El Paso Floods As Pacific NW Electric Lines Melt In Weather Swap

Rain continues to plummet El Paso as the West Coast goes through a severe heatwave up to the Pacific North West.

A record-breaking heatwave is crippling Southern California up to the Pacific Northwest this past week, with Seattle reaching 110 degrees. At the same time, Portland, Oregon, saw the highest temperature to date, with a scorching high of 118 on Tuesday.

The heatwave is so bad that some of the roads on I-5 are buckling, and Portland Streetcar power cables are melting, and so are electric lines knocking power out for thousands of residents.

The gripping heat is also to blame for an abnormal rise in heatstroke victims and drownings because people are taking to the ocean, lakes, and rivers to cool off.

Residents are trying to help each other, and cooling centers are opening for the community to keep everyone safe.

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I lived in Portland, OR for ten years, and when I first moved there, I found out that hardly anyone has an air conditioner in their home. Seattle, for example, is the least air-conditioned metro area in the country, with about only 44% of homes having air conditioning systems installed.

This type of scorching heat is rare in that part of the country, especially when temperatures generally linger around the mid-70s during this time of year.

Meanwhile, in El Paso, our monsoon season has officially begun wreaking havoc on roadways, homes, businesses and severely flooding our streets. This year's monsoon season, which generally runs from around mid-June to the end of September, is reminiscent of the 2006 flood, bringing torrential downpours during the 100-year storm.

It's no secret that our planet is experiencing an atmospheric flux in weather patterns. Climate change is real, and if we don't get serious about healing Mother Earth, our future looks pretty cloudy and dim, with a possibility of dire consequences.