Hot Weather Bakes Millions in U.S., as Many in Houston Swelter Without Power

More than 1.3 million utility customers in the Houston area were still without power on Wednesday, two days after Hurricane Beryl swept destructively through the region. Hot, steamy weather on the heels of the storm left many people in the region to swelter without air conditioning.

As many as 144 million people across the United States were under National Weather Service heat advisories on Wednesday, from the West and Pacific Northwest to Southeast Texas and many major cities on the East Coast.

Large areas of California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah, and the corridor from Washington, D.C., to New Jersey were under excessive heat warnings, indicating “extremely dangerous heat conditions.” Forecasters expect dangerous conditions to persist in the West for several more days and to redevelop in the Southeast later in the week.

The heat and humidity in Houston on Wednesday was not unusual for this time of year, but because of the widespread power outages, National Weather Service forecasters in the area lowered their threshold for issuing heat alerts.

Typically, a heat advisory would be issued in Houston when the head index — a measure of how hot the air feels, considering both temperature and humidity — was expected to reach 108 or higher. But the forecasters issued one for Wednesday when the index was expected to top out at 101.