Heat in Pennsylvania, July 12 to 18, 1997

The longest and hottest heat wave of the summer of 1997 brought around 6 consecutive days of high temperatures of 90 degrees or higher to Eastern Pennsylvania. Along with the oppressive heat came high humidity levels and limited rainfall. There were twenty-four heat related deaths caused by the heat wave, twenty-three persons within Philadelphia and one person in Darby in Delaware County. All of the deaths occurred indoors. Most of the people that died had underlying health problems that were exacerbated by the heat. They often were found in homes that had the windows shut, no air conditioning and sometimes just fans blowing. Heat related illnesses occurred as far north as the Lehigh Valley and Berks County during the heat wave. The heat wave ended after a strong cold front moved through the region early on the 19th. The hottest day for most areas was the 15th as high temperatures were in the mid 90s in the Poconos and Lehigh Valley and near 100 degrees around Philadelphia. This was also the day that many utilities set new usage records. The Pennsylvania-Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM) reported a record usage of 49,822 megawatts in their regional serving area. This surpassed the previous record of 48,524 megawatts set on August 2, 1995. Other utility setting records included PECO Energy with 7300 megawatts (old record 7,244 megawatts), Pennsylvania Power and Light with 6,051 megawatts (old record 6,021 megawatts) and GPU with 2,288 megawatts (previous record 2,228 megawatts). A Philadelphia suburban water company also reported a record water usage for the day.The highest temperatures during this heat wave included 100 degrees at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and Levittown (Bucks County), 99 degrees at the Northeast Philadelphia Airport, 98 degrees at the Philadelphia International Airport and New Hope (Bucks County), 97 degrees in Reading (Berks County) and King of Prussia (Montgomery County), 95 degrees at the Lehigh Valley International Airport and 94 degrees in East Stroudsburg (Monroe County). The lack of rain continued to stress crops and water supplies. Leesport in Berks County asked for voluntary water conservation. The fear of fires led to the banning of outside burning in Cumru (Berks County) and East Vincent (Chester County) Townships. The excessive heat also led to the buckling of Interstate 95 in both Philadelphia and Ridley Township in Delaware County. The heat also caused buckling on the southbound lanes of U.S. Route 1 in Upper Providence Township.