In scorching heat, the US is burning
America's torrid summer is coming to a boil. While wildfires have consumed hundreds of homes in Colorado, and threaten hundreds more, temperatures in the 40s were causing misery in the eastern and southern United States. The heat has claimed the lives of at least three young children. The pain was compounded yesterday with violent storms battering the eastern side of the country, killing 12 more people as trees were uprooted and three and a half people million people were left without power. Marked in pink on a weather map of the United States, a heat warning has spread like a rash over a third of the country, from Nebraska east to New York and south to Florida. Such a warning is usually issued when the heat index – a combination of temperature and humidity – exceeds 38C and there is a risk of people and animals suffering heat exhaustion
