365,000 people without power in Michigan due to severe storms burning heat
Michiganders were confronted with a variety of severe weather conditions Tuesday, which included intense heat that felt as if the temperature was at 100°, as well as violent storms that cut electricity for more than 35,000 houses and businesses and triggered tornado sirens.
“This was the kind of instability we see once or twice a year,” Dave Kook, a National Weather Service meteorologist from White Lake Township, told the Free Press later Tuesday afternoon while he watched storms that were sweeping across the state. “And it’s here now.”
In addition to the intense heat and severe storms, the weather agency warned in the early morning that the possibility of the unusual summer patterns could also result in damaging winds and the possibility of hail that is quarter-sized.
At 10 p.m. the powerful storms had cut off power to more than 13,000 Consumers Energy customers in northern Michigan and the Grand Rapids area, with the company saying it would “work through the night” to fix it, as well as 22,444 DTE Energy customers in southeast Michigan.
DTE announced on its website “storm update” that the utility was “working as quickly and safely as possible” to restore service. It was also taking on hundreds of personnel “from outside our area to help speed restoration.”
The downtimes caused businesses like grocery stores to shut down numerous organizations such as Scout groups to postpone their evening gatherings at churches and other public venues, leaving the intersections, which were already in danger because of the heavy rain with no working traffic lighting.
More:Corn sweat may cause Midwest heat waves feel more humid. Yes, there is corn sweat.
The good thing was that a majority of Michiganders appeared to be paying attention to the advice. A few were trying to maintain a some humor with the situation. The extreme heat in the state, according to forecasters will not last for long.
The advisory from the weather service about heat posted appeared on social media earlier Tuesday, was accompanied by vibrant red and yellow graphics. advised to stop for shade breaks on work sites, ensuring the sick, elderly as well as people “without AC,” never leaving pets or kids in vehicles and limiting physical exertion in the outdoors.
The advisory led to various school closures and changed schedules of classes across the metro area of Detroit and throughout the southern portion of Michigan. Detroit schools are all air-conditioned. are equipped with air conditioning changed their schedules. Eastpointe along with Southfield schools followed suit.
Many west Michigan schools in the west Michigan region which include Grand Rapids, Hudsonville, Portage, Ionia and other communities, announced early dismissals and closures.
But, as some of the most observant observers pointed out, this will not be a solution because a large number of children live in homes without air conditioning or any way to cool down, and they’ll have to find refuge in library or similar public places.
Thousands of deaths due to heat
Much more than the headlines of the day the climate scientists are worried that Tuesday’s scorching temperatures are an indication of a bigger and even more dangerous trend that, should be addressed if it continues the situation will continue to increase and will not just affect human health, but the health of the planet.
Extreme heat is becoming a risk to health, and as experts are worried about. It is likely to cause problems since climate forecasts suggest that it will become more frequent and intense over the future decades as deaths due to heat are increasing in recent years.
Globally, this year’s months of June and July were among the most hot ever recorded.
The advisory for heat in Michigan was part of a larger storm pattern that swept across the eastern and central United States, and recent reports suggested that the unusually scorching temperature this week may surpass records and end the few days, seemed like early autumn weather.
The actual temperature for the southeast region of Michigan forecasters stated ranged from 90 to 91 degrees.
The heat index, the degree to which it is, in comparison to the actual temperature is, was more like 100. It also posed various health risks including heat exhaustion and dehydration, heat stroke sleep loss, asthma hospitalization due to heart disease, or even impairment of cognitive function.
The heat death rate aren’t always easy to identify among those that are the case, research suggests that it kills more people across the country than any other weather phenomenon.
According to the data-t-l=”:b|z|k|$” data-type=”link” href=”https://www.hhs.gov/climate-change-health-equity-environmental-justice/climate-change-health-equity/climate-health-outlook/extreme-heat/index.html#:~:text=Heat%2Drelated%20deaths%20have%20been,2022%2C%20and%202%2C302%20in%202023.”>U.S. Department of Health and Human Services In 2021, there were 1,602 deaths related to heat The number grew in 2022, to 1,722, and the following year, it increased to 2,302. With the dangerously hot weather in June and in August, the number could also be very high for 2024.
Wildfires, warming lakes
Alongside the dangers to health of humans studies have shown that climate change is causing dry conditions, which are causing warming of oceans and lakes, the melting of the glaciers as well as glaciers, as well as more active fire seasons, and increased fire fuels’ aridity.
Decreased moisture in forests in the western U.S. from 1979 to 2015, weather prediction data-t-l=”:b|z|k|$” data-type=”link” href=”https://www.noaa.gov/noaa-wildfire/wildfire-climate-connection#:~:text=Research%20shows%20that%20changes%20in,fuels%20during%20the%20fire%20season. “>researchers observed, resulting in the doubled of the area burned by forest fires between 1984 and 2015 and warmer temperatures are anticipated to cause more fires.
The fires also influence the quality of air and can be harmful to human health.
The fear of extreme weather has become so significant because climate scientists warn of hot, dry summers becoming frequent and intense that over twenty organizations have petitioned for the administration in the last year, asking it to make extreme heat an eligible condition to receive disaster assistance.
Forecasters are expecting temperatures to cool this week, and by next week, we’ll to be around 70.
However, on social media many users appeared to take the Tuesday’s warnings seriously and contacting the weather service to learn details about the risk -particularly for tornadoesand then to add to the data by sharing their own thoughts and jokes.
One person urged pet owners to keep their water “for outside animals.”
Another person opined: “Too hot for me” with an animated image of a woman who is sweating in the scorching sun.
There was another person who listed on her personal profile as having a background from Howell but who now lives in the South Perhaps, they laughed: “Just another day here in Alabama.” Someone else responded: “And that’s why we don’t live in Alabama.”
Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or djgain2005@gmail.com.
