Homeless suffer in deadly US heatwave leaving ground too hot to sleep on

For those sleeping on the street, this isn't just a heatwave to be endured - this is a climate crisis they are trying to survive, ITV News' US Correspondent Dan Rivers reports

Homeless people in the US fear dying in the scorching heatwave sweeping the United States as record-breaking temperatures smother cities.

The extreme heat scorching Phoenix, Arizona, has blazed into the record books. Tuesday marks the 19th consecutive day temperatures hit at least 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) in a summer of suffering echoing around much of the globe.

And for too many, the weather is proving not just uncomfortable - but deadly.

"Falling asleep in the heat, it's not good - you die. You die very easily," one person who has been sleeping on the street told ITV News.

Matt Hendry, who was previously homeless and now works to help others currently living on the streets, said the asphalt can reach up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit (93 Celsius.)

"Being out here on the street in this extreme heat is very deadly," he said.

"We hear reports of people passing out and dying, every year people die in the street.

"The asphalt gets almost 200 degrees (Fahrenheit), people get burned all the time and they don't have the water that they need - it's a deadly combination."

No other major city - defined as the 25 most populous in the US - has had any stretch of 110-degree days or 90-degree (32C) nights longer than the heatwave Phoenix has suffered, weather historian Christopher Burt, of the Weather Company, said.

“It’s the longest streak that we’ve ever seen in this country,” said NOAA Climate Analysis Group Director Russell Vose, who chairs a committee on national records.

“When you have several million people subjected to that sort of thermal abuse, there are impacts.”

For Phoenix, it’s not only the brutal daytime highs that are deadly.

The lack of a nighttime cooldown can rob people without access to air conditioning that could give their bodies the break they need to continue to function properly.

With Tuesday’s low of 94F (34C), the city has had nine straight days of temperatures that didn’t go below 90 (32C) at night, breaking another record there, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Salerno, who called it “pretty miserable when you don’t have any recovery overnight.”

On Monday, the city set a record for the hottest overnight low temperature: at 95F (35 Celsius).

Elsewhere, high temperatures have forced thousands to flee Greek coastal resorts as wind-fuelled fires ripped through the countryside.

Evacuees gathered along the coastline or were put up in schools and hotels as Europe also suffers from the sweltering heat.

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