Heatwave kills Texas, tests power grid, suffocates South

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Much of the United States felt like a blazing inferno on Wednesday, as record-breaking heat attacked the South like a blowtorch, thick smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketed the Great Lakes region and temperatures in the triple digits threatened to hit California for the first time this year.

Scientists say climate change has helped shape weather patterns that are causing misery and endangering lives from Mexico to Canada. There was no doubt about the impact: if it wasn’t too smoky, it was too hot.

Everyone says, “We were used to the heat, but not this high,” said Mayor Victor Trevio of Laredo, Texas, who recorded temperatures of 115 degrees last week, matching his all-time high. There have been nine heat-related deaths, Webb County Medical Examiner Corinne Stern told county commissioners on Monday, adding that I think our county was caught a little off guard.

While Laredo and elsewhere in the South were caught off guard by the heat, much of the rest of the country was getting an unexpected dose of appalling air quality due to dense smoke from the wildfires pouring in from Canada. Smoke-related air quality alerts were in effect for parts of some 17 states, covering nearly a third of the US population.

Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis were among the cities with the worst air quality in the world on Wednesday, according to IQAir. According to AirNow.gov, the unhealthy code red and purple conditions extended from eastern Iowa to Chicago and the lower Great Lakes region and into Appalachia.

Poor air quality due to smoke from wildfires in Canada will continue through Thursday, Chicago’s National Weather Service wrote on Twitter. Everyone should avoid prolonged outdoor activity, and those with chronic respiratory problems should stay indoors if possible.

Several U.S. cities were under air quality alerts on June 28 as smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted from the Midwest to the East Coast. (Video: The Washington Post)

An exceptionally rare Code Maroon was recorded in Decatur, Illinois at noon. This is the worst level on the scale and considered dangerous. Chippewa, Ohio, was also reporting Code Maroon conditions.

Cities seeing very unhealthy Code Purple Wednesday air quality, with an increased health risk to the general public, included Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Indianapolis and Cedar Rapids in Iowa.

The smoke forecast changed, sometimes quickly. After lingering in Code Orange territory on Wednesday, DC, Maryland and Virginia were considering more dangerous Code Red conditions for Thursday, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.

Between wildfire smoke and heat, you can choose your poison, said Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University.

They are different things, but the common factor is climate change, Dessler said. Heat waves occur naturally, as do fires, but climate change is making heat waves more intense and fires more intense.

Such phenomena are likely to only get worse in the years to come, but a stalled Congress has no intention of taking action on the climate beyond the Inflation Reduction Act passed last year. last. That leaves additional effort to states, where approaches vary wildly. Some liberal states, particularly California, have taken aggressive steps to pass climate legislation, while conservative states like Texas have taken little or no action.

We’re seeing a climate that didn’t exist before, Alice Hill, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Wednesday during a Washington Post live event on extreme weather. We just don’t have what we need for a climate degraded environment, and we’re way behind in land use choices, building codes, the kind of changes that would keep us much more in safety in a warmer and more dangerous world.

Relief from wildfire smoke and the Southern heat wave was on the horizon, but not for several days.

The National Weather Service in Houston warned that heat indices above 108 were threatening this weekend.

If you thought about yourself, the Self is like a raging hell for a while. Well, here’s an assurance that it did indeed feel spicy for what seems like an eternity. Heat indexes were in the triple digits for most of June, the agency said Tuesday night on Twitter.

According to Washington Post tracking, 59 million people in the United States were at risk of dangerous heat exposure on Wednesday, mostly in Texas and other Southern states including Florida.

Officials in several cities have pleaded with members of the public to stay indoors, conserve power if possible, and use cooling centers that were opening at public libraries in Dallas, Houston and elsewhere.

Everyone is at risk for a heat emergency this year because we have such high heat so early in the year, Houston Health Department chief medical officer David Persse said in an interview on Wednesday. NBC affiliate station KPRC2 in Houston.

Preliminary figures from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the grid serving most of the state, said demand between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Tuesday surpassed the previous record set in July 2022.

San Antonio Fire Department spokesman Woody Woodward said there has been a 53% increase in heat-related calls so far in June, compared to the same period a year ago. one year old.

I don’t remember seeing it on so many consecutive days that it feels like 110, 112, and 114, Woodward said in an interview.

Many temperature records have been broken in Texas since the heat wave began more than three weeks ago.

Temperatures have regularly topped 100 degrees across much of the state, including the southwestern Texas village of Rio Grande near the Mexican border, which hit a record high of 118 degrees. In Corpus Christi, the heat index reached 125 degrees.

The National Weather Service said the heat would spread from Texas to the lower Mississippi Valley and south-central through Thursday.

Excessive heat warnings and heat advisories were in effect Wednesday in parts of 14 states. The hottest area on Wednesday stretched from central Texas north through central Oklahoma to southeastern Kansas and southwestern Missouri, where many places were expecting warmer temperatures. high temperatures at least 10-15 degrees above normal.

Temperatures are expected to reach near or above 100 degrees across much of Texas, southern New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana from Wednesday through Friday, with hints heat reaching 110 to 120 degrees.

The dangerous heat is expected to extend deeper into Missouri, Mississippi, Illinois, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle on Thursday, and into Georgia this weekend.

Many areas outside of Texas will experience their most significant heat of the season, the National Weather Service said in a summary of key heat wave messages. The increase in heat danger persists this week due to the longevity of this ongoing heatwave with record overnight lows and elevated heat index readings during the day. Having ways to cool down and limiting your exposure to heat is essential.

Forecasters said the heat dome, a large high-pressure area that traps heat below responsible for the heat wave, is expected to weaken late this weekend through next week, which should allow temperatures to cool down a bit during the week of July 4th.

But if the South is in line for a break, other locations could be hit instead. After months of relatively cool temperatures, California was facing its first major heat wave of the season, with triple-digit temperatures threatening the states’ Central Valley.

California’s unusually wet winter seeped into soil and plant life, somewhat thwarting the fire risk, officials said. At the same time, the record snowpack produced rapid currents in rivers across the region, leading the Weather Service to warn residents to be careful when trying to cool off in local bodies of water. , many of which also remain frigid after the cold winter.

Ian Livingston and Matthew Cappucci contributed to this report.

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