What started out as a mild summer is turning into anything but.
Texas became one of the hottest places on earth last week, with temperatures in several cities, including San Angelo and Del Rio, climbing past 110 degrees.
According to the National Weather Service, the thermometer hit 115 degrees in one unlucky town called "Rio Grande Village," making it not just one of the hottest places in the nation but in the world as well.
The heatwave has already killed 13 people in Texas and one in Louisiana. Nor has the suffering been restricted to those states.
California also experienced its first heatwave of the year last week, with the National Weather Service warning that the dry, hot, windy conditions could lead to dangerous fires in parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah.
Unfortunately, the oppressive temps have also started heading east, bringing triple-digit temperatures to Missipi and Tenessee and slightly lower but still uncomfortable high temps to the northeastern US.
Texas sets all-time power demand
Of course, when the summer heat sizzles, demand for power drastically increases as people crank up their ACs to get some much-needed relief.
And, sure enough, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state's power grid, high temperatures weren't the only thing breaking records. Texas also reached a new record for June power consumption, which is extra alarming since last June also saw the state consume record amounts of power.
To make matters worse, last year the record for daily power consumption was broken on July 20. So this year Texas managed to beat the record a full three weeks earlier, before the hottest part of the summer has even begun.
Blackouts
Texas suffered a series of power outages thanks to last summer's record-breaking demand, and the state's Public Utility Commission has already warned that blackouts are likely to occur this summer as well.
So far, Texans have been spared any serious grid disruptions, but not so for residents of Arkansas, where oppressive heat was compounded by power outages that left over 10,000 residents without power for several days.
Summer blackouts become the norm
Unfortunately, though they used to be rare once-in-a-lifetime events, huge power outages are fast becoming a normal feature of the American summer. The number of people affected by blackouts annually has increased by an alarming 64% since the early 2000s, with weather-related outages up an even higher 78%.