Texas sees power outages in heat wave for the ages

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44019419/ns/weather/#.TjsSoGNGZhk

The National Weather Service chief calls it a heat wave more intense than any he can remember — and nowhere is it being felt as intensely as in Texas, where high electricity use triggered power outages Thursday and Dallas saw its 34th straight day of triple-digit temperatures.

Thursday afternoon, the power-grid operator in Texas declared an Energy Emergency Alert Level 2, where companies that agree to see temporary power cuts get paid to be dropped.

It also warned that Level 3 — rolling blackouts across the state — might be required later Thursday unless residents and businesses do more to voluntarily reduce electricity use.

Dallas is also well on its way to breaking its record of 42 straight days at 100 or above, set in 1980. The Weather Channel's forecast through Aug. 13, which would be day 43, shows no day with a high below 102 degrees.

So how rough is this heat wave compared to ones in recent summers?

"I can't remember any year with the magnitude and length of this heat wave," Jack Hayes, director of the National Weather Service, told msnbc.com on Thursday.

And it's not just Dallas, or even Texas, for that matter. On Thursday, 14 states from Texas to Virginia were under heat alerts. Several dozen deaths have been tied to the heat since early July.

Though it is hot across much of the South, the "bull's-eye" of the heat is being felt in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana, said National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Jurecka.

Little Rock, Ark., which hit an all-time record high of 114 degrees on Wednesday, faces another stifling 108-degree high on Thursday, Jurecka said.

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"One thing that really causes this to stand out is the nighttime lows are much higher in this outbreak," he said, comparing the current hot spell to a similar one in 1980.

"It doesn't cool down. That puts additional overnight strain on everything."

On Tuesday and Wednesday, all-time heat records were set at 15 cities and towns, mostly in the South and central U.S., National Weather Service statistics show. That's preliminary data based on just half of the weather stations across the U.S., so the number's likely to be higher when all stations are counted.

In July, 49 all-time records were set and 29 were tied, according to preliminary data. That's well above the average over the previous decade.

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Texas state climatologist John Nielson-Gammon said the current drought is now the worst since Texas started keeping records on rainfall in 1895.

"Never before has so little rain been recorded prior to and during the primary growing season for crops, plants, and warm-season grasses," he said on Thursday.

July was the single warmest month ever in Texas, with an average 24-hour temperature of 87.2 degrees, beating the previous warmest month by two full degrees, he said.

"Unfortunately, we're in a vicious cycle of dry weather leading to hot temperatures and a lack of thunderstorms," he said.

[...]

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/07/13/north-texas-heat-causing-roadways-to-buckle/

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – The extreme heat pounding North Texas is wreaking havoc on roadways.

Cynthia White, with Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), says repair crews make at least one heat-related repair a week because of buckling.

“Concrete actually expands in the heat [and] of course the soil contracts – so, you’ve got that buckling that goes on,” explained White.

According to White, the areas of most concern are sections of road on Highway 161, between Highway 114 and Highway 183.

“A lot of times we’ll have to go in and basically cut out that concrete and redo that,” said White. “Sometimes we’ll just seal the cracks if it’s an asphalt road.”

White says the buckling problem is exacerbated when summer temperatures of more than 100-degrees heat roads that were icy during the winter.

While heat-related road damage isn’t uncommon, it usually happens in late summer.

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