Saturday, July 6, 1996

Record Temperatures Baking North Texas

By CHIP BROWN
Associated Press

The skies are on fire in Texas, but it's no longer because of crackling displays of exploding rockets.

A pocket of high pressure that reached from western Kansas and Oklahoma down into North Texas was shooting thermometers skyward Friday with no end in the immediate future.

"I played some mud volleyball on the Fourth of July, but it was so hot," said Dewayne Robertson of Wichita Falls, where temperatures hit 106 and were expected to do so again through Saturday.

"I've had my share of this heat. The plan now is to find cool places."

Triple-digit temperatures were expected to litter the state into next week. Highs on Saturday in North Texas were expected to range from 97 to 109, challenging records and prompting heat advisories in some spots.

"We have 100-degree temperatures forecast out for the next five days, so there's not much respite from the current pattern," said Stanley Christmas, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.

In Abilene Friday the temperature reached 101, the third time in 1996 the mercury has reached the century mark. Temperature readings of 100 were also recorded on June 19 and May 22.

Had the thermometer climbed two degrees higher Friday, a 25-year record would have been tied. In 1971, the mercury shot all the way up to 103 degrees.

The forecast for the next five days is for mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies and temperatures near 103. Lows are expected to be in the middle 70s.

North Texas health officials reported being called out to provide treatment for minor cases of heat exhaustion, but no heat-related deaths had been reported as of Friday afternoon.

The heat caused some scattered power outages in the Dallas area, said Jim Lawrence of TU Electric. About 2,400 customers, mostly in the suburbs of Irving, Plano and Farmers Branch, were out of service for several hours Thursday night.

"It's not unusual for that type of problem to occur during the first extended and extremely hot spell of summer," Lawrence said, as aging or faulty transformers that serve five or six houses fail under the stress of heavy air conditioner use.

In Southeast Texas, humidity compounded the distress. The heat index, which factors in humidity, had 100-degree temperatures in College Station feeling more like 117, according to Jim Maxwell of the National Weather Service.

Ninety-degree readings in Houston felt like 100-105, he said.

In Central Texas, temperatures hovered around 99 degrees, roughly five degrees above normal, said NWS meteorologist Bruce Thoren.

Count the Fort Worth Symphony among the victims of the searing heat.

The group sidelined its temperature-sensitive stringed instruments and sent a brass ensemble and Dixieland band to a downtown Fourth of July celebration as the heat soared to 108 on Thursday.

"We try never to perform in heat above 95 degrees," said executive director Ann Koonsman. "We all agree that is the absolute upper limit of reason with the stringed instruments."

The full orchestra did perform an evening outdoor concert after temperatures cooled - decked out in their hot-weather sandals, shorts and official concert t-shirts - and planned other concerts this weekend.

Meanwhile, more people are seeking relief at the Salvation Army in Dallas, which always gears up to help folks cope with the dog days of summer.

"I feel like this year it probably is a little worse," said spokeswoman Elizabeth Lenart said. "The heat is definitely having an effect."

David L. Black, who has owned Burger's Lake in west Fort Worth for 35 years, said the heat is good for business - up to a point.

"I feel like the perfect temperature is around 98 degrees, but when it gets over 100 it gets too hot," said Black, whose swimming pool is spring fed and remains cool all year. "When it gets real hot, the crowd gets real quiet. It can be plumb full, but it can be too hot to move around much."

Aside from aggravating people, the heat was aggravating already critical conditions induced by the state's ongoing drought.

"We are having more grass fires and vehicle fires due to the hot weather and more medical calls," said Ed Stahr, fire marshal in Wichita Falls.

"We do take some special precautions with our people. We may bring in relief earlier than we normally do."

The only apparent hope for relief from the heat and drought may be newly developed tropical storm Bertha in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

"It's located about 1,150 miles east of us," Thoren said. "If it ever got this far, it would probably be a week or more before it affected us."