This archive report was first published on 14 August 2019.
On Monday and Tuesday, a heat wave in the South brought scorching temperatures and dangerously high humidity to residents.
According to the National Weather Service, temperatures were expected to climb above 100 degrees in some places, with heat indexes as high as 118 degrees on Tuesday.
‘For 2019, this is definitely the hottest we’ve seen so far,’ said Thomas Winesett, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss., on Tuesday.
Excessive heat warnings affected over 17 million people and applied to almost all of Mississippi and wide areas of Alabama, Arkansas, northwestern Florida, Louisiana, and western Tennessee.
‘Heat exhaustion and heat stroke will be more likely if individuals and pets are not adequately cooled and hydrated,’ read a bulletin from the National Weather Service in Jackson.
At the Tougaloo Community Center in Jackson, community services coordinator Linda Nolden, 60, was working to help dozens of older people stay cool.
‘I guess with the energy bills being so high, a lot of the time they just come here to stay with me,’ she said. ‘They can stay as long as they need to.’
Climate scientists say heat waves are becoming more likely and hotter, with the past five years being the hottest on record.
Cooler weather is expected to move into the region from the north on Wednesday.
