By David A. Fahrenthold and Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; A01
The Washington area stewed in hot sun and bad air yesterday as the edge of a heat wave pushed temperatures into the mid-90s and prompted authorities to warn of dangerously sweltering conditions for the next three days.
The reason for the region's misery was a mass of very warm air, which originated in the Southwest and generated punishing temperatures in the Great Plains before drifting east. Yesterday, as the air mass moved into the Washington area and electrical power use increased to near-record levels, officials cautioned against outdoor activities and opened government buildings as places to cool off.
Today, temperatures are predicted to near 100 degrees, and the heat index -- an estimate of how warm a day feels based on heat and humidity -- could be as high as 110.
"It's going to be a very stifling air mass and a very dangerous air mass," said Ross Dickman, a National Weather Service official.
Pepco and Dominion Virginia Power reported no significant heat-related problems last night with power outages or brownouts. Hoping to avoid the kinds of blackouts that have affected New York and California in recent hot spells, utility officials in the region asked customers to conserve power when possible.
Unlike the electricity transmission grid in California, which has not built power generating plants fast enough to meet growing electricity demand, the regional grid that includes Washington has enough generating capacity, officials said.
"We don't foresee any problems either on our system or on the [power] grid, but we're keeping an eye on the situation," said Mary-Beth Hutchinson, a spokeswoman for Pepco.
Still, officials said, they were preparing to set records for demand over the next few days. Ray Dotter, spokesman for PJM, the organization that manages the electric grid for much of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic said it expected to supply a peak of 143,000 megawatts of power an hour today -- which would break the record of 139,747 megawatts set during the region's last heat wave two weeks ago.
"Electricity demand records are falling like dominoes," said Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute, an electric power industry association. "The system is being tested everywhere."
In other parts of the country, there were signs of stress.
Natural gas prices staged their biggest increase in more than a year as utilities burned more of the fuel to meet demand for air conditioning. And even nuclear reactors were having trouble keeping cool: American Electric Power Co. shut down one of two reactors in Bridgman, Mich., because the temperature of the lake water used to cool the reactor was so high that the reactor's containment building was too warm.
Yesterday in Washington, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments declared a "Code Orange" day for air quality, warning the elderly and very young to be careful about going out.
"If you just go out for an hour, you're not going to get a burn in your lungs," which can happen in extreme cases, said Joan Rohlfs, an official at the council of governments. "But it does have cumulative effects."
The heat broiled anybody and anything unlucky to be outdoors.
At the Washington Redskins' training camp in Loudoun County, defensive back Pierson Prioleau, a South Carolina native, came off the practice field early last night with nothing but the heat on his mind. Prioleau sought out the team's training staff after the last snap of practice, believing he might have lost upward of six pounds during the two-hour workout.
He was told to drink 20 ounces of fluid for every pound dropped.
"That's the real deal out there," Prioleau said to anyone within earshot. "It was hot last year, too, but not like that."
Some of the area's most fortunate residents might have been those who live at the National Zoo. The giant pandas retreated into their specially cooled outdoor grottoes, and the river otters munched on carrot-sicles, a special hot-weather treat from keepers.
Even for people who stayed inside, the heat was hard to avoid. It overcame the weak air-conditioning at the D.C. jail, adding one more misery to a place that has plenty. "It is hot as hell in there," said D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), who toured the jail yesterday with council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and mayoral candidate Michael Brown.
The heat seeped into the non-air-conditioned auditorium at Adelaide Davis Elementary School in the District, where children in a summer camp were preparing for a performance that included drumming and poetry reading. Camp leaders plugged in every fan, but that only seemed to move the hot air around.
"It's just dangerous to be in a 100-degree building," said Jamila Larson, one of the camp directors, who said she wrote letters to city officials earlier in the summer to alert them of the heat problem.
In recent days, the National Weather Service's maps have shown an orange-red blotch in the middle of the country -- the handiwork of the air mass that gave Sioux Falls, S.D., its first 100-degree day in four years. For today, the map shows the red blotch forming over the Washington area.
In response, officials in the District and several suburban counties will open up "cooling centers" for residents to escape the heat. D.C. officials will also open up "street showers," the official term for an opened fire hydrant, in five locations around the city.
Officials urged people to check in on elderly relatives or acquaintances, who may be particularly vulnerable to the heat.
Metro passengers should prepare for delays and crowded conditions on all rail lines this week. Metro plans to start slowing trains to 45 mph in the aboveground sections, instead of running at the top speed of 59 mph, to conserve electricity.
In addition, Metro will add two to three minutes between trains during the afternoon rush. Maintenance personnel will inspect the tracks in the aboveground sections for "heat kinks," which form when overheated track expands.
Relief from the heat wave is expected to arrive around Friday, when, forecasters say, a cold front from the Great Lakes will move the hot air to the south.
But, because this is August in Washington, "relief" and "cold" will hardly have their usual meanings: After the front passes, forecasters say, temperatures will plunge -- all the way down to the high 80s.
Staff writers Michael Alison Chandler, Liz Clarke, Daniel De Vise, Rosalind S. Helderman, Allison Klein, Theola S. Labbé, Jason La Canfora, Ann E. Marimow, Lena H. Sun, Martin Weil, Eric M. Weiss and Dan Zak contributed to this report.
