Cooling off – Relief in sight from hottest August on books

The summer of 2007 has broken numerous records, including daily high temperature records, the record for the most consecutive 100+ degree days in a month and the record high for the month of August, just to name a few.

“I think the drought and the heat wave we’ve experienced in 2007 rivals that of the early ’50s,” National Weather Service meteorologist Bobby Boyd said.

Memphis’ average daily high temperature through midweek for August was 99.1 degrees, 1.5 degrees warmer than the previous record of 97.6 degree set in 1980. Nashville’s average temperature for August through Thursday was 9.2 degrees above normal and 3.8 degrees hotter than the hottest August on record in 1995.

Nashville also saw 35 consecutive days of above-normal temperatures.

“I’ve been digging through the record books, but I haven’t found anything else that compares,” Boyd said.

At least 15 deaths in Tennessee ‘ 14 of them in the Memphis area ‘ have been attributed to August’s extreme heat, and several more are suspected to be heat-related. Memphis hospitals treated over 250 people for heat-related problems, according to the Memphis and Shelby County Health Department.

The Tennessee Valley Authority set 13 peak power demand records ‘ more than one every three days ‘ during the month, TVA spokesman Gil Francis said Friday.

The federal utility set an all-time record of 33,499 megawatts on Aug. 16 when the average temperature in the valley hit 103.6 degrees ‘ the highest average for TVA’s seven-state region in 55 years.

An upper-level high-pressure system that parked over Tennessee and neighboring areas weeks ago caused air beneath it to become hot, dry and stagnant. The heat exacerbated the drought conditions which were already in place since as early as January for some parts of the state.