US heat wave: Three-digit temperatures recorded across Midwest

US heat wave: Record-breaking temperatures have closed schools and sent people seeking refuge ... at the zoo

|
Eliot Kamenitz,The Times-Picayune/AP
As temperatures soar with heat indexes in the 100 degree plus range in the New Orleans Metro area, children and adults find the will to chill by taking in the Cool Zoo water park area at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

Temperatures soared across the Midwest on Thursday, reaching a blistering 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) in St. Louis, and possibly causing two deaths in KansasCity, Missouri, as a massive heat wave pressed eastward from the Rockies.

In Kansas City, where the temperature rose to 105 (40 C), the city health department said two deaths were being investigated to determine if they were heat-related.

A massive high-pressure system over the Midwest caused triple-digit temperatures in Chicago and several other cities. The oppressive heat is expected to linger for several days.

The searing heat presented a challenge for the St. Louis Zoo, which provided misting machines, large fans and cooling stations for visitors and took steps to cool down the animals.

"When it gets hot like this, we like to take a bone and freeze it into a big block of ice then throw it into a pool where the big cats can play with it," said Jack Grisham, who heads the zoo's animal collection. "We'll freeze bananas and oranges and throw them to the primates as well."

Hill City, Kansas, which has been the hottest spot in the nation for five days, reached 108 (42 C) Thursday afternoon, the National Weather Service said. The thermometer hit 115 (46 C) on Wednesday in the northwest Kansas farm community.

"It feels like you have a big old furnace blowing in your face," said Rayson Brachtenbach, a technician at Elliott Plumbing, Heating, Air Conditioning and Electric in Hill City.

Brachtenbach said the hot weather kept the company busy repairing air conditioning systems.

A city in the Midwest having the nation's high temperature for five days in a row is very unusual, said Chris Foltz, a weather service meteorologist in GoodlandKansas.

"It's what you expect in the desert of Nevada or California," Foltz said.

Sustained heat

Drought conditions have contributed to the early and sustained heat this summer, said Alex Sosnowski, expert senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com.

"A lot of these places haven't had a lot of rain, and dry soil contributes to heat," Sosnowski said, when asked why the high temperatures are being seen so early in the summer. "The sun's energy doesn't go into evaporating moisture, so it heats the ground and that heats the air. It takes a really big rainfall event to bust a drought like this."

Though scattered thunderstorms are expected to dial down the heat in the Midwest on Friday, Sosnowski does not see anything that would make much of an impact in dry areas.

The weather conditions have contributed to Colorado wildfires that have destroyed hundreds of homes. The heat and drought conditions also are damaging crops. U.S. corn prices have soared 17 percent this month as the hot dry weather persists in the main growing area of the Midwest.

Farther to the east, it was 102 (39 C)in Cincinnati and 103 (39 C) in NashvilleTennessee.

"It's when you stop sweating and you get goose bumps that you worry," said Sean Lachendro, one of a trio installing fiber-optic line for T-Mobile along a south Nashville roadside.

In Chicago, the high temperature reached 100 degrees (38 C) for the first time in seven years. Summer school was closed Thursday for 10 Chicago public schools without air conditioning.

In Indiana, burn bans are in effect in 74 of 92 counties, and 45 counties have restrictions on shooting off fireworks.

With temperatures soaring, officials from Kansas to the Carolinas asked residents to take steps to stay cool and check on friends and neighbors. In BirminghamAlabama, police were checking on the sick and elderly.

"We want to ensure our citizens remain safe during the excessive heat outbreak," Birmingham PoliceChief A.C. Roper said. (Reporting by Mary Wisniewski, Kevin Murphy, Bruce Olson, Tim Ghianni, Christine Stebbins, Keith Coffman, and Susan Guyett; Editing by David Bailey and Stacey Joyce)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to US heat wave: Three-digit temperatures recorded across Midwest
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2012/0629/US-heat-wave-Three-digit-temperatures-recorded-across-Midwest
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe