Death toll from this week's California heat wave 116

CLOVIS, California - The death toll from this week's brutal heat wave in California has reached at least 116, state officials said today, as record temperatures finally eased.

The state's Office of Emergency Services said it had confirmed 63 deaths from heat stress, with another 53 fatalities believed to be linked to the extreme weather. The numbers could rise as county official updated their tallies.

"This is the worst in recent memory," said Howard Backer, a medical consultant for emergency preparedness for the California Department of Health Services.

"Temperatures are coming down, but there is a little bit of a lag from the time the temperatures come down until the health risks resolve."

Most of the dead were elderly, with the youngest 20 and the oldest 95 in Imperial County in the far south of the state.

Especially hard hit over the past week was the state's Central Valley, a major farming area. In Fresno, temperatures had exceeded 44.5 degC for five days in a row, the longest such streak since 1898.

"We have cooling that's coming off the coast and it's cooling things down to a normal situation," said National Weather Service forecaster Randy Calaway.

Normal this time of year for Fresno is still hot, with the average high July temperatures 36 degrees.

Many people continued to suffer inconveniences after a week in which more than two million Californians went without electricity at some point amid record demand for power.

- REUTERS