Published: July 10, 2009 10:42 pm      

Heat wave blisters Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY — OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A heat wave blistered Oklahoma on Friday, sending temperatures soaring to near-record levels for a second day in some parts of the state.

The temperature climbed to 114 degrees in Freedom in the northwest part of the state Friday afternoon, and while temperatures were mostly in the mid- to upper 90s in eastern Oklahoma, higher humidity led to heat index readings well into the triple digits.

“Either you’re drowning out there in the moisture in the eastern part of the state or you’re in a blast furnace in the west. Pick your poison,” said Gary McManus, a climatologist with the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. “It feels the same on your body.”

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for the entire state through Sunday, warning that hot temperatures and high humidity could lead to heat-related illnesses.

A combination of an upper-level, high-pressure system and warm southwesterly winds are driving temperatures up across western Oklahoma, said Ty Judd, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Norman.

“They’re considerably drier out in the Panhandle. There’s not a lot of green out there, and a lot of people have plowed fields,” Judd said. “The dirt really heats up quickly.”

Max Morris spent Thursday and Friday supervising a maintenance crew mowing grass and cutting weeds in Buffalo, where the temperature climbed on Thursday to 115 degrees, the highest recorded temperature in the state since July 1996.

“It was terrible hot,” Morris said. “When I walked out of the house this morning, I sure wanted to turn around and go back inside.”

The hottest temperature recorded in Oklahoma is 120 degrees, which has been reached six times, most recently in Tipton in 1994.

Temperatures across the state were about two degrees above normal in June, and already are higher than average for July, McManus said.

“As a whole, the year so far is running as one of the 30 hottest on record in terms of statewide average,” McManus said.

Although no deaths have been attributed to the heat so far this year, paramedics in Oklahoma City have responded to 83 heat-related calls since June 1, said Lara O’Leary, a spokeswoman for the Emergency Medical Services Authority. During the same time last year, the city’s ambulance service responded to just 48 calls.

“We’re more concerned for tomorrow when those weekend warriors get out there and try to play an entire round of golf or mow their entire yard or try other outdoor projects,” O’Leary said. “Tomorrow we’re expecting those calls to increase.”