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California’s notorious Death Valley has claimed another victim: record soaring temperatures killed a motorcyclist this past weekend, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A park ranger told the LA Times that a posse of motorcyclists was riding through Death Valley National Park on Saturday sometime in the afternoon when they became “distressed” by the heat.
After receiving a distress call, first responders arrived at the scene of Badwater Basin, an expanse of salt flats that’s also North America’s lowest geographic point, where Saturday temperatures had spiked to a brain-cooking 128 degrees — a hair’s breadth away from the longstanding record of 134 degrees that was notched on July 10, 1913.
The heat also stymied other rescue efforts when a helicopter couldn’t fly to the bikers’ location, the LA Times reports, due to the extreme hot weather making the air too thin to give enough lift to its blades.
Emergency workers found one person dead at the location, while they transported another biker to Las Vegas for “severe heat illness.” Four people in the biker touring group were also treated but released.
“Yesterday it was 128 degrees, which was a record high for that day in Death Valley,” park ranger Nichole Andler told the LA Times. “[A]nd these folks were traveling through on motorcycles, and most likely they didn’t have adequate cooling.”
The death comes as a ferocious heat wave has set large parts of the country to broil, on both coasts and parts in between. The pervasive heat seems to have also claimed four other souls in Oregon.
And more heat is in store for everybody as human-induced climate change makes heat waves more frequent and more deadly, according to experts.
But the heat death in Death Valley is essentially routine.
Every week, park rangers and first responders get distress calls about people suffering from extreme heat while visiting Death Valley. Of those calls, one to three people die every year.
With large swaths of the country also baking, it’s a good idea to read up on how to avoid any heat-related illness, wherever you are right now, whether it’s Death Valley or Michigan.
Extreme hot temperatures can cause heat stroke, exhaustion, cramps and rashes. Signs from heat-related injury can include high body temperature, excessive sweating, dizziness, confusion, nausea, and death.
Even if you are swimming in a pool or another body of water, you can still become a victim of heat-related illness due to dehydration. Because, believe it or not, you sweat while you swim.
So be sure to rest in shady, cool spots. Get properly hydrated and call 9-11 if the terrible heat is making you ill.
More on heat exhaustion: Experts Fear Horrifying Heat Waves That Could Kill Tens of Thousands of People at Once
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