Extreme heat shatters records across Western US

All-time heat records were shattered this week in Western states as temperatures rose 10 to 30 degrees above average and caught more than 40 million people in the sweltering weather.

Death Valley, California, reached 124 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, making it the hottest place in the country and, as experts suggested, perhaps the most blistering spot in the world. High temperatures in Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nevada, and Arizona also broke heat records.

Billings, Montana, broke its all-time heat record by 10 degrees, reaching 108 on thermometers. Similarly, Chula Vista, California, reached temperatures of 89 degrees, 13 degrees higher than its previous record.