A heat wave that claimed at least 13 deaths in Texas and one in Louisiana on Wednesday swept through much of the southeast, with government warnings of dangerous triple-digit temperatures in the eastern states of Mississippi and Tennessee. spread to.

Meanwhile, California was facing its first big heat wave of the year. The National Weather Service has warned that dry, hot and windy conditions are ripe for dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Utah.

Midweek temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees (38 degrees Celsius) across much of the southeast, with high humidity expected to push heat index values ​​above 115 degrees (46 degrees Celsius) in some areas. ing.

In Arkansas, prolonged power outages made the heat misery worse after the weekend’s storms. More than 10,000 residents are still without power in the central part of the state. In Cabot, northeast of Little Rock, a local senior center provided those without electricity with cool air and a place to charge their phones and tablets.

“I usually just come in at noon to eat,” Clint Hickman said in a phone interview Wednesday, while he was still waiting for power to be restored. “I came a little early because the cool air feels good.”

A park in Pearl River, Louisiana, with fountains and overhead sprinklers for children to play in, was a welcome respite for Victoria Lee, who was there with her young children.

“I have kids who play outdoors,” she said. “They don’t like being in the house, so when we’re home and they go out and get sweaty, they’re always just miserable. So this makes it a lot easier.” “

Among the heat casualties was a man who died late Sunday in Shreveport, Louisiana, the second heat-related death in the state in an unusually warm June. A 49-year-old man from neighboring Bossier City was found collapsed on a sidewalk in Shreveport, where temperatures hit 97 degrees Celsius (36 degrees Celsius) on Sunday, 10 degrees Fahrenheit above the average for the day. .

The heat also contributed to the June 21 death of a 62-year-old woman in Keithville. She had been without electricity for several days due to a previous severe storm, when her relatives found her, according to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office.

The National Weather Service in Slidell, southeastern Louisiana, issued an extreme heat warning on June 16, the earliest warning for the region this year, according to meteorologists.

Eleven of Texas’ heat-related deaths occurred in Webb County, which includes Laredo. Webb County Coroner Dr. Colin Stern said the deaths ranged in age from 60 to 80 and many had underlying medical conditions, but said heat levels in the county were unprecedented.

The region’s poverty rate is higher than the state average, which exacerbates the suffering, Stern said.

“The vast majority of people don’t have air conditioning in their homes. Either the fans are turned off, or the fans are on but not properly ventilated,” Stern said. “We have air conditioning, but he had at least one or two that he didn’t want to use because of the bill.”

Two hikers from Florida died while hiking Hot weather in Big Bend National Park.

Due to the heat, the US Postal Service has allowed mail carriers to start earlier, according to the Lone Star chapter of the National Mail Carriers Association. This comes after the death of the letter carrier, who died on June 20th in nearly triple-digit heat. The courier’s cause of death was still under investigation as of Wednesday.

The abnormally high temperature was brought about by heat dome it has taxed the Texas grid Meteorologists said it brought record high temperatures in parts of the state.

The dome is expected to spread eastward and concentrate in the south central region by the weekend, said Brian Jackson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in College Pack, Maryland.

After that, temperatures in Texas will begin to drop from highs above 100 degrees Celsius (38 degrees Celsius) to daily temperatures in the 1990s, Jackson said.

“It was a break from the extreme heat,” Jackson said. “The heat wave isn’t actually over. It’s just the extreme part of the heat wave is over.”

Another heat dome has already formed on the West Coast, Jackson said, with excessive heat warnings for large swaths of the central state.

“By the end of this week, California’s Central Valley is at risk of record high temperatures of over 100 degrees…it will be closer to 110 degrees,” Jackson said. “Then we’ll see typical midsummer heat of over 115 degrees in the hottest parts of the southwestern desert.”

Aside from the heat dome across the southeast, California’s Central Valley was under intense heat watch Friday through Sunday, with temperatures reaching 110 degrees Celsius (43 degrees Celsius) in some areas. A heat advisory is in effect for many areas around the San Francisco Bay.

___

McGill reported from New Orleans. Miller, from Oklahoma City. Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez of San Antonio, John Antsac of Los Angeles, and Stephen Smith of Slidell, Louisiana contributed to this report.