Midwest cities bake as heat wave blankets the Central US
Dick Kraklow rolled into Minneapolis this past week with three generations of his family and several vintage vehicles in tow, excited for an annual gathering of the Minnesota Street Rod Association that celebrates classic cars.
But instead of setting up Saturday morning to display their collection, Kraklow, 42, and his family were loading up to drive back to Wisconsin. Several members of the group are in their late 70s, and the heat radiating off the asphalt at the state fairgrounds in St. Paul on Friday caused the family to change plans.
'We love the show,' Kraklow, a welder from Muskego, Wisconsin, said as his uncle angled a yellow 1957 Ford Thunderbird onto a trailer. But ultimately, he said, 'It's too hot.'
Millions of Americans on Saturday faced sweltering conditions as a dangerous heat wave brought rising temperatures to the Midwest and central Plains. By the evening, the National Weather Service reported that the heat index — a measure of how hot it feels that accounts for both heat and humidity — had hit highs of 101 degrees in Des Moines, Iowa, 104 in Chicago and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and 105 in St. Louis and Minneapolis, where the high temperature of 96 degrees broke a record for this date. In Omaha, Nebraska, forecasters said that it would feel this weekend like it was 100 to 110 degrees -- in the shade.
The most extreme heat was expected to move east and south over the next several days. New York City, Washington and Philadelphia could all break 100 degrees on the heat index by the end of the weekend. Several cities could see heat records broken. Over the entire country, more than 64 million people were under an extreme heat warning.
Climate scientists have found that climate change has made heat waves more common, more intense and longer lasting worldwide, though attributing a specific heat wave to climate change is tricky.
Cities and towns across the Midwest on Saturday had opened cooling centers and issued warnings to residents, advising them to stay out of the sun as much as possible and to check on vulnerable neighbors and relatives. Some forecasters worried that more people could be at risk because cooler-than-normal temperatures this spring might make acclimating to this sudden jump in heat more difficult.
Mayor Brandon Johnson of Chicago, where the heat index was over 90 degrees and climbing by midday Saturday, said in an interview that he was 'incredibly concerned about the heat wave.'
Johnson, who was attending a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Tampa, Florida, noted that this year was the 30th anniversary of a 1995 heat wave that killed more than 500 people in Chicago. He said city officials were focused this weekend on supporting residents who might be most at risk from heat-related health concerns.
'Our administration has activated the full force of government' to ensure people remain safe, he said, an effort that included the city's parks and libraries; police, fire and public health departments; and a collaboration with utility companies.
In the city's Lincoln Square neighborhood, where forecasters expected temperatures to remain in the 90s for several days, Jeremy Underhill and his 9-year-old daughter took refuge in the shade outside a coffee shop.
'I usually drink hot tea, but it's iced coffee today,' said Underhill, a 52-year-old operations manager at a trading firm. He added that his family was having second thoughts about their commitment to attend an outdoor block party later in the day.
In St. Louis, some library branches that were serving as cooling centers were seeing an influx of traffic, said Justin Struttmann, chief operating officer for the city's public library. He said some residents who headed there for relief had been affected by the severe storm and tornadoes that damaged large sections of the city in May.
'Where we have more people that are in need of those resources — they don't have AC, maybe their home was destroyed, or their AC was knocked out from the storm -- those locations are getting an uptick of activity,' he said.
In some areas, including Des Moines, a slight breeze made conditions more tolerable. Duane Huey, 72, left a Price Chopper supermarket with four 1-gallon jugs of water in his grocery cart. 'Actually, I love the heat,' he whispered, laughing. 'As I've gotten older, the cold gets to me more.' He also said that walking in the warm wind was 'kind of like getting a warm hug.'
Others were similarly unfazed. Moe Nuhman, a 39-year-old jewelry trader, who was out walking 3 miles from his Rogers Park home in Chicago, thought the weather was fine.
'This is Chicago. It gets hot. I love it,' he said. 'When you walk, you live longer.'
Back in Minneapolis, Kraklow and his family finished preparing their caravan of vintage cars for the trip home to Wisconsin. His son and nephew, both 17, were charged with driving one prized piece of their collection, a 1961 Chevrolet Bel Air, back home along the country roads.
The vehicle didn't have air conditioning. Kraklow did not envy them.
'It's going to be a long day of just sweating in the car,' he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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