Scorching heat blamed for at least 13 deaths in Texas and another in Louisiana has blanketed more of the US Southeast, stretching government warnings of dangerous temperatures eastward into Mississippi and Tennessee.
California, meanwhile, was facing its first major heat wave of the year. The National Weather Service warned that the dry, hot, windy conditions were ripe for dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. Mid-week temperatures were forecast to surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38C) in much of the Southeast and high humidity was expected to push heat index values above 115 degrees (46C) in some areas.
Lingering power outages after weekend storms compounded the heat-related misery in Arkansas, with more than 10,000 residents still without power in the central part of the state.
Among the heat’s casualties was a man who died late on Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, the second heat-related death in the state in an unusually warm June.
The death of a 62-year-old woman on June 21 in Keithville also was blamed on heat. Relatives found her after she had spent several days without electricity because of earlier severe storms, the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said. In southeast Louisiana, the National Weather Service office in Slidell issued an excessive heat warning on June 16, the earliest in the year it has ever done so for that area, a meteorologist said.
Eleven of the Texas heat-related deaths occurred in Webb County, which includes Laredo. The dead ranged in age from 60 to 80-years-old and many had underlying health conditions, according to Webb County Medical Examiner Dr Corinne Stern, who said the level of heat in the county was unprecedented.
The area has a higher poverty rate than the state average and that compounds the suffering, Dr Stern said.
“The vast majority do not have air conditioning in their homes. They either have the fans off, or they have fans on but not proper ventilation,” she said. “There has been at least one or two that have air conditioning but don’t want to run it due to the bill.”
Two Florida hikers also died while hiking in extreme heat at Big Bend National Park. The heat has prompted the US Postal Service to allow earlier starting times for letter carriers, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers Lonestar Branch.
This comes after the death of a letter carrier who died on June 20 in sweltering heat. The cause of the carrier’s death was still under investigation on Wednesday. The unusually high temperatures were brought on by a heat dome that has taxed the Texas power grid and brought record highs to parts of the state, according to meteorologists.
That dome is spreading eastward and by the weekend is expected to be centered over the mid-South, said meteorologist Bryan Jackson with the National Weather Service in College Pak, Maryland. Texas temperatures should then begin to drop slightly.
“It’s relief from the extreme heat,” Mr Jackson said. “It’s not really an end to a heat wave; it’s just an end to the extreme part of the heat wave.”
