1:50
Heat waves also exacerbate the megadrought that's affected much of the region for decades, leaving even less water to maintain local biodiversity and for agriculture, said O'Neill, adding that a lot of the vegetation in the area is \"drought-stressed.\"
\"There becomes less water available to evaporate, so we can actually get a little bit hotter on top of that, further drying the landscape,\" he said.
Even if Seattle doesn't reach 100 degrees F, the duration of the upcoming event looks to be longer than other periods of hot weather in the area and that's \"concerning for more adverse heat impacts as the heat lingers throughout the region,\" Bumbaco said.
One concern is that residents in the area, while acclimated to the damp, rainy climate, are not equipped with air conditioning, making any heat wave much more dangerous.
\"When there's not relief at night, and people don't have access to air conditioning, then we're gonna see a lot more heat-related illnesses and stress,\" O'Neill said.
![\"PHOTO:](\"http://a.abcnews.com/images/US/heat-wave-abc-rc-210624_1624555370534_hpEmbed_16x9_384.jpg\")
Residents may eventually have to invest in some sort of home-cooling method as heat waves become \"more frequent\" as global temperatures continue warming, Bumbaco said.
\"With increasing frequency of heat waves expected and warmer nights already observed, cooling homes at night will become -- and frankly, already has become -- more difficult without AC,\" she said.
Heat watches and warnings are currently stretching from California to Washington, bringing attention to underserved populations that do not have the luxury of hiding from the heat.
Some empirical climate context before the extreme Pacific Northwest heat arrives this weekend: summer temperatures have been rising in Washington and Oregon over the past century. Both OR's and WA's hottest summer on record have occurred in the past 6 years. #WAwx #ORwx pic.twitter.com/eLkGlNzges
— Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) June 24, 2021
Intense heat waves also can adversely affect underserved populations, creating for them a \"major challenge,\" Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, told ABC News.
The homeless, agricultural workers, many of whom are undocumented, and other outdoor workers are affected by urban heat islands and lack of access to cool spaces, making it likely that they will feel some of the most intense effects of heat waves, Fleishman said.
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