[Source: Reuters]

Asia, Europe and the United States baked under extreme heat as global temperatures soared toward alarming highs and U.S. leaders sought to reignite climate diplomacy with China.

The United States was scorched by record-setting heat in the West and South, lashed with flood-triggering rain in the Northeast, and choked by wildfire smoke in the Midwest.

A heat dome parked over the western United States pushed the temperature in California’s Death Valley desert to 128 Fahrenheit (53 Celsius) on Sunday, among the highest temperatures recorded on Earth in the past 90 years.

Phoenix hit 114F (45.5C) on Monday, matching a historic record of 18 straight days over 110F with the forecast showing the record likely to extend for at least another week.

The U.S. heatwave coincided with extreme temperatures elsewhere throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

A remote town in China’s arid northwest, Sanbao, registered a national record of 52.2C (126F). Wildfires in Europe raged ahead of a second heat wave in two weeks that was set to send temperatures as high as 48C (118F), while authorities in Italy and France issued heat-related health warnings.

Even in Phoenix, accustomed to hot weather, the prolonged bout of extreme heat is testing people and worrying officials. The international charitable organization Salvation Army has opened 11 cooling centres and sent out a mobile unit to deliver relief to homeless people who have difficulty reaching the sites.

The heat killed 425 people in the Phoenix area’s Maricopa County last year, so the Salvation Army mobile unit distributes urgently needed cold water, hats, sunscreen and hygiene kits to those in need.

Another unhoused woman, Maritza Villegas, said she has gotten shaky and jittery from the heat, which provoked dry heaves.

Scientists have long warned that climate change, caused by CO2 emissions from burning fossil fuels, will make heatwaves more frequent, severe and deadly. They say governments need to take drastic actions to reduce omissions to prevent climate catastrophe.

The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service says 2022 and 2021 were the continent’s hottest summers on record.

Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.