Extraordinary, climate change-linked heat wave envelops the West with mounting consequences | CNN

Meteorologists are reaching for superlatives to describe an oncoming heat wave so intense and rare for this time of year that it could leave some locations shattering their all-time temperature records for April before that month has even begun. This extreme event, made far worse by human-caused climate change, will bring summerlike temperatures during March to locations from California to Texas, northward all the way to Montana. Extreme heat warnings and other heat alerts are in effect for millions from San Francisco to Phoenix and are likely to expand with time. The event is just getting underway. Before it ends later next week, it will have scorched nearly the entire Western part of the country and parts of the Plains states, toppling dozens of daily and monthly temperature records by unusually large margins. In Phoenix, for example, the all-time March high temperature record is 100 degrees, but during this heat wave the temperature is forecast to climb to at least 106 degrees and remain above the century mark for multiple days. “Many locations are likely to set both all-time high temperatures for the month of March and their earliest 100-degree temperature on record,” the N