‘A harrowing summer’: extreme weather costs hit US as 60m under heat alerts

States face challenges getting federal aid amid dwindling Fema funds and laws that don't consider heat a climate disaster

The spiraling costs of extreme weather in the US are hitting hard as more than 60 million Americans are under heat alerts this week, experts say, even though federal law does not explicitly consider heatwaves to be climate disasters.

Temperatures on Tuesday climbed toward record highs across the north-east, upper midwest and mid-Atlantic, with the south also bracing for soaring temperatures later in the week.