Southern Scorcher as Heat Wave Slams South and Midwest
Dorothy wouldn’t want to go back to Kansas today.
The National Weather Service has issued excessive heat warnings for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Nebraska, Illinois, Iowa, Arizona and Kansas, with records being broken in the state Dorothy called home.
Temperatures reached 108 F in Wichita, Kan. yesterday and are expected to be over 100 for the next week.
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It’s been a hot summer for the Sunflower state as it just recorded its fifth hottest July on record. Kansas State University climatologist Mary Knapp said it has been 5.8 degrees higher than normal, with a combined day and night average of 84.7 degrees.
In south central Kansas, however, this July was the hottest ever. The average temperature was 88.5 degrees, 7 degrees above average, Reuters said.
According to Knapp, the previous record goes all the way back to the Dust Bowl days of 1934, when they had an average of 87.8 F.
Reuters also reported that the hottest day in Kansas last month was a scorching 116 degrees in the south central town of Medicine Lodge. That thermometer-bursting afternoon broke the previous record of 114 degrees, set back in 1985.
In other states, the heat wave has proved to be just as dangerous as it is hot.
Trash haulers in Omaha were hospitalized from the intense heat, leaving large amounts of uncollected trash rotting in the street. Temperatures there hit 98 degrees.
Kansas City, Missouri, passed its all-time heat record by five degrees when temperatures reached 109 yesterday. According to the city’s health department, this summer’s heat wave has caused 21 deaths.
And in Warner Robins, GA, more tragedy struck as a three year-old boy died of a heatstroke. Macon.com reported the boy was accidentally locked in a car by his daycare provider for an hour before being discovered.
