Air conditioners working overtimerunning hot as North Texas bakes in 100-degree heat | Fort Worth Star-Telegram

The air-conditioner repair season is peaking, and Mike Reyes is on his game.

“You’ve got fan motors going out,” said Reyes, owner of Mike Reyes Air Conditioning in Fort Worth. “You’ve got capacitors going out. You’ve just got people who procrastinate. Every time you go into spring, you should have your air-conditioning unit checked out.”

Temperatures soared to 102 degrees Tuesday at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the ninth consecutive day of triple-digit heat, which means Reyes has spent this month working inside suffocating attics or outside in the blazing sun.

“You get used it,” Reyes said. “Just like anybody else who works outside, the weather breaks you in.”

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Here’s a look at the heat wave, by the numbers:

 

848 million gallons of water that evaporated Monday out of the four lakes owned by the Tarrant Regional Water District and three others used for storage.

 

498 million gallons of water used Aug. 3 by TRWD’s four largest customers — Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield and the Trinity River Authority. That’s nowhere near the record of 592 millions gallons used on Aug. 11, 2011, by those same four entities.

 

70,169 megawatts of electricity used in Texas between 4 and 5 p.m. Monday, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the electric grid for 90 percent of Texas. One megawatt serves about 200 homes during peak demand.

 

13 days of 100-degree temperatures this year, including every day in August.

 

18 days of 100-degree temperatures on average in DFW.

 

71 days of 100-degree temperatures in DFW in 2011, a record.

 

103 degrees on Monday, the hottest day of the year.

Forecasters are saying the 100-degree heat will likely stick around for the rest of the week, but a rare summer cold front is expected to drop high temperatures into the 90s this weekend.

“It’s still going to be hot but it's not going to be triple-digit hot,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Lamont Bain. “We could see some rain this weekend that could provide some relief. We’ll just have to wait and see what develops.”