BART Train Derailed Due To Extreme Heat

 San Francisco Metro Area, CA

About 50 passengers had to be evacuated Tuesday after a Bay Area Rapid Transit train derailed in Concord, CA. (Credit: Contra Costa County Fire Protection District)

A Bay Area Rapid Transit train derailed last week after scalding-hot tracks warped rail lines out of alignment, BART said. Built for heat up to 115°F, the rails hit 140°F last Tuesday. Extreme heat has blanketed much of the U.S. over the past weeks, with tens of millions under heat advisories. The East Bay derailment appears to be unprecedented — an agency spokesperson could not conclusively declare no train had ever derailed because of heat in the past, but a search of news archives found nothing since at least 2005.

(San Francisco Chronicle $, LA Times $; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

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