Mexico is also reeling from rising temperatures
The heat wave scorching Texas and other parts of the United States has also resulted in triple-digit temperatures across Mexico, especially in the country’s northern states.
The circumstances have raised concerns about the possibility of a sharp spike in deaths and illnesses caused by the rising temperatures, as well as the strain on the energy grid.
Mexico has signed up at least 112 heat-related deaths so far this year, with more than half of those in a northern state, Nuevo León, according to the health ministry. That compares to just four recorded heat-related deaths the same period last year through the whole country.
The arrival of rain in recent days brought relief to some places in Mexico, while the “heat dome” formed by high pressure atmospheric conditions combined with Pacific climate patterns, has drifted from Mexican territory to the south of the United States.
Still, sweltering temperatures bake parts of northern Mexico. Temperatures in the northwest Mexico city of Hermosillo are expected to hover around 109 degrees all weekend, after rising to 121 degrees on Sunday, one of the highest temperatures recorded anywhere in the world that day.
Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, California, is expected to hit 117 degrees in the next few days.
Rafael Trejo Vázquez, deputy manager of forecasts at Mexico’s National Meteorological Service, said a 22-day period of abnormally warm weather that finally eased last week was the first heat wave since 2017 to last this long.
“It’s not normal,” said Mr Trejo Vázquez, explaining that this was the third heat wave to hit Mexico this year.
The sweltering conditions are fueling conflicting reports of the impact on heat-stricken communities, reflecting how even an exceptional heat wave is a politically sensitive issue in Mexico. Local authorities in some parts of the country have made alarming estimates of heat-related casualties, but senior officials have discredited their assessments.
A civil registry officer in Nuevo León, a highly industrialized state in northeastern Mexico, said on Tuesday that 850 heat deaths in the state in recent weeks. But the government quickly issued a refusal.
Subsequent reports of heat-related deaths pointed to much lower numbers. In Nuevo León, health officials said on Wednesday they had recorded 36 heat-related deaths, including 20 on June 11.
At the same time, the rising temperature caused record electricity consumption during the first three weeks of June. People across the country have been complaining about blackouts and recurring power outages, even as the federal government has tried to downplay those reports.
The authorities in the city of Chihuahua, in northern Mexico, have said so rising demand for electricity resulted in power outages affecting dozens of wells that account for about 30 percent of the city’s water supply. The power outage left some residents without water during a heat wave this month.
Similarly, an association of hotels in the Mexican Caribbean, including Cancún, Puerto Morelos and Isla Mujeres, has complained Last week, power outages interrupted drinking water supplies to some of Mexico’s top tourist destinations.
However, in other parts of the country, power outages caused hotels to see an increase in demand. News reports showed that in some parts of the state of San Luis Potosí in central Mexico, families booked hotel rooms in neighboring communities after power cuts made it unbearable to stay at home without fans or air conditioning.