More than 13 million people across the Northwest are under heat alerts Sunday, CNN meteorologist Haley Brink said. Major cities impacted include Portland; Seattle; Billings, Montana; and Boise, Idaho.
In Oregon, officials believe at least six deaths over the past week were heat-related.
The most recent death was reported Saturday in Clackamas County.
“The elderly male who died was in his home that had a non-functioning air conditioner,” the county said in a news release. The medical examiner’s office is investigating the official cause of death.
Five other suspected heat-related deaths happened in Multnomah, Clackamas, Umatilla and Marion counties, Oregon State Police spokesperson Mindy McCartt said Friday.
The official causes of those deaths are also under investigation, McCartt said.
The temperature at Portland International Airport reached or exceeded 95 degrees for “6 straight days, with 3 of those at or just above 100,” the National Weather Service said Saturday.
Portland remains under an excessive heat warning Sunday, the weather service said.
But the heat wave scorching the Northwest will ease up this week.
The most extreme temperatures have shifted away from the coast and into interior portions of the Northwest, Brink said Sunday.
“This dome of heat will shift into the northern Plains by Tuesday and into the Midwest by Wednesday,” she said. “And even the Northeast will get into above average temperatures by Thursday and Friday.”
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