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Thousands of Cattle Die as Brutal Heat Takes Its Toll

By Jan Wesner Childs

June 16, 2022

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At a Glance

  • At least two thousand cattle died amid heat and high humidity in Kansas.
  • A man perished after running out of gas in Death Valley.
  • Two possible heat-related deaths are under investigation in Wisconsin.
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Thousands of cattle died amid sweltering temperatures in Kansas, the deaths of two people in Wisconsin are thought to be heat-related, a man who ran out of gas in Death Valley perished and hundreds of thousands of people across the Upper Midwest lost power as a scorching heat wave sweeps across the country.

The Kansas Department of Health recorded at least 2,000 dead cattle in recent days, based on the number of calls for help in disposing of carcasses, Reuters reported.

Temperatures near or above 100 degrees across much of Kansas, particularly in the western part of the state, resulted in extreme stress levels for livestock, according to Kansas State University, which tracks daily temperatures and their potential impact on animals.

(FORECAST: Who Can Expect Miserable Heat Next?)

As the heat and humidity spiked, cooling winds disappeared, Scarlett Hagins, spokesperson for the Kansas Livestock Association, told Reuters.

AJ Tarpoff, beef extension veterinarian for Kansas State University, called it a "perfect storm."

Kansas had 6.5 million head of cattle last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and is one of the biggest beef producers in the United States.

All or parts of more than a dozen states, including Kansas, remained under heat advisories, excessive heat warnings or excessive heat watches Thursday.

Among those was Ohio, where more than 50,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us., many for a third day.

More than 200,000 outages were reported at one point on Wednesday as high temperatures and humidity combined sent the heat index - or feels like temperature - soaring into the triple digits in many parts of the state.

The issues started Monday when severe weather moved through and were exacerbated by the heat as the week went on, officials with AEP Ohio, the state's second-largest power company, said.

Some lines were damaged by the storms, while others were intentionally shutdown to help reduce strain on the grid, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

"It's absolutely the last resort," AEP spokesman Scott Blake of the decision to turn off power in neighborhoods. "It’s the last thing we want to do.’’

Outages could persist until Saturday.

In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee County medical examiner was conducting autopsies on two people Thursday whose deaths were thought to be heat related. One was an 89-year-old man, the other a 39-year-old woman.

Over the weekend, as temperatures heated up in California and the Southwest, rangers at Death Valley National Park noticed a lone car had been sitting in a parking lot for a few days, according to a news release from the National Park Service. Inside was a crumpled note that said "Out of gas."

Rangers had encountered the driver of the vehicle before, and launched a search for him as temperatures reached a record high of 123 degrees. The weather hampered their efforts.

(MORE: Major Changes in the Weather That Typically Happen in June)

On Tuesday, the man's body was found by park visitors. He was identified as David Kelleher, 67, of Huntington Beach, California.

The U.S. isn't the only place experiencing suffocating heat this week. Much of Europe is also in the grips of a heat wave, with 104 degrees recorded in southern France and the UK national weather agency warning of temperatures over 90 across England and Wales Friday.

A man is seen with his shirt sweaty in downtown Chicago during a heat wave on June 14, 2022. (Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua via Getty Images)
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A man is seen with his shirt sweaty in downtown Chicago during a heat wave on June 14, 2022. (Vincent D. Johnson/Xinhua via Getty Images)

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

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