An oppressive heat wave settled over a wide swath of the U.S. South on Thursday, with temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
By midday on Thursday, more than 35 million people in southern Texas, Louisiana, and Florida were under excessive heat warnings, watches, and advisories extending through the three-day Juneteenth weekend, the National Weather Service said.
US News is reporting that Texas will break records next week as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape the first heat wave of the 2023 summer season, the state’s power grid operator projected on Friday.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state’s power load, has said it has enough resources to meet demand.
However, besides dealing with the oppressive heat wave, Texas and other Gulf Coast states will also be dealing with power outages from severe storms. Over 570,000 homes and businesses in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi were without power early Friday.
Although overall U.S. power demand is projected to ease in 2023 after hitting a record high in 2022, rising economic and population growth is expected to keep boosting electric use in Sun Belt states like Texas.
“It wouldn’t be an active summer weather pattern without oppressive heat and much of Texas and the Deep South will have plenty heading into the beginning of the holiday weekend,” the service said in its forecast, which included the chance of strong thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the region, reports Reuters.
Record-breaking heat index temperatures could reach 115 degrees F (46 C) in cities such as Dallas, Houston, and Austin, the Texas state capital, where officials have opened cooling centers in libraries and park buildings and urged people to drink plenty of water and stay out of the sun.
Meanwhile, on Friday at 12:00 p.m. CST, temperature readings across southern Texas were well above 100 degrees, including in Houston where it felt like 111 degrees F (44 C) and 108 F (42 C) in Galveston.
Southern Louisiana was recording near similar temperatures. New Orleans residents spent the morning under a 96-degree F (36 C) heat index, the weather service said in a tweet. “Dat’s some bayou weather right there,” the agency said in the local parlance.
Triple-digit temperatures and drenching humidity will also smother South Florida over the next several days, including in cities such as Miami and Jupiter, where officials warned residents to not leave pets and children alone in hot vehicles.