Western Heat Wave: No Quick Relief in Sight
- From: "john fernbach" <fernbach1948@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 23 Jul 2005 09:55:17 -0700
Posted on Sat, Jul. 23, 2005
Western U.S. heat wave brings death, disruption
NO RELIEF:Sustained record temperatures mean canceled flights and more
demand for electricity and shelter for the homeless.
BY JOHN M. BRODER
NEW YORK TIMES
PHOENIX - A relentless and lethal blanket of heat has settled on much
of the western United States, forcing the cancellation of dozens of
airline flights, threatening the loss of electrical power, stoking
wildfires and leaving20 people dead in Phoenix alone in just the past
week.
Fourteen of the victims are thought to have been homeless, although the
heat also claimed the life of a 97-year-old man who died in his
bedroom, a 37-year-old man who succumbed in his car and two older women
who died in homes without air conditioning.
Daytime highs in Phoenix have remained near 110 degrees for more than
aweek, and Phoenix officials acknowledge that it is almost impossible
to deal with the needs of the estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people living
on the streets. The city has barely 1,000 shelter beds, and hundreds of
them are available only in the winter.
The lack of preparation for the homeless here is obvious to those
sweltering on the sidewalk outside the Society of St. Vincent de Paul
relief center in a zone of desolation between the office towers of
downtown Phoenix and the state Capitol.
The Phoenix police and private social service agencies have been
passing out thousands of bottles of water donated by grocery chains and
individuals. But the fierce heat continues to take a toll.
"We've not seen anything like this before," said Tony Morales, a
Phoenix police detective. "We get heat-related deaths every summer,
usually five to 10 deaths through the whole summer, but nothing like
this."
In Maricopa County as a whole, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs,
21 people died of heat exposure all of last year, just one more than
the city's toll in the last several days.
Officials of the National Weather Service say more than 200 heat
records have been broken in the West during the last two weeks. On
Tuesday, Las Vegas tied its record for any date, 117 degrees. Reno and
other locations in Nevada have set records with nine consecutive days
of temperatures at 100 or higher. The temperature in Denver reached105
degrees on Thursday, tying a record set in 1878.
The weather forced airlines to cancel more than two dozen flights this
week, remove passengers from fully loaded planes, limit the number of
tickets sold on some flights and take other measures to withstand the
heat.
Aircraft manufacturers have customarily set temperature limits at which
their planes can be safely operated. (The limits are lower at higher
altitudes, as in the Rocky Mountains, and higher at lower altitudes, as
in the desert that surrounds Las Vegas.) High temperatures mean
aircraft engines must take in more air in order to create the thrust
they need to leave the ground. But airplane makers also have limits on
the amount of thrust that an engine can produce. If the engines exceed
those limits, they may not perform properly. At that point, aircraft
manufacturers advise, the airlines should remove weight from planes --
either passengers or cargo -- or, in the worst cases, not to fly at
all.
United Airlines canceled seven United Express flights out of Denver on
Wednesday, when temperatures hit107 degrees, above the 104-degree
operating limit for its propeller planes, said a spokesman, Jeff Green.
"It was just so extreme, and stayed on so long that we had to cancel
flights," Green said.
America West canceled22 flights out of its Las Vegas hub this week, 11
each on Monday and Tuesday. The temperature of 117 there was
approaching the limit for America West's regional jets of 117.26, above
which they should not fly, said Linda Larsen, a spokeswoman for Mesa
Air Lines, which operates the flights for America West.
In Phoenix, it was at least 110 every day from July 11 to 19, although
on Friday the temperature peaked at 108. There may be some relief in
sight, as heavy rains are moving into the area, bringing flood watches
to southern Nevada and parts of Arizona and Utah, as well as San
Bernardino County in California. The rain and cloud cover will cool
things down a bit, officials said, but humidity will rise, continuing
the misery.
"Throughout the Western states, you have to estimate, but 200 more
records have probably been broken, and that's just talking daily
records," said Craig Schmidt, a meteorologist with the National Weather
Service's regional headquarters in Salt Lake City. "These records are
no fun to break."
The biggest one was in Las Vegas, where the city recorded its highest
temperature ever on Monday --117 degrees -- as well as its highest low,
95 degrees. Las Vegas also had the highest average temperature recorded
on that day, 104 degrees.
Schmidt attributed the heat to a high pressure system that refuses to
budge.
"This one went on for so long, because there's a very strong ridge of
high pressure centered over Utah and Arizona," he said, "and it kept
the monsoon moisture from working its way northward. That usually cools
things off with thunderstorms and clouds."
Andy Bailey, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Las Vegas,
said the current hot spell was the worst on record in there. "It's
probably fair to say what just wrapped up was probably the most intense
heat wave the city's ever seen," he said. "We had a string of four days
where it was 115 or above."
Bailey said that the heat prompted him to try to fry an egg on the
sidewalk. It didn't work, he said.
.
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