Carlsbad and Eddy County, N.M., the area where the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is located, is facing a week of high temperatures at or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service.
The high Monday was expected to reach 106 degrees with a heat advisory in effect, according to the local weather forecast, which also predicted daytime highs would remain in triple digits through Sunday.
WIPP is not the only Department of Energy nuclear property in the west facing high temperatures or the risk of other severe weather these days.
While this week’s forecast for DOE’s Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is comparatively mild, with daytime highs in the low 90s and high 80s, it endured a July that was one of its warmest on record.
“July was a hot month, with temperatures running well above average,” according to the lab’s weather machine website. “Daily highs were above normal every single day, resulting in a monthly average nearly six degrees above normal. July 31 was 94 degrees, which tied for the fourth-warmest July day on record,” according to the Los Alamos website.
Meanwhile, there is a heat advisory in effect in Simi Valley, Calif., home of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and the DOE’s Energy Technology Engineering Center cleanup site. The area is expected to have daytime highs from the upper 90s to 100 degrees through Thursday.