night.
Officials hope the outreach efforts will help people who face the greatest heat risks, including the elderly, people who live alone, people with disabilities, members of low-income households without air conditioning and the homeless.
Jenny Carver, Multnomah County emergency manager for the county’s Department of Human Services, said her work has focused on “making sure these places are as low as we can make them.”
“We ask people to just give a name and we don’t check any identification,” Carver said. “We make every resource available as we can.”
Overnight temperatures in the Pacific Northwest may not drop into the 70s, said Treena Jenson, Portland warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
“In urban areas we have the urban heat island effect which tends to keep temperatures warmer a bit longer and can cause more heat shocks,” he said.
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Claire Rush is a staff member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that places reporters in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues. Follow her on Twitter.