Record heat grips much of U.S.

NEW YORK, July 16 (UPI) -- Hot weather gripped much of the United States Sunday, with temperatures reaching into the 100s in some areas.

Heat advisories were in effect from coast to coast and energy consumption broke records in many states as people tried to stay cool.

In interior California, scorching temperatures were forecast to meet or exceed Saturday highs of 104 degrees in Burbank, 110 in Woodland Hills and 107 in Yucca Valley. Indio, Calif., 130 miles east of Long Beach, registered an all-time high of 122, coming close to the nation's high temperature of 125 degrees at Death Valley, Calif., the Los Angeles Times reports.

"It's never been this hot," said Pam Ritchie, a San Fernando Valley native who was melting ice cubes on her wrists while she watched her son play baseball.

Temperatures were expected to reach into the triple digits in many areas of the Plains, Southwest and Great Basin, the National Weather Service said.

Chicago and all of Cook County were under an excessive heat warning, with heat indexes expected to be between 100 and 105 degrees, WBBM-TV reports.

The Northeast and Southeast expected temperatures to hit the mid- to upper 90s, with the National Weather Service calling temperatures in New York "dangerously hot," the New York Post reports.

Temperatures remained in the mid- to upper 90s in the Upper Midwest.

Tom Noonan, a 22-year-old truck driver delivering bags of ice to parts of Iowa, told the Des Moines Register his job was one of the few where "you can get frostbite and heat exhaustion at the same time."