A heat wave brought record-high temperatures to US Midwest states this week, with more than 60 million people included in alerts over the conditions.

The US National Weather Service (NWS) said a late-season high-pressure system over cities in the Midwest regions, such as Chicago, Des Moines, and Topeka, has left them experiencing rare extreme heat for a long period of time. The NWS warned the public of the combined dangers of heat and humidity associated with heat waves. US Midwest states have set up several public cooling centres in preparation for the dangerous heat.

According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, extreme heat together with humidity is one of the leading weather-related killers in the United States. Every year, approximately 1,220 people in the country are killed due to extreme heat.