NPR News: 07-04-2026 4AM EDT

Speaker 10:00

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Dale Willman· Host0:16

Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. The extreme heat that's broiled much of the Eastern US for the past several days is beginning to fade a bit, at least for now. It brought record temperatures to some areas and caused stress, particularly for those who live in cities. Ashley Ward of Duke University's Heat Policy Innovation Hub says that's because of something called the heat island effect.

Ashley Ward· Soundbite0:39

Places that we live and our built environment hold on to heat that's absorbed during the day. So what happens is overnight, those things like pavement and buildings, they absorb that heat. I mean, they absorb it during the day and release it slowly at night. Um, so this is one of the reasons why we see, um, overnight temperatures remaining persistently high.

Dale Willman· Host1:00

Hot, dry weather and strong winds, meanwhile, are driving wildfires around the west. In southern, southeastern Colorado, the Aspen Acres fire has consumed more than eighty-one thousand acres and is zero percent contained. From member station KRCC, Shana Lewis has more.

Shana Lewis1:15

The fire started early Monday morning. Since then, thousands of people have evacuated from small rural communities in the forested mountains west of the city of Pueblo. Sid Heptic only had about an hour to pack up and leave.

Sid Heptic· Soundbite1:29

A firefighter