(NewsNation) — Intense heat and high humidity from this week is affecting not only 100 million people across 27 states, but also animals.
Over 2,000 cattle died in Kansas because of heat stress, sparked by consecutive days of triple-degree temperatures and no cooling down at night.
State officials had to ask for help disposing of the bodies.
“This situation is not just the high temperature, but the combination of high temperature, high humidity, lack of wind or air movement, as well as a lack of night cooling,” Dr. Jason Smith, a beef cattle specialist at Texas A&M University, said.
The same oppressive heat wave is causing issues for other areas of the Midwest and South as well.
In Odessa, Texas, 165,000 homes and businesses have been without water for days after a water main break led to a systemwide outage. Pressure is just now starting to return amid deadly temperatures.
Odessa Public Works Director Thomas Kerr said a boil-water notice will remain in effect for the city until Friday.
A strong cool front could break the deadlock of heat over the Midwest on Thursday, but high temperatures are likely here to stay for a while, the National Weather Service is warning.
“We’re not looking at this just completely going away here over the next couple weeks,” meteorologist Andrew Orrison said. “We’re going to see some form of this continue through the month of June.”
As the cool front moves eastward, thunderstorms capable of producing high winds, hail, flash flooding and a few tornadoes will erupt and cut across the Appalachians and interior mid-Atlantic region.
Less intense storms may reach the mid-Atlantic coast and southeastern New England at night. A few strong storms are also in store for parts of the Southeast.
As the Midwest gets a break from the heat, a few showers will dampen the upper Great Lakes.
Extreme heat will hold over the southern Plains and the lower part of the Mississippi Valley. Heat will build over the interior West with spotty thunderstorms later on associated with the onset of the North American monsoon.