Searing heat to linger |
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| BorisVM | The searing temperatures killed more than a hundred people last week in California before moving east and triggered excessive heat warnings from the U.S. government Wednesday for the Southern Plains and along the East Coast. The hot weather cranked energy futures prices sharply higher as businesses and homes turned up their air conditioners, and utility company shares on the Dow Jones Index soared to a record. "This heat wave has been gripping the region for the past three days, with at least one more day to wait for Mother Nature to provide some cooling," private forecaster AccuWeather said in a report. Earlier this week, meteorologists had predicted the heat wave would cross into the Atlantic by Wednesday night. But on Wednesday they forecast the heat would persist in the Northeast until late Thursday. Electricity demand has struck records in many regions but so far the grid has held up to the strain, with only minor power outages in cities like Chicago and New York. For many in the Northeast, the hottest day of the year was still to come, with temperatures expected in the triple digits in Washington, Philadelphia and New York through Thursday. Moreover, high humidity across the eastern third of the country was making the weather feel much hotter than the readings on thermometers -- up to 120 degrees in some places -- AccuWeather said. Prices for U.S. natural gas, used widely for electricity production, shot 4 percent higher Wednesday on the surging demand. Crude oil and gasoline prices were also higher. The Dow Jones utilities average soared to a record $440.38. Meanwhile, Florida and other states along the Gulf of Mexico, the nation's key oil and natural gas producing and refining region, kept an eye on Tropical Storm Chris as the National Hurricane Center forecast it would strengthen into the first hurricane of the year by the end of the week. On its current track, Chris would pass between Florida and Cuba and break into the Gulf of Mexico within a week, the NHC said as it issued a hurricane watch for the Bahamas. |
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