Sweltering heat wave engulfs California

SACRAMENTO, California — Swaths of California sweltered on Tuesday and things were only expected to get worse during the Fourth of July holiday week for parts of the United States, with nearly 90 million people under heat alerts.

The torrid conditions were being caused by a ridge of high pressure just off the West Coast and a separate ridge that spawned heat warnings and advisories from Kansas to Missouri and the Gulf Coast states, the National Weather Service said.

John Mendoza, 35, called it a "fire hose of heat" as he walked around the Capitol on Tuesday with an iced coffee in his hand. By 9 am, he had already been in a pool once — and planned to go back later in the day.