A strong heat ridge continues across much of the eastern half of the nation encompassing much of the Plains, Midwest, Great Lakes, The South and Texas. The hottest heat has been kept from Kansas southward through Oklahoma and into Texas where 100s have been common and will remain into the weekend. The current heat wave has lead to records being broken and as folks try to remain cool, electric consumption is on the rise. Texas has been setting daily electrical usage records for June for the past several days. On Monday and Tuesday, Electrical loads have been exceeding 60,000 Megawatts per day across Texas and it is expected on Wednesday that the load will reach 61,500 Megawatts. The previous daily record for June was 59,000 Megawatts set last year.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas is forecasting a peak load of more than 63,000 Megawatts on Thursday which would exceed the all-time daily peak of 62,339 Megawatts set in August 2006.
Not only has it been hot is has also been very humid and that has made it dangerously hot. We meteorologists look at the Dew Point, which is a more reliable and accurate way of deciphering how humid it is rather than using relative humidity. Whenever the Dew Point reaches 60 degrees it begins to become humid feeling. By the time it reaches 70 degrees it becomes to feel very uncomfortable.
There is good news as relief is on the way. As we head into late week, a trough that is currently entering into the Pacific Northwest, is forecast to drop southeastward. By Saturday, the trough will be moving into the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest.
This trough will deepen as it slides eastward into the Great Lakes early next week. This will bring cooler temperatures to many who have been experiencing the recent heat from much of the Plains into the Tennessee Valley. It appears that next week will be 10 to 15 degrees cooler for many in this zone and there will also be an increase chance for rainfall.
The trough dropping southeast will push the heat ridge into the West allowing much of the Western U.S. to heat up next week.
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