Hot Weather Crisis in Texas

After living in Southern Louisiana with its oppressive humidity, I never thought that I would complain about Texas heat. But, in northern Texas, around and in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, we've been experiencing more than hot Texas weather. In the end of July and beginning of August, this year, our local channel KTEN Weather and Dallas channel Fox 4 Weather reported that we had about a week of record breaking temperatures.

The temperatures themselves weren't record breaking; it was the heat index that was off the charts. It started with a 101 degrees with a 105 degree heat index and continued rising to 104 degrees with a 107-110 heat index. There was some humidity which tended to make it even hotter and our famous Texas wind was only clocking at about 10 mph and when it was faster it just felt like a hot oven being opened in your face. We've always had fire danger in the summer, but it was worse than it has ever been.

Fox 4 news reported at least twelve weather-related deaths and the hospital emergency rooms had a steady stream of people coming in for heat stroke, as well as, a report of a small child who walked on the pavement and had burn blisters on the bottoms of his feet. The electric companies still had to work and repair transformers, etc., due to the higher electricity volume being used. There was a playground in the Dallas/Fort Worth area that burst into flames. Most of us were warned to stay at home, out of the heat, if possible.

By 12 p.m., each day, it was too hot to safely travel for local everyday errands. My family had to use all four window units, nonstop, even throughout the night, because the temperatures were maintaining at about 90 degrees most nights. But it seems like we might've broken out of the literally killer heat, because temperatures are going back down into the 90's. In the Sherman/Denison area, we always have a local fan drive for those who need them. That probably saves many lives of not just the elderly, but everybody during this last heat wave.