Daily Kos: 115 degrees in the Heartland:
by rss@dailykos.com (teacherken)
HILL CITY, Kan. — This town on the parched plains, best known for its bountiful pheasant hunting and museum of oil history, recently earned a new, if unwelcome, distinction — the center of America’s summer inferno.For five days last week, a brutal heat wave here crested at 115 degrees. Crops wilted. Streets emptied. Farmers fainted in the fields. Air-conditioners gave up. Children even temporarily abandoned the municipal swimming pool. Hill City was, for a spell, in the ranks of the hottest spots in the country.
That is the beginning of a story in today's
New York Times titled
In One Kansas Town, Even Hotter Than UsualI live in the DC metro area, and am now in my 3rd day without electric power. At the peak, more than half a million (out of 831,000) of Dominion Virginia Power's NoVa customers were without power - but remember, a customer could be a building with 100 apartments. In Arlington, 42,000 of the 59,000 residences were without power. It is better now - Dominion is down to 157,000 customers w/o power. We have access to cooling centers and shelters. Neighbors with power or with generators are generous. At the max our temperature
