Fires. Tornadoes. Deaths. How many heat waves have scorched Mississippi in recent history?

A stifling heat wave persists on the Mississippi Coast this week with record-breaking temperatures that drew weather forecasters to compare the conditions to being trapped under the lid of a boiling pot.

But if there is any consolation to what the National Weather Service has called “oppressive” heat, it’s that Mississippi has been through this again and again.

There was July 2000, when mercury topped 105 degrees at the Keesler Air Force base and Mississippi Power shattered energy use records.

There was 1980, when dozens of people across the state died in a heat wave that lasted for much of the summer.

And there was this week. Wednesday was the hottest day of the year: the temperature hit 100 degrees at the Gulfport-Biloxi Airport. The NWS extended the extreme heat warning through Friday for all of southern Mississippi and warned of especially high temperatures on Thursday. If the weather has not broken records in most counties yet, “we’re heading that way,” said Kevin Gilmore, a meteorologist at the NWS in New Orleans.

Back in 2000, drought conditions drove summer temperatures to skyrocket. American Medical Response took at least six people to the hospital for heat-related illnesses that August, according to Sun Herald archives.

July 2000 temperatures spawned storms and a tornado that knocked out power but did not injure anyone. The heat also helped fuel 23 fires in Hancock County that summer, archives show.

In July 1980, at least 36 people across the state died of heat-related causes and several Mississippi cities recorded 10 days at or above 100 degrees.

The year’s relentless temperatures meant Interstate 55 in Jackson buckled and farmers feared lost soybean crops would drive up poultry feed prices. The heat also closed a Biloxi Art Association gallery because it did not have air conditioning.

National Weather Service records show temperatures have reached 100 or more at least 24 times since 1998 in the Gulfport-Biloxi metro.

Mississippi has not reported any heat-related deaths this week, but at least 13 people in Texas and one in Louisiana have died as the heat wave scorches across the South, the Associated Press reported.

The dangerous temperatures are the result of a “heat dome” -- a bubble of warmth that forms when high pressure in the atmosphere traps heat and forces it downward. The dome has lingered over Texas and moved east this week across much of the South, and the NWS said heat index values could hit 120 on Thursday.

Gilmore said temperatures might slightly improve by early next week but would remain in the mid-90s.

“We’re not seeing any type of break,” he said.

This story was originally published June 29, 2023 at 10:30 AM.