From California to Texas, 100-Degree Heat Set to Bake the West

(Bloomberg) -- Temperatures forecast to hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more will bake the U.S. West, pushing up power demand and making going outside a misery from California to Texas over the next few days.

Heat advisories and warnings have been issued from Oregon through California’s Central Valley east to Texas, with highs set to touch or pass 100-degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius), according to the National Weather Service. In Death Valley, readings could rise as high as 122 degrees, said Lara Pagano, a forecaster with the U.S. Weather Prediction Center.

“The heat is building in California all the way into Oregon and Washington,” Pagano said. “We have pretty anomalous temperatures today.”

A May heatwave caused power prices in Northern California to surge 380%, the highest since June 2019, as work-at-home families cranked up air conditioning to stay cool. California is set to bake through the rest of the week, with the temperature nearing or reaching 100 in Sacramento to Fresno through at least Friday. Readings reaching west to Fairfield and Napa will be in the 90s.

High pressure is building across the West, which allows temperatures to rise and the heat to dig in, according to Pagano. While the west wilts, parts of the central U.S. face rising flood risks as thunderstorms continue to wring themselves out across Oklahoma and Arkansas, she said.

“That area keeps on getting pummeled with these rounds of thunderstorms that keep going through,” Pagano said.

The threat also extends north into the Midwest. As much as two inches (five centimeters) of rain could fall across much of the South, as well as in the Midwest and Great Lakes through the next five days, the Weather Prediction Center said. Coming as fields are already saturated with heavy rains, flood warnings have been posted in several counties across Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

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