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Heatwave in North America - 7th July 2021

The United States and Canada are in the middle of a terrible heatwave. Temperatures are almost 50 degrees Celsius.

In Portland, Oregon, people are cooling down in three special centres. Emergency analyst Jenny Carver helped organise these.

Jenny Carver: On Friday around 1pm, we opened three cooling center locations throughout the county. Currently we’re serving about 350 people across all three of those locations."

The highest ever temperatures have closed some schools and pandemic vaccination centres. They also stopped qualifying races for the Olympic team.

Ashley’s apartment is boiling hot.

Ashley: "I, I came here because – I, I have an apartment and I have box fans and ice, a freezer and everything – but it just, like, wasn’t enough to keep everything cool. Especially at night, because it was like 90 degrees at midnight or some – or 80 degrees or something – it was crazy.

In Canada, doctors say the heatwave has caused hundreds of deaths. In Vancouver, they’ve organised more water fountains. These are helping people to keep cool.

Ian Widgery thinks eating ice cream is the best option.

Ian Widgery: "My gosh! The heat is crazy at the moment. And there’s only one way to stay cool, which is by eating a lot of ice cream."

An area of high pressure is causing the heatwave. This is travelling across the continent. Scientists think it’s because of climate change.