Severe storms target 30 million Americans as wildfires, heat persist

Powerful storms targeted 30 million Americans Wednesday from the Rockies to the Carolina Coast, while wildfire smoke and extreme heat continued to grip much of the country. Firefighters were also battling nearly three dozen large wildfires out West, with wind, hail, flooding, heat illness and grid strain in play.

ABC News put 160 million people in 30 states under extreme-temperature alerts, with heat indexes reaching as high as 110 degrees in some places. The U.S. Department of Energy declared an emergency as the heat wave bore down on a huge part of the nation’s electrical grid, underscoring the pressure on utilities as air-conditioning demand climbed during peak summer use. Earlier in the holiday period, more than 75 million people had been in the severe-storm threat zone.

Dangerous, record-breaking heat continued across parts of the central and eastern United States, with heat indices expected to exceed 100 degrees in some areas. The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center forecast a broad area of extreme heat across the western, central and southeastern contiguous United States through mid-July 2026. The early-July heat wave broke numerous record highs across the central and eastern United States.

National Preparedness Level 4 was in effect as of June 29, 2026, and the National Interagency Fire Center recorded 167 new fires nationwide on July 8. Hot, dry and windy conditions fed wildfires in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in early July, keeping fire crews on alert across the West.