'Brutal' Heat Wave Bakes Pacific Northwest

A heat wave continues to pummel the Pacific Northwest, the AP reports, though tomorrow will likely bring some relief. Temperatures at Seattle’s airport could easily break the 1994 record of 100 degrees today; yesterday, temps in Portland came within 1 degree of the 1984 record of 107. The region is ill-prepared, and emergency cooling stations have been set up.

“The thing about a place like Portland is there are some buildings and residences that don’t have air conditioning,” a National Weather Service meteorologist says. The owner of a Portland restaurant says a friend from Hawaii “pretty much just flew in to run the shaved ice machine,” and a Home Depot sold out of newly delivered air conditioners in a matter of hours. (More Pacific Northwest stories.)