Extreme heat is scorching the deep south, like multiple deaths have already been reported in several statesincluding a postman from Dallas and a 62-year-old woman in Caddo Parish, Louisiana.
The Wednesday heat index, or what the temperature feels like taking into account the humidity, was expected to be 122 degrees Fahrenheit in some parts of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. A heat-induced storm spawned a tornado that killed three people Matador, Texas on Wednesday night. Storms in Tulsa, Oklahoma region lead to “biggest day in our history” for emergency medical services Wednesday in the region.
[Related: Heat is the silent killer we should all be worried about.]
“This chaos is our reality right now,” Adam Paluka, a spokesman for the Emergency Medical Services Authority in Tulsa, told the New York Times.
Earlier this week, the heat sparked a series of tornadoes and storms that took off hundreds of thousands of people without power. Since Thursday morning 104,679 Texan homes were without power, including two regions in the central part of the state with power outages across most of the country.
The intense heat dome is expected to continue for the rest of the week, and possibly into the July 4 holiday. According to the New York Times, this heat dome is the result of a high-pressure back in the atmosphere. NOAA’s Weather Forecast Center said Thursday morning that “there really is no end in sight to the excessive heat that has plagued Texas/Southeastern New Mexico in particular over the past few days.” Going into next week, NOAA continues, 100-degree or more heat could spread farther east into the Lower Mississippi Valley (which includes parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee, according to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation). The desert southwest could also see similar high temperatures, similar to predictions for what is the region’s hottest season of the year.
Extreme heat waves, such as those in the US and elsewhere on the planet, are influenced by multiple factors, including climate change and El Niño climate patterns listed on the National Weather Service’s. radar since earlier this summer. While El Niño is a naturally occurring climate event, when combined with the effects of climate change, the potential impacts could make 2023 the hottest year in human history.
“Earth’s natural climate cycle and human-induced climate are not independent of each other,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA. PopSci in May.
[Related: El Niño is back—here’s what that means.]
Heat waves can cause a host of health risks to humans, either directly from exposure to temperature extremes or from power outages. In both cases, marginalized communities are at greater risk due to pre-existing energy insecurity.
“As our power grid ages and climate change worsens, we need to understand who is affected by power outages,” Joan Casey, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health sciences at the University of Washington, told me. PopSci in May.
If you are in an area currently experiencing extreme heat and unreliable power supplies, watch for signs of heat stroke or exhaustion, drink plenty of fluids, and try to cool down your house in the event of a power failure.