Other than CA I want to know where this alleged heatwave occurred. It was cooler than normal here in the CO Rockies, cooler than normal where you are and cooler than normal on the Atlantic seaboard.
I didn't keep track of the rest of the country but I haven't heard of any unusually high temps.
Seattle has had one of the worst Summers in my memory.
Five straight weeks of temperatures 5-15 degrees above normal.
“Normal” is usually in the 70s for this time of year.
We have had a huge high pressure dome just sitting over this region for weeks. It pulls super heated air from the central California valleys straight up into Washington state.
If the high pressure was 100 miles further to the east, it would have pulled 95-100 degree air over the Cascades for days on end.
Instead, the high pressure is mostly over the Pacific, which “cools” it to 85-90 degrees, but with tropical humidity levels.
You can't brush your teeth without breaking into a sweat.
In King County (Seattle), only one third of homes have air conditioning.