(Bloomberg) --
Sluggish weather patterns across the US have created a dome of heat about to bake Texas. Excessive heat watches and advisories cover a large part of eastern and southern parts of the state, as well as neighboring Louisiana, according to the National Weather Service.
The extreme temperatures could push electricity demand to record levels in the Lone Star State this week and they may linger. The US Climate Prediction Center warns there is a moderate chance of excessive heat in Texas and Louisiana through at least June 24 and Houston and the coast could be baking through early July.
“It looks like it is going to have some staying power,” said Brian Hurley, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center.
Meanwhile, smoke from Canadian wildfires continues to cause problems for parts of the country. Air quality alerts are up across Minnesota and Wisconsin.
In other weather news:
More than a hundred thousand people were evacuated across India and Pakistan as cyclone Biparjoy was set to make a landfall on Thursday.
The cyclone follows devastating rains in Pakistan last year that flooded about a third of the nation, killing 1,700 people, displacing millions, and causing about $30 billion in losses and damages. It will further complicate the country’s efforts to revive the economy at a time when it has to make billions of dollars of external debt payments.
The western Indian state of Gujarat, which will bear the brunt of the “very severe” category storm, has evacuated more than 74,000 people, the Press Trust of India reported. Neighboring Pakistan has so far moved almost 77,000 people from Sindh, according to a statement from the provincial government.
--With assistance from Naureen S Malik.
