Dangerously high heat builds in California and the south-central United States

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Swaths of California sweltered Tuesday and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts.

The torrid conditions were being caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas and Missouri to the Gulf Coast states, according to the National Weather Service.

California’s capital, Sacramento, was under an excessive heat warning expected to last until Sunday night, with temperatures forecasted to reach between 105 degrees and 115 degrees (40.5 and 46 Celsius).

John Mendoza, 35, called it a “firehose of heat” as he walked around the Capitol on Tuesday morning with an iced coffee in his hand. By 9 a.m. he had already been in a pool once — and planned to go back later in the day.

“I felt like I needed to be submerged in water,” he said.

With the temperatures rising before noon in Sacramento, Katherine Powers sought refuge in the shade of Cathedral Square. Powers, who is homeless, sipped sparkling water while resting her bare feet on the shaded sidewalk.

Powers said she had loaned her shoes to a friend. She had not yet visited one of Sacramento County’s nine “cooling centers,” she said, because of the difficulty in bringing all the possessions she carries.

“I’m just going to go to a park with a water fountain just t...