© Billy Hefton / Enid News & Eagle via APA city employee in Enid, Okla., talks on the phone as he describes the road buckling along U.S. 412 on Saturday. Both west bound lanes were shut down.
The Upper Midwest was feeling some unaccustomed heat on Monday, but folks in Oklahoma were having it even worse: roads buckled, damaging cars, while poultry farmers were taking precautions like fans and watered rooftops to protect flocks.
In Oklahoma City, where a 28th day of triple-digit heat is expected, two lanes of a major interstate in downtown were closed Monday morning after buckling on a bridge caused steel expansion joints to rise, damaging cars as they passed over.
The city, which is forecast to reach 103 degrees on Monday, is on pace to break its record for days at 100 or above - 50 set in 1980 - with triple-digit heat possible through September.
In Tulsa, a hole opened in the pavement of a highway bridge and a section of U.S. 75 in a nearby town buckled.
It's even worse in western Oklahoma, where temperatures at 110 or above have been common in recent weeks. In Enid, asphalt at a major intersection along U.S. Highway 412 buckled Saturday night from the intense heat.
Last week, a buckled road near Enid caused a motorcyclist to go airborne and then tumble for hundreds of feet. The driver, who was wearing kevlar-laced gear, was airlifted to a hospital where he was being treated for injuries that included broken bones and an injured back.
Oklahoma poultry producers have deployed fans and some even hose down rooftops to try to lower temperatures, John Ward, executive vice president of the state Poultry Federation told msnbc.com.
"We haven't lost a lot of birds," at least so far, he said, adding that "we probably lost more chickens to snow storms" that caved in roofs in recent winters.
The U.S. Humane Society worries that even brief power outages can kill thousands of chickens, as was the case in North Carolina last week.
"The vast majority of farm animals are confined indoors at all times, meaning if there's a power outage, you can have tens of thousands of animals in one building dead within an hour, said Paul Shapiro, who tracks farm animal conditions for the activist group.
"The problem is inherent to large operations," he added. Steps like shaded, outdoor access "can help avert" heat deaths, he said.
'Most significant' heat wave in 5 years likely
The heat wave is set to press on this week across the central U.S., with high humidity adding to the misery.
"This will likely be the most significant heat wave the region has experienced in at least the last five years," the National Weather Service said.
Heat indexes are predicted to stay in the triple digits, and the oppressive temperatures are likely to spread to the East Coast later in the week.
At the other end of the U.S., the Seattle area has had what a local TV station is calling "the 78-minute summer." KOMO TV reported Monday that that's the amount of time it has been 80 degrees or warmer so far this summer.
Heat advisories and warnings were in place in at least 18 states, from Texas to Michigan, as temperatures and humidity combined to make being outside uncomfortable for millions.
When the humidity is factored into the mix, it will feel like 110 degrees in some parts of the nation.
"This is unusual," said Pat Slattery, spokesman for the weather service. "There's no sugar coating anything here."
Temperatures in places such as Dodge City, Kan., and Woodward, Okla., were forecast to be above 100 degrees through Saturday. Wichita, Kan., will see temperatures higher than 100 degrees through Sunday.
This heat wave is particularly dangerous because many of the areas under its umbrella are not used to prolonged high temperatures and humidity, according to the weather service. Plus the overnight temperatures are not expected to dip low enough to provide any reprieve.
"The cumulative effects, when it doesn't cool down overnight, you get no relief," Slattery said.
According to the weather service outlook, the central U.S. from North Dakota to Texas and east to the Carolinas, excluding parts of the Northeast and Southern Florida, will see excessive heat through July 29.
'Too hot for us to stand'
In Steele, N.D., a small window air conditioner in Paul and Betty Smokov's ranch home just couldn't keep up.
"It's 82 in the house," Betty Smokov said. "The heat is really oppressive and sticky."
Justin Tinder of Weatherford and his family visited the Oklahoma City Zoo on Sunday, arriving at 9 a.m.
"By noon, we were headed out," Tinder said. "It was too hot for us to stand much longer. We decided to check it in and go find some air conditioning."
The scorching weather is the latest in a series of meteorological problems to best the Midwest in recent months.
The list includes the devastating tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri in late May, killing nearly 160 people and destroying more than 8,000 homes and other structures, as well as the ongoing flooding along the Missouri River, which has triggered weeks of evacuations and other emergency measures from Montana through Missouri.
In Chicago, city officials said a half-dozen cooling centers would remain open this week, as temperatures as high as 105 were forecast in Illinois. Cooling centers also were open in Detroit to help residents who don't have air conditioning at home.
Others who had to be outside in the heat took precautions. North Dakota National Guard Capt. Dan Murphy said several hundred soldiers deployed for flood-fighting efforts in the Dakotas were required to take mandatory rest breaks in the shade.
"It's hot in those vests and uniforms," Murphy said. "These are soldiers. They can't just strip down to T-shirts and shorts."
Officials at the Cornhusker State Games, an amateur sports festival in Nebraska, had crews bring extra water and ice for participants.
"It takes a physical toll on anyone out there," said the event's executive director, Dave Minarik.
Dwight Anderson, the owner of an Omaha, Neb., amusement park, plans to dump ice cubes into the Fun Plex pools on Monday night or Tuesday morning to lower the temperature.
The Schwan's USA Cup youth soccer tournament in Blaine, Minn., suspended play for a time Sunday because of heat indexes that soared to 110 degrees. Tournament spokesman Barclay Kruse said organizers wanted to avoid any heat-related health issues before they developed.
Man found dead
Police said heat may have played a role in the death of a 55-year-old man at a homeless camp in Springfield, Mo., on Saturday.
Police found him in a small tent after others at the camp raised alarm. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.
The heat also is adversely affecting wildlife. The Texas AgriLife Extension Service said last week that pregnant does are having difficulty carrying fawns to term and other fawns are being born prematurely.
Texas A&M University researchers determined the period from February to June was the driest such period on record in Texas, with a statewide average of 4.26 inches of rain. The next driest February-to-June stretch was in 1917, with a 6.45-inch rain average.
Last week, about 50,000 chickens died at a North Carolina farm after the power went off for less than an hour.
In Kansas, one couple lost 4,300 turkeys that took 26 hours to bury.
Farmers in the Carolinas outfit their poultry barns with cooling systems that use fans to push mists of water over the birds or pull air through the sheds at high speed like an air tunnel. The cooling systems have prevented family-owned turkey growers Prestage Farms from suffering a mass die-off from heat for more than five years, said co-owner Scott Prestage.
"If outside the heat index is at 107 ... the bird in that house is feeling something that tends to be in the mid to high 80-degree range," said Prestage, whose operations produce more than 425 million pounds of live turkey a year in North Carolina and South Carolina. "We tend not to lose birds in those houses, not as long as all the equipment is operating properly."
A power outage, though, can be deadly.
"With the new ventilation systems in these houses, they can handle the heat pretty good," said Bob Ford, executive director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation. "Most everybody's converted their houses to that type of system, and you just have to keep your fingers crossed I guess."
John Bryan, spokesman for the Missouri Poultry Federation, said he hadn't heard of the heat causing similar problems in Missouri. But he said producers are vigilant during the summer, making sure the turkeys move around and get plenty of water.
"It's summer in Missouri, and they know the routine," Bryan said. "They're constantly out checking their flocks. They've got field managers and that's what they do every day. They all watch them a little more closely because it's such a heat wave. ... It's the same with the chicken people. They're out there watching."
One thing farmers watch for, he said, is making sure the turkeys haven't bunched up together in the heat, which can cause them to smother.
"A lot of them will just get in a pile," Bryan said. "They do sometimes get by the doors, which maybe will have a breeze, and sometimes they'll just get in a heap."
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