Heat wave will impact agricultural workers in California

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Heat wave headed for Western U.S. as extremes hit Gulf Coast, globe An early to mid-June heat wave is likely to take place across large parts of the U.S., the National Weather Service warns.

Such forecasts are a death threat for tens of thousands of agricultural workers across the country, a silent workforce that is largely comprised of undocumented immigrants who work full shifts beneath an increasingly intense sun.

With meteorological summer kicking off on June 1, this will mark the first big heat wave of the 2024 warm season — and is expected to swamp areas from California to Colorado, north to Canada, and south to the Mexican border.

It will also be a stark departure from recent conditions in the West.

Threat level: More significantly, computer models are hinting this wave will not be fleeting, but may come to dominate much of June in the West and possibly beyond that.

NWS’ Climate Prediction Center forecasters are highlighting the period from June 4-8 as being particularly hot across the Great Basin and inland California, although the entire West is likely to be affected.

Excessive heat is especially likely in California’s Central Valley region, where unusually high temperatures are especially dangerous for agricultural workers.

The heat wave, which NWS describes as “persistent,” will result from a building high pressure area (or heat dome) that is projected to park itself across the West during early-to-mid-June.

The heat wave may come to overstay its welcome, too.

Some of this heat may be borrowed, initially flowing north from the heat dome that’s repeatedly broken all-time temperature records across Mexico and Central America, bringing severe drought conditions.

In this sense, the upcoming setup may involve one heat wave seeding another.

In a forecast discussion on Thursday morning, NWS meteorologists said high temperatures will run 10-15°F above average across the West, with even greater anomalies of 15 to 20°F degrees or greater, for the Central California valleys and parts of the Great Basin by late next week.

Over 70% of world’s workforce exposed to excessive heat each year, UN finds