Bridge breaking heat: Chicago fire department hoses down bridges as sweltering temperatures expand metal and block river access on day four of suffocating heat dome – with no end in sight

Monday, July 2, 2018
By Paul Martin

The Chicago Fire Department was caught on video hosing down the Michigan Avenue bridge on Saturday
Record-breaking heat wave caused the bridge’s steel beams to expand and block river access to boats
Dangerous ‘heat domes’ are covering much of US spanning from North Carolina to Maine, weather experts say
Up to 18 states issued heat advisories and afternoon highs are expected to be 10 to 20 degrees above normal

By VALERIE EDWARDS and EMILY CRANE
DAILYMAIL.COM
2 July 2018

The Chicago Fire Department was forced to hose down bridges after the record-breaking heat caused them to expand and block river access to boats as millions of people across the Northeast brace for day four of the suffocating heat wave.

Video shows the moment a boat from the fire department propelled water onto the steel beams of the Michigan Avenue bridge on Saturday.

Chicago has several ‘movable bridges’ made of steel that raise up and let boats pass through.

But in extreme heat cases, the steel expands and causes the bridge to become inoperable and unable to raise up or close.

The sweltering heat is expected to continue baking the majority of the US for the rest of the week as temperatures are predicted to drop after the Fourth of July.

More than 113 million Americans are under heat warnings or advisories stretching from the Mississippi Valley, up to Philadelphia, Chicago and bending over to New York, Boston, Baltimore and Washington DC, said Patrick Burke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

‘Hot is the only word for it,’ Burke said.

A bubble of high pressure air floating over northern Tennessee is to blame, Burke said, locking the hot air in a large swath of the eastern US.

Meteorologists described the rising three digit temperatures experienced in many parts of the country as ‘relentless’ and ‘dangerous’.

The temperatures are forecast to continue in the next few days with numerous heat advisories and excessive heat warnings in effect from Memphis to Michigan as well as for the Mid-Atlantic to northern New England regions.

The National Weather Service (NWS) tweeted: ‘Dangerous heat wave will continue from the Plains to the Midwest, Mid Atlantic, and the Northeast US through the Independence Day Holiday.

‘High temperatures pushing 100 degrees will be possible in the major I-95 cities.’

The NWS also warned people to ‘limit outdoor exposure, especially during peak heating’.

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