A brutal heat wave hitting Texas this week has the Lone Star State competing with parts of the Middle East and Africa for the world’s hottest places.
Several cities in Texas have reached or exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit, temperatures not uncommon in Kuwait City, Baghdad or Djibouti, according to weather reports.
Carlos Rodríguez digs post holes in Houston on Tuesday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said power topped 80,000 megawatts (MW) Tuesday evening, surpassing the grid’s previous record since July 20, 2022. More records were expected to be broken this week as more people use electricity.
The heat sweeping through Texas and Louisiana has already been blamed for at least 13 deaths, extending government warnings of dangerous triple-digit temperatures eastward into Mississippi and Tennessee.
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Midweek temperatures were expected to top 100 degrees across much of the Southeast, and high humidity was expected to push heat index values above 115 degrees in some areas.
Among the victims of the heat was a man who died Sunday afternoon in Shreveport, Louisiana, the second heat-related death in the state in an unseasonably warm June. The 49-year-old man from the neighboring city of Bossier had been found lying on a sidewalk in Shreveport, where Sunday’s temperature reached 97 degrees, 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the average for the date.
The June 21 death of a 62-year-old woman in Keithville was also blamed on the heat. She was found by family members after several days without power due to previous severe storms, the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said.
Issac Bowman rides his bike on dirt trails in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Eleven of the Texas heat-related deaths occurred in Webb County, which includes Laredo. The dead were in their 60s and 80s and many had underlying health conditions, according to Dr. Corinne Stern, Webb County medical examiner, who said the level of heat in the county was unprecedented.
“The vast majority don’t have air conditioning in their homes. Either they have the fans off, or they have fans on but there’s no proper ventilation,” Stern said. “There have been at least one or two that have air conditioning but don’t want to run it because of the bill.”
Two Florida hikers also died while hiking in extreme heat in Big Bend National Park.
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The heat has prompted the U.S. Postal Service to allow earlier start times for letter carriers, according to the National Association of Letter Carriers Lone Star Branch. This comes on the heels of the death of a Texas mailman who died on June 20 in nearly triple-digit heat. The carrier’s cause of death was still under investigation Wednesday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Bradford Betz is a reporter for Fox News Digital who covers crime, political issues and more.
