LOS ANGELES (AP) — Saturday’s afternoon knockout round game between France and Paraguay in Philadelphia could be this World Cup tournament’s hottest, posing dangers to the region as well as athletes and tens of thousands of fans in the open-air stadium.A heat wave is expected to continue across the eastern and central U.S. through the end of the week, with peak heat indexes — which combine air temperature with humidity — between 100 F to 115 F (37.78 C to 46.11 C), according to the National Weather Service. High night temperatures will bring little relief and records could be broken. Earlier this week, French players cooled off from temperatures that hit 90 F (32.22 C) with field sprinklers during their match against Sweden in New Jersey.Concerns about extreme heat during the games in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have been growing for months, with some scientists saying that FIFA’s heat safety guidelines are “inadequate” and “impossible to justify,” even for heat acclimatized players. For spectators, that could mean games are slower and less intense.
The world has warmed roughly 1.26 F (0.7 C) in the last three decades since the U.S. last hosted the World Cup, according to the climate monitoring group Berkeley Earth. Global temperature increases intensify and make heat waves and other severe weather more common.
