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Environment

Record-setting heatwave bakes US South and Mexico

A record-setting heatwave in Texas and Mexico is affecting tens of millions of people and straining power grids, and it is likely to continue for the next week

By James Dinneen

27 June 2023

A scorched corn field in Veracruz, Mexico, on 24 June

Hector Quintanar/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The record-setting heatwave that has scorched Texas and northern Mexico for the past two weeks is forecast to expand across the south before cooling off by the 4th of July. The abnormal heat would be unlikely without the contribution of climate change.

On 27 June, much of Texas and Louisiana and parts of other southern states were under heat advisories, according to the US National Weather Service; abnormally high temperatures continued in northern Mexico as well. That extends what has been more than two weeks…

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