Summer’s wrath isn’t letting up across the Southern and Southwestern U.S.
Record highs are predicted once again in northern Texas, with temperatures forecast to get as high as 112 degrees on Monday. And no rain is expected in the area for the next seven to 10 days.
The current record high for Dallas–Fort Worth is 106 degrees. Meteorologists say that’s likely to fall today, though the city won’t reach the highs forecast for the state’s panhandle.
There is some good news for the region, though “good” might be an overstatement.
Phoenix, which has seen temps of 110 degrees or higher for 31 consecutive days, will likely fall below that mark today. Scattered thunderstorms are expected, which will keep the thermometer at a cool 105 degrees instead.
That will be a reprieve from the record-breaking streak of 110-degree days, which was previously set in 1974, when there was an 18-day stretch of temps above that level. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a short-lived respite. The temperature is expected to hit 110 again on Thursday and will hover at or above that mark for the foreseeable future.
At present, over 47 million Americans are under extreme heat warnings, according to Heat.gov, the government’s heat portal.
A report from the Center for American Progress earlier this month estimated the cost of the extreme heat works out to an average of an extra $1 billion in health care-related costs in the United States each summer. That’s in part due to additional emergency room visits and hospital admissions for heat-related and heat-adjacent maladies.