Early on the morning of July 3, about 214,000 families and businesses across the eastern United States were left without power due to a powerful storm, just one day before the US Independence Day on July 4.
According to PowerOutage.us, among the affected customers are 55,000 households and businesses in the state of Missouri.
On the same day, storms also caused difficulties for those planning to travel during the US Independence Day holiday. According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, as of 3 a.m. on July 3, at least 7,697 domestic flights to, from or within the US had been delayed. 464 flights were canceled.
The National Weather Service (NWS) forecasts that the risk of strong Category 2 storms on the US's five-level hurricane warning scale will sweep from northern South Carolina to southern New Jersey, including Philadelphia, the cities of Baltimore, Charlotte, the capital Washington DC and Virginia Beach, affecting more than 90 million people.
The NWS also warned of the risk of flash flooding due to thunderstorms and heavy rain, affecting nearly 5 million people in the state of Illinois.
Meanwhile, according to a separate storm forecasting system, severe weather is at risk across parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Minnesota.
Over the weekend, severe weather events devastated parts of the United States, hitting Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois and Iowa. In St. Louis, Missouri, a 33-year-old woman died on July 1 when a tree fell on her car. Residents also reported hail and strong winds in Missouri, causing damage such as uprooted trees and broken windows.
In contrast to the storms, extreme heat is forecast to affect more than 30 million people across the West Coast, as well as parts of the Mid-Atlantic and North and South Carolina through July 3. Some cities, such as Raleigh, Charlotte and Virginia Beach, could see temperatures reach 40 to nearly 43 degrees Celsius.
Many areas in the Southwest and West of the US are also forecast to experience intense heat in the next few days. Temperatures in the state of Nevada could range from 40 to over 46 degrees Celsius. Death Valley in California could even reach 51.6 degrees Celsius.
According to VNA