Heat wave persists from Plains through Southeast
Pastor Dale Morgan
Heat wave persists from Plains through Southeast*
There are two good reasons anyone in Memphis could have "a hunk of
burning love" on the brain this week.
One, it's Elvis Week, when thousands of fans will turn out to mark the
30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. Two, the temperatures
are forecast to be above 100 for the next five days.
It hasn't been this hot in Memphis since 1954, when Elvis was
experimenting with rock 'n' roll at Sun Records and singing around town
atop flatbed trucks.
Temperatures in Memphis were expected to climb to 105 degrees on Monday,
which would be the fourth consecutive day of triple-digit highs.
"It's going to be nasty hot," National Weather Service meteorologist
Todd Beal said.
Temperatures in Memphis will likely set records through Thursday, with
humidity climbing as the week goes on.
"For someone who's not from around this area, it could be a somewhat
stressful time," Beal said.
Elvis Week organizers have set up free water and ice stations for fans
who feel their temperatures risin'.
"We have, of course, emergency personnel on the property," Graceland
spokeswoman Regina Jackson said. "There's not a lot we can do. It's just
going to be hot."
Jackson said organizers do not plan to educate the many international
fans who may not be familiar with Southern heat.
"If you get hot, you do what you got to do," Jackson said. "There's not
a whole lot we can do about that."
Since the heat wave began Aug. 3, at least 52 people went to hospital
emergency rooms in Memphis because of heat-related health problems and
one person has died, health authorities said.
Tennessee's heat wave extends well past Memphis.
This month is on track to be the hottest August on record in Nashville,
the weather service says.
Since Aug. 7, the high has topped 100 degrees each day but Saturday,
when it reached 99. Average temperatures in Nashville are tracking more
than 4 degrees hotter than August 1995, which averaged 83.3 degrees.
The medical examiner is investigating whether a high school football
referee who died on the field Friday during a game in the Nashville
suburb of Brentwood may have suffered from heat exhaustion.
Even spots in the state that normally are cool are hitting record highs.
Clingmans Dome — the Great Smoky Mountains National Park site and
highest point in Tennessee — hit 72 degrees Friday, tying a record,
National Park Service spokesman Bob Miller said.
In Missouri, the utility company AmerenUE scrambled Monday to restore
power to thousands in the St. Louis area as more triple-digit
temperatures were expected through much of the week. But finally, a
break in the deadly Midwestern heat wave was on the horizon.
A sudden storm developed overnight, bringing rain, high winds and
lightning to much of eastern Missouri. Areas around Mark Twain Lake in
northeast Missouri received more than 2 inches of rain, and some roads
were closed in the Hannibal area as winds knocked down trees and power
lines. The roof was damaged at a car dealership in St. Charles County.
The biggest number of outages was in the St. Louis area, where about
16,000 Ameren customers were still without electricity late Monday
morning. Ameren brought in hundreds of line workers from outside the
region to try and restore power — and air conditioning.
The hot, humid weather that has baked the Midwest the past two weeks is
expected to get worse before it finally gets better. The National
Weather Service forecast a high of 105 degrees on Tuesday in St. Louis,
followed by 104 degrees on Wednesday and 100 degrees on Thursday.
Then — finally — a break.
"We'll have hot days through Thursday, but by the weekend highs will be
85 to 90 degrees," National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Pedigo
said. "Then there's going to be a cloudy, wet period next week."
Computer models show a potential hurricane moving toward the Gulf Coast
by the middle of next week, a storm that could impact weather in the
Midwest, keeping temperatures down and bringing even more rain, Pedigo said.
The storms that hit eastern Missouri late Sunday and early Monday
offered much-needed rain and a brief respite from the heat. But they
also brought damage, mostly from winds reaching up to 80 mph in some spots.
A St. Louis County woman was hurt when she was struck by a falling
branch. Sharon Cohen, 62, of St. John, was in critical condition.
Ameren said the storm left more than 63,000 customers without power at
its peak.
"We have called out all Ameren company crews and available contractor
crews throughout the region," Ameren senior vice president Richard Mark
said.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said there has
been one report of a heat-related death in the state during the heat
wave. The Jackson County Health Department reported Friday that a
47-year-old Jackson County man died because of exposure to excessive heat.
The state health department said there have been 870 reported
heat-related illnesses this year, nearly all of them over the past two
weeks.
The heat wave is believed responsible for three deaths on the Illinois
side of the St. Louis area. A 57-year-old Prairietown man and a
53-year-old Alton man were found dead Thursday in their homes, each
without air conditioning. Routine toxicology tests will be done in both
cases to determine whether drugs or alcohol contributed to the deaths,
authorities said.
Also last week, in East St. Louis, Ill., 87-year-old James Erby was
found dead in a bed in his home, which also lacked air conditioning.
Steve Non-n, the coroner in Madison County, Ill., said the deaths
illustrate the importance of checking on the welfare of neighbors,
especially the vulnerable elderly.
"This is a time of year when it is important to be a busybody, knock on
a door and ask, 'Are you OK?"' Noon said. "It is an act of nosiness that
just may save someone's life."
Sunday's high in St. Louis reached 102 degrees. It was even worse in
other cities. Chesterfield in west St. Louis County reached 105 degrees.
So did Rolla in south-central Missouri. Farmington and West Plains each
got to 104.
This week's highs could approach all-time records. The highest-ever
reading in St. Louis on Aug. 14 was 102 degrees in 1936. That same year,
the reading on Aug. 15 hit a record 104 degrees.
"Those are reachable numbers," Pedigo said.
The heat is breaking records in Alabama as well, with eight straight
days of temperatures over 100 degrees recorded in Montgomery as of
Monday afternoon.
The National Weather Service reported that the temperature in Montgomery
Monday afternoon was 101 degrees, breaking the record seven-day streaks
of 1990, 1954 and 1881.
Tuscaloosa and Birmingham also broke records Monday, with the
temperature going over 100 for a seventh straight day. According to the
weather service, it was 101 in Tuscaloosa and 100 in Birmingham at about
2 p.m. Monday.
The temperature in Montgomery on Sunday reached a record 106 degrees,
which broke the old record for the date set in 1954.
Central Alabama has five to six days of 100-degree temepratures a year
on average, but Sunday marked the 12th day this year for triple digits.
The average high in August is 92.
"Ninety-two. Hell, the way things have gone this week, 92 is fall
weather," Frank Matthews of Millbrook told the Montgomery Advertiser.
A high pressure area over Alabama is to blame for the heat wave, but a
tropical wave off the coast of Africa could bring some change.
"It's a long way off — five to seven days — and a lot of things can
change from now to then," said Scott Unger, a meteorologist with the NWS
office in Birmingham. "But models call for it to make it to the Gulf. It
doesn't even have to get to Alabama. It can just come our way and it
might shake things up enough to kick this high pressure out of here."