A record-breaking heatwave continued to spread across the central US on Wednesday, placing about 130 million people under heat alerts in 22 states, and prompting warnings from weather experts of potentially deadly conditions.
Temperatures above 100F (37.7C) stretched south to states on the Gulf coast, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned in a morning advisory, with “brutal humidity levels” pushing the heat index as high as 120F (48.8C) in some areas.