Melanie Floyd took her kids to the zoo in Phoenix in the morning, when temperatures in the heat wave roasting the city and much of the US southwest were still bearable.

Standing before a turtle exhibit, she downplayed this extreme weather event in a world grappling with climate change.

"As long as we have AC and as long as everyone is making smart choices," this stay-at-home mother aged 32 told AFP, "staying hydrated, going in the shade, staying cool, not overexerting themselves, I think it's tolerable."

At her home it is, indeed, nice and cool. She keeps the air conditioning between 75 and 78 degrees Fahrenheit (23 and 26 degrees Celsius) so she can look after her kids, aged two and six, comfortably as they play with coloring books and crafts.

Outside, day after day for more than three weeks, the temperature in Phoenix is surpassing a hard-to-fathom 110F.

The heatwave affecting much of the southwest and southern United States — including the record temperatures in Phoenix — is igniting debate on how fast global warming is moving.

For Floyd, this particular weather event is no big deal.

"You have to fluctuate as the weather fluctuates, so you have to be flexible with it," Floyd said.

In this desert city many people that spoke to AFP expressed similar views about the rising frequency of brutally dangerous heat as global warming caused by human activity grinds on: One must learn to live with it.

– Living without AC –

For many of them life is a series of mad dashes from offices to restaurants to shops, all with air conditioning cranked up good and frosty.

In the city center and well-to-do suburbs, people do not think twice about leaving their car running while they get out to do an errand, so as to keep it cool for when they come back.

But in less wealthy areas, heat like this is another thing altogether.

"If the temperatures go on like this, many people will not be able to cope," said Rosalia Licea, 37, who is raising five kids on her own.

She lives in a mobile home park where most of the trailers are from the 1950s. Early in this heat wave her air conditioning broke down.

For two days the temperature inside their mobile home hit 97F. The whole family had to take refuge in the room of the eldest child, which had a window AC unit. One of the smaller kids started having headaches.

Licea, who hails from Mexico, works several low-paying jobs to make ends meet. She does not have the $2,000 it would cost to buy a new AC system.

So she came up with a makeshift solution: spend $800 to fix the broken one.

"I had no choice, what with my kids," she said. "It was the priority, more than buying groceries or paying my rent."

Even with the new motor in the old AC unit, one of the air conduits is broken so the cold does not reach her living room. That is something else she will have to pay to have fixed.

– AC going full blast –

Licea tried but failed to qualify for aid offered by the city or some utility companies for people to upgrade their air conditioning units.

A study in 2022 by Arizona State University found that while mobile homes make up five percent of all housing in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, they account for 30 percent of indoor heat-related deaths in the city.

"It is easy to say 'we can adapt' when you have access to everything," Licea said. "It is different for us."

A fire broke out some days ago at her mobile home park, where the residences are hooked up directly to electrical pylons through shoddy connections.

One mobile home was destroyed. The fire is believed to have started because of an electrical overload, with washing machines, dryers, fridges and full-blast air conditioning all operating at once.

After 19 years in Arizona, Licea lives in fear of an electrical short circuit. So she mainly prepares salads for meals and tries to avoid turning on the lights to keep her electricity consumption, and the temperature, as low as possible.

"If I could move to a state that is not so hot I would do it," Licea said.

Greece facing longest heatwave on record while US braces for record highs
Athens (AFP) July 22, 2023 –

Greece was Saturday bracing for its longest heatwave on record as weekend temperatures were forecast to soar above 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit), while a record-breaking heatwave stretching across the southern United States was expected to expand in the coming days.

Tens of millions of people in the northern hemisphere have been suffering through intense heat this summer as the world appears headed for its hottest July on record.

As temperature records tumble, experts have pointed to climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels, saying global warming is playing a key role in destructive weather.

Already 11 days into its heatwave, Greece's national weather institute warned reprieve was still days away, setting this up to be the longest hot spell the country has ever seen.

"According to the data, we will probably go through 16-17 days of a heatwave, which has never happened before in our country," Kostas Lagouvardos, the director of research at the National Observatory, told ERT television Saturday.

The previous heatwave record in Greece was set in 1987, when scorching temperatures of over 39C lasted 11 days.

Across the southern United States, about 80 million Americans will swelter in temperatures of 41C and above this weekend, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.

The country's worst heat of up to 46C is forecast for Phoenix, Arizona, which has seen a record-breaking three weeks in a row of highs above 43C.

Tourists, meanwhile, have been flocking to Death Valley National Park, which straddles the border between California and Nevada, to post selfies with a temperature display outside the visitor centre.

Many are hoping to see it break a world record of 56.7C, which was set in July 1913 but was likely the result of a faulty measurement, according to several meteorologists.

– Hottest month –

Regardless, July 2023 is on track to be the hottest month — not only since records began, but also in "hundreds, if not thousands, of years," leading NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt said.

The effects cannot be attributed solely to the El Nino weather pattern, which "has really only just emerged" and isn't expected to strengthen until later in the year.

El Nino is associated with the warming of ocean surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Schmidt said the trend of extreme heat was expected to persist, "and the reason why we think that's going to continue, is because we continue to put greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere".

Greece, which is battling dozens of forest fires, warned people not to venture out unnecessarily due to the baking heat.

Firefighters were still battling 79 forest fires across the country. Their spokesman Vassilios Vathrakoyannis said Greece would be on a state of alert through the weekend.

Fires on the island of Rhodes forced dozens to evacuate their homes late Friday, officials said, as Slovak firefighters arrived to provide reinforcement.

A hotel in the Kiotari area of the island that was bustling with tourists was also forced to evacuate as a precautionary measure, requiring 30 buses to relocate the holiday-goers to a safer area.

The exceptional temperatures also mean key tourist sites such as the Acropolis will be closed during the hottest part of the day, with authorities saying the last entries for tourists will be at 11:30 am (0800 GMT) on Sunday.

"This weekend risks being the hottest registered in July in the past 50 years," said Panagiotis Giannopoulos, meteorologist with state broadcaster ERT.

Sea temperatures are two to three degrees above normal, the state weather service reported Saturday, while a high of 42.6C recorded by the Akrotiri weather station on Friday, which is expected to be topped.

Sunday is likely to see the city labour under temperatures as high as 44C, with the central region of Thessalia enduring 45C.

The temperatures are taking a toll on people's health.

A 46-year-old man was reported to have succumbed to heatstroke on the central Greek island of Evia after being admitted to Chalkida hospital, which said cardio-respiratory failure following exposure to high temperatures appeared to be the cause.

Emergency health officials told the state broadcaster at least 38 heatstroke patients were received in the last three days, while hospitals were also seeing cases of fainting and other heat-related conditions.

Greece is just one of a swathe of countries battling a prolonged spell of extreme heat around the globe in recent days.