Texarkana Gazette

Heat climbs in baked Northwest

Temp records broken daily as cables melt and roads buckle

- GENE JOHNSON AND SARA CLINE

SEATTLE — The hottest day of an unpreceden­ted and dangerous heat wave scorched the Pacific Northwest on Monday, with temperatur­es passing records set just the day before.

Seattle hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit by mid-afternoon, well above Sunday’s all-time high of 104 F. Portland, Ore., reached 115 F after hitting new records of 108 F on Saturday and 112 F on Sunday.

The temperatur­es were unheard of in a region better known for rain, and where June has historical­ly been referred to as “Juneuary” for its cool drizzle. Seattle’s average high temperatur­e in June is around 70 F, and fewer than half of the city’s residents have air conditioni­ng, according to census data.

The heat forced schools and businesses to close to protect workers and guests, including some places such as outdoor pools and ice cream shops where people seek relief from the heat. Covid-19 testing sites and mobile vaccinatio­n units were out of service, as well.

The Seattle Parks Department closed one indoor community pool after the air inside became too hot — leaving Stanlie James, who relocated from Arizona three weeks ago, to search for somewhere else to cool off. She doesn’t have air conditioni­ng at her condo, she said.

“Part of the reason I moved here was not only to be near my daughter, but also to come in the summer to have relief from Arizona heat,” James said. “And I seem to have brought it with me. So I’m not real thrilled.”

The heat wave was caused by what meteorolog­ists described as a dome of high pressure over the Northwest and worsened by human-caused climate change, which is making such extreme weather events more likely and more intense.

Zeke Hausfather, a scientist at the climate-data nonprofit Berkeley Earth, said Monday that the Pacific Northwest has warmed by about 3 degrees F in the past half-century. That means a heat wave now is about 3 degrees warmer than it would have been before — and the difference between 111 degrees and 114 is significan­t, especially for vulnerable population­s, he noted.

“In a world without climate change, this still would have been a really extreme heat wave,” Hausfather said. “This is worse than the same event

would have been 50 years ago, and notably so.”

The blistering heat exposed a region with infrastruc­ture not designed for it, hinting at the greater costs of climate change to come.

In Portland, light rail and street car service was suspended as power cables melted and as the heat strained the power grid.

Heat-related expansion caused road pavement to buckle or pop loose. Workers in tanker trucks in Seattle were hosing down drawbridge­s with water at least twice a day to keep them cool to prevent the steel from expanding in the heat and interferin­g with their opening and closing mechanisms.

In many cities in the region, officials opened cooling centers, including one in an Amazon meeting space in Seattle capable of holding 1,000 people. Officials also reminded residents where pools, splash pads and cooling centers were available and urged people to stay hydrated, check on their neighbors and avoid strenuous activities.

The closure of school buildings halted programs such as meal services for the needy, child care and summer enrichment activities. In eastern Washington state, the Richland and Kennewick school districts paused bus service for summer school because the vehicles aren’t air-conditione­d, making it unsafe for students to travel in them.

Orchardist­s in central Washington tried to save their cherry crops from the heat, using canopies, deploying sprinklers and sending out workers in the night to pick.

Alaska Airlines said it was providing “cool down vans”

for its workers at Seattle-Tacoma and Portland internatio­nal airports, where temperatur­es on the ramp can be 20 degrees higher than elsewhere.

The heat wave stretched into the Canadian province of British Columbia, with the temperatur­e in the village of Lytton reaching 115 F Sunday afternoon, marking a new alltime high recorded in Canada.

The heat was heading east, where temperatur­es in Boise, Idaho, were expected to top 100 F for at least seven days starting Monday.

Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by Manuel Valdes of The Associated Press. Cline is a corps member for the AP/ Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalist­s in local newsrooms to report on undercover­ed issues.

 ?? (AP/The Oregonian/Mark Graves) ?? With temperatur­es exceeding 110 degrees Sunday in Portland, Ore., people gather at Peninsula Park to cool off.
(AP/The Oregonian/Mark Graves) With temperatur­es exceeding 110 degrees Sunday in Portland, Ore., people gather at Peninsula Park to cool off.
 ?? (AP/Nathan Howard) ?? Paramedics Cody Miller (left) and Justin Jones respond to a heat-exposure call Saturday in Salem, Ore.
(AP/Nathan Howard) Paramedics Cody Miller (left) and Justin Jones respond to a heat-exposure call Saturday in Salem, Ore.
 ?? (AP/Craig Mitchelldy­er) ?? Hunter Sack, 7, runs through the water Sunday at a park in Gladstone, Ore., to get some relief from the heat.
(AP/Craig Mitchelldy­er) Hunter Sack, 7, runs through the water Sunday at a park in Gladstone, Ore., to get some relief from the heat.

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