AUSTIN, Texas — Summer heat hit Texas and the Southwest on Wednesday, with Phoenix seeing triple-digit temperatures for nearly 90 consecutive days and extreme heat advisories issued for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Meanwhile, energy demand in Texas reached an unofficial high on Tuesday, in response to the state grid operator.
A serious heat warning is in effect for Texas, referring to what the weather service describes as “rare and/or prolonged extreme heat with little to no overnight relief.” An extreme heat warning has been issued for eastern New Mexico.
This area of high pressure, sometimes called a heat dome, is a slow-moving high-pressure system within the upper atmosphere with stable air and a deep layer of high temperatures, said meteorologist Bryan Jackson.
“It's usually sunny, the sun is blazing, it's hot and the air is thick there,” Jackson said. “There are about a dozen locations that set records on a daily basis … mostly over Texas.”
Record temperatures were expected in cities corresponding to Corpus Christi, San Antonio and Amarillo. In Phoenix, monsoon rains have provided temporary relief since Sunday, although day by day highs remain above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The dome is anticipated to maneuver into western Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico starting Saturday after which into the center Mississippi Valley, where it’s forecast to weaken somewhat, Jackson said.
An extreme heat warning has been issued for around 14.7 million people, with heat indices expected to be 43.3 degrees Celsius and above. A heat warning has been issued for an additional 10 million people.
In Fort Worth, Texas, a whole bunch sought emergency care in August due to the heat, in response to MedStar Ambulance. The service responded to 286 heat-related emergency calls in the primary 20 days of August, about 14 per day, in comparison with about 11 per day in August 2023, in response to spokeswoman Desiree Partain.
Christa Stedman, captain of Austin-Travis County EMS, said the world across the Texas State Capitol has seen about yet one more call per day for heat-related illnesses since April 1 than a yr ago, regardless that July was barely milder this yr.
“In the vast majority of cases, we see heat exhaustion. That's good because we recognize it before heat stroke occurs. But it's also bad because people don't pay attention to the warning signs,” says Stedman, corresponding to heat cramps within the arms, legs or stomach, which warn that the body is getting too hot.
Despite record heat in Texas, residents weren’t asked to scale back their energy use as in previous years, in contrast to the 11 energy conservation prompts issued last yr. One reason is that the agency that manages Texas' independent energy grid and deregulated providers has been improving the grid's capability to higher manage supply and demand, said Doug Lewin, energy consultant and president of Stoic Energy.
However, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas' criteria for determining when residents are asked to conserve energy have also been modified because they’re ineffective and unpopular, Lewin said.
“I don't think they're seeing that much of a reduction in warnings,” Lewin said of ERCOT. In fact, public outcry against the conservation warnings has led the agency to send out fewer of them, he continued.
“When deciding whether conservation measures need to be taken, many factors are taken into account on a case-by-case basis and depending on local conditions,” said Trudi Webster, communications manager, on the topic.
“It's been a hot summer, but this one stands out for its extremes,” said meteorologist Jackson.
As the European climate agency Copernicus announced on Thursday, a series of 13 consecutive months with a brand new global heat record got here to an end last July with the decline of the natural climate phenomenon El Niño.
Lathan is a member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-reported issues.
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