Topline
A weekend of severe storms left thousands of people without power in the American South just as the region grapples with a massive heat wave that forecasters expect will continue bringing dangerously high heat to the region through Wednesday.
The weekend’s severe storms produced at least one tornado in Mississippi.
Key Facts
The National Weather Service is predicting heat indices could approach 120 degrees in some parts of Texas on Monday, and are advising people to stay inside and stay hydrated since the conditions could lead to heat exhaustion or other heat-related illnesses.
The sweltering temperatures come as many in the southern U.S. have suffered with days-long power outages that have yet to be resolved—as of Monday morning, power outages are affecting more than 200,000 people in Oklahoma, 85,000 in Texas, 80,000 in Louisiana, 45,000 in Mississippi, 30,000 in Arkansas and 15,000 in Alabama, according to PowerOutage.us.
In some areas like Shreveport, Louisiana, residents have been without power since Saturday night and power is not expected to return until Tuesday, the Times-Picayune reported.
Big Number
50 million. That’s how many people are under either heat advisories or the more extreme excessive heat warning designation, according to the National Weather Service.
Key Background
The weekend’s severe storms also produced at least one tornado in Mississippi. Overnight Sunday, a tornado stormed through a town 70 miles east of Jackson, Mississippi, killing one person and injuring 19 more. Eric Carpenter, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, told the New York Times it was possible that multiple tornadoes hit the area overnight but that survey crews would have to determine that on Monday. The extreme weather comes days after another set of storms reportedly killed three people late Thursday night in the Texas Panhandle, another person in Mississippi and a fifth in Florida.
Further Reading
In Texas Town Pummeled by Tornado, Residents Pick Through Rubble (New York Times)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/06/19/hundreds-of-thousands-without-power-in-record-breaking-southern-heat-wave/