The holiday weekend’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence brought packed parades, booming firework displays, and an unrelenting heat wave.
Days of soaring temperatures, which felt even hotter due to high humidity, were interrupted by torrents of rain and choppy seas that combined to create flooding on Beach Road and Five Corners as traffic jams clogged roads across the Island.
Summer is in full swing on the Island, and a deluge of visitors came on what were some of the hottest days so far this year. Much of the East Coast endured heat waves during the holiday weekend, a situation that experts say will likely be a new normal. Across the country, at least 40 people have reportedly died from heat-related issues.
The weather wasn’t as dire on the Island, which was under a heat advisory. But temperatures still reached the low 90s, enough for local emergency managers to warn the community to stay hydrated and to open cooling centers at the Tri-Town Ambulance station, Oak Bluffs library, and West Tisbury library.
It’s not yet clear how many people utilized Tri-Town Ambulance, but Jennelle Gadowski, West Tisbury emergency director, said around 170 people came to her town’s library between Friday and Saturday, including times outside regular business hours. The cooling center, according to a post from the West Tisbury emergency department, provided people a cool respite from “dangerous temperatures,” and offered refreshments.
“It was definitely needed,” she said.
The Oak Bluffs library was operating its regular hours, so staff didn’t differentiate between regular patrons and those who were escaping the heat. Allyson Malik, the library director, said the library saw a similar number of visitors on Friday, when the facility operated as a cooling center, as other weeks, which was around 350. Malik noted some people made Friday an “extended beach day” despite the weather being “hot as heck.”
But, Malik said, the library had higher visitation numbers, roughly 550, on Tuesday when the Island saw heavy rain.
“Usually, hot days are quieter, and when it rains, it is when everybody comes,” Malik said. “It’s going to be busy when it’s storming and there’s nothing to do outside.”
Fourth of July weekend is also one of the busiest times for healthcare providers, and Martha’s Vineyard Hospital was no exception. Claire Seguin, president and chief operating officer of the hospital, said in a statement the emergency department “evaluated and treated more than 300 patients” over the holiday weekend. Of these, 50 cases included issues “likely exacerbated by the heat,” such as dehydration, intoxication, and shortness of breath. And in the continued trend of the public’s health concerns about ticks, 32 people showed up for “tick-related concerns.”
Patrick Rolston, Tisbury fire chief, told The Times that preparations were made across the Vineyard’s EMS departments ahead of the anticipated influx of visitors. In Tisbury, there were four heat-related medical calls, two of which resulted in transporting patients to the hospital, on July 4, but Rolston noted there were more people concentrated in towns with wider beach access, such as Oak Bluffs.
“We were overstaffed, in a good way,” Rolston said.
Additionally, high temperatures make drier conditions that can exacerbate conditions for potential fires. Over the weekend, there were two reported fires where Vineyard fire chiefs said weather conditions were likely contributors. In Oak Bluffs, fireworks set off at a beach near Ocean Park led to a large beach grass fire, and in Chilmark, an overheated 1988 Jeep Wagoneer resulted in an engine fire.
The strain extended beyond a human toll and also taxed the Island’s energy grid. Issues with Eversource’s substation equipment in Edgartown left more than 700 customers temporarily without power in the town and on Chappaquiddick Island on Friday.
“We’re still investigating the cause of the equipment failure, but we do believe the strain on the electric system caused by increased demand for electricity during the heat wave was a factor,” Kaitlyn Woods, an Eversource spokesperson, said.
The heat wave extended beyond just the Island, and Woods said Eversource restored power for 20,000 Massachusetts customers as “extreme heat” and “strong thunderstorms … moved through the state” on July 4. And the federally authorized regional power grid, operated by the nonprofit ISO New England, also experienced its peak demand for the year on July 2, at 25,351 megawatts.
Mary Cate Colapietro, ISO New England spokesperson, said while various factors can impact energy demands, such as the level of renewable sources, “Weather can be a huge driver of when New Englanders use electricity.” Colapietro pointed out this amount was still in line with what the grid’s meteorologist forecast.
And those thunderstorms would be harbingers of a cooling-off the Island experienced during the rainy days that followed the weekend.
Monday saw increased congestion on the main traffic arteries of Vineyard Haven, Five Corners, and Beach Road. Tisbury Police stated that Steamship Authority boats diverted from Oak Bluffs to Vineyard Haven due to winds and the sea conditions contributed to increased traffic. And an emergency call to Beach Road Extension dominoed into a series of issues, including an officer getting hit by a car while directing traffic.
Tuesday saw an increase of rain, and Tisbury was once again the most impacted. Beach Road experienced heavy flooding, and the road was temporarily closed to traffic. The Steamship Authority diverted boats from Oak Bluffs again because of the weather, and multiple other ferry lines — Island Queen, Seastreak, Falmouth Edgartown Ferry, and the Rhode Island Fast Ferry — canceled trips outright.
Additionally, the heavy rain brought another issue to the Vineyard: Some areas were submerged in four inches of water, according to Danielle Ewart, Tisbury shellfish constable, though flooded Beach Road seemed to have pooled deeper. The state Division of Marine Fisheries issued an emergency order on Tuesday that placed a moratorium on shellfishing at Lagoon Pond, Lake Tashmoo, and Vineyard Haven Harbor. State officials will collect water samples this week to determine when these areas can be reopened to shellfishing, according to Ewart.
Although these drastically different weather conditions happened consecutively, it’s not an unusual phenomenon in the region. Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Norton office, said the swing was a “big juxtaposition,” and may have felt more dramatic as the rain system quickly brought relief to the Island from the heat.
Williams said it’s tough to know when more heat spells will happen on the Island, since the forecast is less reliable beyond one-week periods. Still, considering “we’re still in the peak of summer,” Williams said August is also expected to see high temperatures.
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