In the Great Lakes region on Tuesday, the maximum values will be 15-25 degrees above normal, and California will see three-digit values of thermometers from Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley to Reading in the north.
Over the next few days, the heat center will shift south and southeast, from Texas to Georgia, and many cities are likely to face three-digit temperatures, including Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta.
More than 70% of the US population will see highs above 90 degrees in the next seven days, and 20% will see a maximum of 100 degrees.
Over 100 daily high temperature records can be set between Tuesday and Saturday, mainly in the east and south. Night temperatures are not expected to offer a big delay, as more than 80 records for warm low temperatures could be broken this week.
Monday brought record high temperatures for cities in the central United States, including a number of records set in Texas. Houston, Victoria, Texas, and St. Cloud, Missouri, topped their previous records with a maximum of 101 degrees.
That’s after a huge heat dome in the eastern United States and Midwest set record highs in several cities last week – and heightened misery for some communities already struggling with power outages after a series of severe storms.
Extreme heat can be harmful to human health, especially for the elderly, children and those with chronic illnesses or mental health problems.
The heat wave is a “super cup” of energy use for energy companies
Earlier this year, US power regulator NERC warned that extreme temperatures and other environmental factors could cause power outages in vast parts of the country this summer.
In anticipation, energy companies in the southeast say they are preparing for the extra tensions that will come when crowds of heat-stricken people retire indoors to ease the climate.
“This is our Super Bowl, which we’re preparing for all year long,” Tennessee Valley TVA spokesman Scott Fiedler told CNN. “TVA is extremely well positioned to meet the electricity consumption during the hot weather this week. As you know, the temperature and the load go hand in hand. So we have to see high loads for the rest of this week.”
Electricity consumption last week was a record for TVA, which used more than 31,000 megawatts on Thursday, just days after crossing the 31,000-megawatt limit on June 13, Fiedler said.
Both Georgia Power and Duke Energy Carolinas, which serves markets in North Carolina and South Carolina, said they are prepared for the increased demand that high temperatures will bring.
Duke Energy Carolinas recorded a record summer consumption of 21,000 megawatt hours of electricity on June 13, overshadowing the previous summer record set in July 2016, the company said in a statement.
Duke Energy Process, the company’s other service in Carolina, did not break any records, but the two companies together had a record for peak use of 34,079 megawatt hours, surpassing the old record set in July 2020, the statement said.
Entergy, which serves parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Orleans and Texas, said the company expects to see unprecedented levels of energy consumption this week.
“We have a detailed plan for extremely hot weather, which includes our power plants and transmission operators, which are taking steps to balance the supply and demand in the network and actions to reduce the risk of shutting down production or transmission facilities offline,” Entergy News released he said.
Dave Hannon, Jamie Lynch, Tyler Moldin and CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
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