Global temperatures hit the highest levels in recorded history on Sunday, according to preliminary data from Europe’s top climate monitor — another worrying sign of how human-caused climate change is pushing the planet into dangerous new territory.

A series of videos posted online Monday and Tuesday reveal the brutal aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, the first major summer storm of 2024.

Hurricane Beryl made landfall in the early hours Monday morning along the Texas coast, bringing “life-threatening” conditions to millions of Americans. Footage shared online shows the aftermath of the storm, which is believed to have killed eight people, according to the BBC.

Restoring power to millions of Texans slammed by the deadly and destructive storm Beryl could take days or even weeks, posing a dangerous scenario for residents without air conditioning as triple-digit heat index temperatures hit the state.

Beryl slammed into southern Texas as a Category 1 hurricane Monday, knocking out power to more than 2.5 million homes and leaving at least eight people dead in Texas and Louisiana.

More than 2.1 million people throughout Texas were still without power Tuesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us.

Recovery efforts for Hurricane Beryl are underway after the storm brought damaging winds and heavy rainfall to Southeast Texas Monday. 

The category 1 hurricane killed at least seven people as of Tuesday morning, Harris County Officials confirmed. 

As CenterPoint works to restore electricity to more than 1 million customers, high temperatures are expected Tuesday and throughout the rest of the week. 

An estimated 1,301 people have died during this year’s Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, known as Hajj, due to sweltering temperatures at the Saudi Arabia holy site, CNN reported Sunday, citing Saudi officials.

Hundreds of people are thought to have died during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia - most of them due to extreme heat as temperatures soared past 51C (123F).

AFP news agency quoted an Arab diplomat as saying 658 Egyptians had died. Indonesia said that more than 200 of its nationals had died. India said 98 people were known to have died.

There were not enough medics or basic facilities to protect Hajj pilgrims from the effects of the sweltering heat in Saudi Arabia last week, two pilgrims recently returned from Hajj told CNN, as the official death toll from this year’s Hajj pilgrimage soared to almost 500.

Witnesses said worshipers losing consciousness and walking past bodies covered in white cloth became a norm during the mass religious event.

Summer began Thursday, and Washington, D.C., is preparing for a sizzling first weekend of the season, with temperatures expected to reach as high as 100 degrees.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for Washington, D.C., and surrounding parts of Maryland and Virginia, for much of Saturday. Temperatures are currently forecast to be in the high 90s and low 100s, with the heat index over 105 degrees.

The deadly heatwave that scorched large swaths of Mexico, Central America and the southern US in recent weeks was made 35 times more likely due to human-induced global heating, according to research by leading climate scientists from World Weather Attribution (WWA).

Tens of millions of people have endured dangerous day – and nighttime temperatures as a heat dome engulfed Mexico – a large and lingering zone of high pressure that stretched north to Texas, Arizona and Nevada, and south over Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Human-induced climate change made recent extreme heat in the US south-west, Mexico and Central America around 35 times more likely, scientists say.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group studied excess heat between May and early June, when the US heatwave was concentrated in south-west states including California, Nevada and Arizona.

Extreme temperatures in Mexico also claimed lives during the period.