Heat — Bucks, Pennsylvania

1999-07-04 to 1999-07-06 · Bucks, Pennsylvania

Wider weather episode

A very strong and oppressive high pressure system that extended from the surface to aloft gave Eastern Pennsylvania a brutal heat wave that included the entire Independence Day weekend. There were 74 heat related deaths and over 100 reported heat related injuries. High temperatures reached the 90s for the first time on the 3rd, but sweltering humidity and record breaking maximum temperatures of around 100 degrees occurred from Independence Day through the 6th. The combination of the temperature and humidity produced heat indices of around 110 degrees during the afternoon of each day. A cold front moved through the region early in the morning on the 7th. While high temperatures continued to reach the 90s on the 8th and 9th in the southern half of the state, humidity levels were lower. A stronger cold front moved through during the morning and early afternoon of the 10th and brought in a cooler and drier air mass. The run of 90 degree highs ended everywhere on the 10th.The heat related deaths occurred in Philadelphia (58), Delaware (7), Chester (4), Bucks (2), Montgomery (1), Northampton (1) and Lehigh (1) Counties. Most of the deaths occurred under similar circumstances. They were elderly people with underlying health problems. Most had no air conditioning and were found in houses or apartments with little or no adequate ventilation. Room temperatures in many cases were over 90 degrees. Four of the Delaware County heat related deaths were persons who were taking anti-psychotic medication. This medication automatically raises body temperatures and make them more susceptible to the heat. Two persons (Chester and Philadelphia Counties) died in vehicles. A 49-year-old Philadelphia man died in an office supply building.. A 30-year-old migrant worker died in Delaware County after spending the day picking cucumbers in Swedesboro, New Jersey. A 79-year-old Slatington (Northampton County) woman died after tending her flower garden for three hours in the afternoon of the 5th. Over 100 persons suffered heat related illnesses. In an effort to help the elderly, many of the counties declared Code Reds, had Aging Services open hotlines and distributed fans. In Lehigh County five heat relief sites were opened for the elderly. The Philadelphia Heat Line was swamped with over 700 calls. The city also gave water bottles and rides to shelters to homeless people. Over 100 persons were treated for heat related illnesses. Philadelphia's hospitals called the emergency room visits a steady stream with a surprising number of younger people seeking help. On the 6th around Philadelphia students were dismissed early from summer school classes.The excessive heat led to the drowning of two men trying to beat the heat. A 22-year-old Catasaqua (Lehigh County) man drowned while swimming in the Lehigh River on the 6th. A 30-year-old man drowned on Independence Day while trying to swim across the Delaware River near Depue Island (Monroe County) in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area. The heat also caused buckling of major roadways around Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PENNDOT ) reported 15 roadways buckled, several had to be closed. The worst buckling occurred on both sides of Interstate 95 on successive days near Street Road in Bucks County. Other major roadway bucklings affected the Schuylkill Expressway (Montgomery County) near U.S. Route 202, the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Montgomery County, U.S. Route 1 and the U.S. Route 30 Bypass in Chester County and Pennsylvania State Route 309 in Montgomery County. The heat dropped milk production on area farms. For the whole month of July production was down 20 percent. Thousands of chickens died in Berks County. In Carbon County, trout died in Lizard Creek as the creek temperature hit 80 degrees for the first time ever.The record heat led to record demand for electricity. Many utilities broke records. The strain led to outages to 12,000 PECO customers in Chester, Delaware and Philadelphia Counties; half were in Chester County. Area wide, the PJM reduced voltage by 5 percent at 2 p.m. EDT on the 6th to deal with the huge demand that was straining the electrical system. PECO Energy, GPU Energy and Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) curtailed electrical delivery to about 80 large industrial customers. GPU Energy (10,063 megawatts) and PECO Energy (7,800 megawatts), and the whole The PJM Interconnection, a power pool that links electric utilities throughout the area churned out a record 52,000 megawatt hours of power on the 6th. The PECO peak usage was 35 percent above July 1998's average. Water usage also set an all-time record for the Philadelphia Suburban Company on the 5th. Usage averaged an extra 37 gallons per person. The highest temperatures during this hot spell occurred mainly on the 5th. They included 104 degrees at the Franklin Institute within Philadelphia, 102 degrees in Crum Creek (Delaware County), 101 degrees in Hamburg (Berks County), Neshaminy Falls (Bucks County) and the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, 100 degrees at the Philadelphia International Airport, the Lehigh Valley International Airport, East Stroudsburg (Monroe County), Easton (Northampton County), Reading (Berks County), Pottstown (Montgomery County), Valley Forge (Chester County) and Doylestown (Bucks County), 99 degrees in Perkasie (Bucks County), 96 degrees in Avoca (Luzerne County) and West Chester (Chester County), 93 degrees in Tobyhanna (Monroe County) and 92 degrees at the F. E. Walter Dam (Carbon County). Many daily record high temperature records were either tied or set on the 5th and the 6th. The high temperature of 100 degrees at Philadelphia International Airport on the 5th was the first time the temperature reached 100 degrees at the airport since July 15, 1995.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5715463. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.