Forecast: Oklahoma's Heat Wave To Continue Through Weekend

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Broiling, oppressive heat continued in much of Oklahoma on Friday, and possibly contributed to a Tulsa man's death, as temperatures climbed back into triple digits and much of the

Friday, August 10th 2007, 3:01 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Broiling, oppressive heat continued in much of Oklahoma on Friday, and possibly contributed to a Tulsa man's death, as temperatures climbed back into triple digits and much of the state prepared to sweat it out through the weekend and beyond.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory through Wednesday for portions of northern, central and southern Oklahoma and an excessive heat warning for 21 counties in the northeast and eastern parts of the state. The heat was expected to continue into the middle of next week before a possible cool-off, forecasters said.

The heat warning included Tulsa, where the mercury hit 100 degrees Friday afternoon at Jones Airport, as thousands of people watched the second round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club.

By Friday evening, paramedics with the Emergency Medical Services Authority in Tulsa had responded to 33 calls at Southern Hills, 26 of them for heat-related illnesses.

EMSA took eight patients, all in fair condition, to area hospitals for continued treatment.

Since Monday, EMSA paramedics have provided care to more than 100 patients at the PGA, mostly after reporting symptoms of overexposure to the heat.

One patient included a 67-year-old man who said he didn't drink any water while on the course and had to be taken to the hospital.

``People are following the golfers and not following their brains,'' EMSA spokeswoman Tina Wells said. ``It's all about listening to your body. You don't have to walk every hole with Tiger (Woods).''

Elsewhere in Tulsa, EMSA paramedics responded this week to more than two dozen heat-related calls, treating patients who had been outdoors drinking alcohol, coaching football practice, mowing their lawns and working in an apartment complex that had no air conditioning, among others.

Also Friday, paramedics found a deceased man in a shed that had no air conditioning. His exact cause of death was unknown, pending a medical examiner's report, Wells said.

By the afternoon, hundreds of the city's homeless were filling shelters to near capacity. Some centers, such as one downtown operated by The Salvation Army, set up cooling stations to get people out of the heat.

At the John 3:16 Mission, a lottery was planned to determine who will get one of 110 beds at night, when temperatures aren't expected to dip much below 80 degrees.

``Everybody we can get in the mission, we will,'' said the Rev. Steve Whitaker, executive director at the mission. ``Our building is full.''

National Weather Service forecaster Pete Snyder said a longer-range model suggests cooler temperatures by next weekend.

``It's a good thing this happened so late in the season,'' he said. ``July is normally a bear of a month if you don't like hot weather. We really dodged that.''

For more information on heat related illnesses including symptoms and treatments, click here.

To learn more about the 89th PGA Championship, including an interactive map of the course, click here.