Heat — Montgomery, Pennsylvania

2006-08-01 to 2006-08-03 · Montgomery, Pennsylvania

Wider weather episode

A strong area of high pressure anchored over the East Coast and the western Atlantic, resulted in a stretch of excessive heat for the entire region to start off August 2006. The very hot air mass was accompanied by humid conditions as the dewpoints surged into the upper 60s and lower 70s for a time. It could have been worse, but the dew points lowered a little bit for most areas during the afternoon hours as the sunshine dried the air mass out for a time. The highest temperature reached was 98 degrees, three days in a row, at the Philadelphia International Airport, one of which was a new record high temperature. On August 3rd, the temperature soared to 96 degrees at the Lehigh Valley International Airport near Allentown and 97 degrees in Reading. Even Mount Pocono topped out at 90 degrees on both August 2nd and August 3rd. The heat indices topped out on August 1st between 105 and 110 degrees, except the lower 90s across the southern Poconos. The nighttime hours though were very uncomfortable as the low temperature on the morning of August 2nd was a soupy 81 degrees at the Philadelphia International Airport. The excessive heat on August 1st caused a boy, who was attending a basketball camp at Lehigh University, to collapse during practice in the Philip Rauch Fieldhouse at the Bethlehem School's Goodman Campus. The boy was taken to St. Luke's Hospital-Fountain Hill and turned out to be just fine. Almost three dozen young people riding in several charter buses back to Brooklyn, New York from Dorney Park, Pennsylvania on the night of August 2nd were stricken by the heat and treated at four Lehigh Valley Hospitals. Some of them even passed out. Malfunctioning air conditioning on a couple buses during the excessive heat contributed to the illnesses, affecting an adult and 34 children. The buses pulled off Interstate 78 about 7 PM EDT. About eleven people fell unconscious after the buses stopped; all were between eight and eighteen years of age. St. Joseph Hospital in Reading treated about two people for heat-related ailments on August 2nd, while Reading Hospital treated as many as 30 patients for similar problems. In Chester County, Pennsylvania, three people were admitted to Chester County Hospital and three others to Phoenixville Hospital with heat-related illnesses on August 2nd.The excessive heat put an extra burden on area power companies as fans and air conditioners worked overtime. PPL Electric Utilities of Allentown, which serves 1.3 million customers in Pennsylvania, and PECO serving Philadelphia and its suburbs, broke records for electricity demands. PECO's peak usage on August 1st reached 8,884 megawatts, surpassing the previous record of 8,638 megawatts set on July 18, 2006. During the excessive heat on August 1st and 2nd, 3,500 PECO customers in Lower Bucks County experienced a power outage. PPL customers in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania area used 7,507 megawatt hours of energy between 4 PM EDT and 5 PM EDT, which according to preliminary reports, was a new record. The company's old record, 7,274 megawatt hours, was set on December 20, 2004. Met-Ed's usage topped out at 3,000 megawatt hours in the Easton, Pennsylvania area, which was also a new record; the previous record was set in July 2006. Met-Ed reported a heat-related outage in Raubsville, which affected 138 people and lasted about two hours. The excessive heat took its toll on some area roadways. In Chester, Pennsylvania, the extreme heat caused a roadway "blow-up" on Interstate 95 near the Routes 320/352 interchange about 4 PM EDT on August 2nd. This resulted in the closing of the right and center lanes while repairs were made. Officials with PennDot said the underlying concrete topped with asphalt heaved in the center lane and possibly a portion of the right lane. The damaged area was about one lane wide, or 12 feet, and about three feet long. The several days of excessive heat unfortunately took its toll on some people across the Delaware and Lehigh Valley's. There were twenty-four heat related deaths. Among the twenty-one people who died from the heat in Philadelphia included: a 46 year old man from hyperthermia in Center City, a 59 year old man from heart disease and heat stress in North Philadelphia, a 15 year old girl from cerebral palsy and heat stress in West Philadelphia, a 91 year old woman from heart disease and heat stress in the Mayfair section of Philadelphia, a 53 year old man from heart disease, diabetes and heat stress in the Ivy Hill section of Philadelphia, a 61 year old man from heart disease and heat stress in Southwest Philadelphia, a 79 year old man from heart disease, diabetes and heat stress in Strawberry Mansion, and a 63 year old man from heart disease, diabetes and heat stress in Wissahickon section of Philadelphia. On August 2nd, a 74-year-old Reading, Pennsylvania (Berks County) man was found dead in his hot third-floor apartment on Buttonwood Street. He died of acute heart disease that was aggravated by the excessive heat. A 40-year-old Towamencin man (Montgomery County) died on the morning of August 3rd. The man had been drinking (alcohol-related problems) and decided to sleep outside on the back deck. A 69-year-old Conshohocken man died on August 3rd with underlying health problems, however there were no fans or air conditioning in the house and the windows were all closed.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5529411. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.