One week after the landfall of Hurricane Beryl, hundreds of thousands of people in Texas still have no electricity while dealing with intense heat and humidity.
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00:00Joining me right now is AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter.
00:03You know, John, it was a week ago that Barrow made its landfall in Texas.
00:08We talked about how the impacts would be lingering, and unfortunately just, you know, just a tough
00:14situation across parts of southeast Texas.
00:18Even yesterday, John, when I was looking at this, there was over a half a million homes
00:23and businesses without power.
00:25Thankfully, that number has gone down a little bit, but there's still at least a few hundred
00:29thousand without power.
00:31And that's a lot.
00:32That's a few hundred thousand addresses, and you think about the number of people, perhaps
00:37double or even more than that, that are still being affected in the Texas heat and humidity.
00:42Look, it's tough to lose power any time, but when you have such heat and humidity at play,
00:48that's why we were so concerned and raising the alarm about heat stress, because those
00:52health impacts can really amplify when you're talking about multiple days with exposure
00:57to unusual heat and humidity.
00:59You know, and this is why we created the AccuWeather Real Fuel Temperature, just to
01:03give people an idea of what it's really going to feel like here.
01:06And take a look at the numbers today, John.
01:09This has been the theme over the last many days, that AccuWeather Real Fuel Temperature
01:13100 to 105 by the afternoon hours.
01:16That takes into account many, many different factors.
01:19In fact, almost a dozen different factors, AccuWeather patented technology to give you
01:25the best understanding of how it feels outside.
01:28And there's been very little relief at night as well, due to the humidity.
01:31So that all builds heat stress, and that's why it's been so dangerous and so challenging
01:35for people without power.
01:37Houston, in particular, it's been a challenging spring and summer, of course.
01:41Not long ago, we had that powerful derecho that produced all of the power outages, and
01:47a lot were just finally getting their feet back onto the ground after that, and then
01:51we had barrel.
01:52And of course, John, you know, when you talk about July, this is the hottest time of the
01:56year in Texas.
01:57It sure is, and people are typically used to dealing with this heat and humidity in
02:01Texas, but their air conditioning and fans are such an important part of that.
02:06So that's why whenever we have temperatures the way they've been the last several days,
02:10and again, air temperatures in the mid-90s, and then AccuWeather Real Fuel 100 to 105,
02:16the one thing that we are seeing, though, is that later in the week, the thunderstorm
02:20risks will increase.
02:22That means the temperatures take a bit of a step back.
02:25That can be helpful, but more thunderstorms around, that can slow recovery from electric
02:29crews as well.
02:30Lots of crews in the Houston area, and Bernie, the real challenge now is they have to go
02:34almost pole by pole to get power back, removing any trees that fell.
02:39So many trees fell, it's a big, a mammoth task for the utility companies to be dealing
02:44with.
02:45And although the temperature goes down, the humidity doesn't, John, and listen, Lackey,
02:48you mentioned temperatures at night never fall below the 70-degree mark.
02:53So even in the 80s, it's still going to be uncomfortable with AccuWeather Real Fuel temperatures,
02:58at least in the mid-90s.
03:00You got it, and no relief through the overnight hours.
03:02That also builds heat stress, so remember to please check on older people, the young,
03:08and people with special medical conditions.
03:10This can be especially challenging, a tough time for people in so many days without power.
03:16And once again, we want to remind everybody, please use generators safely.
03:19They can be important, but they need to be installed by a licensed electrician and run
03:23in an area with the proper ventilation.
03:26We don't want any other tragedies to happen here in this kind of situation.
03:30AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter.
03:32John, thanks for joining us.
03:33Good.
03:34Good.