That's becase a lot of discussion borrows from the reductionist rhetoric over in S2K, where many posters often rely on "drought-begets-drought" and other "adages" that belong in the Farmer's Almanac. With that type of reasoning, you'll reason that dry antecedent cool seasons associated with La Nina ensure persistently dry summers, while wetter antecedent seasons yield wetter summers with less "staying power" regarding the "death ridge".
In otherwords, there's the problem (homonculus fallacy) of simply describing a concept in terms of itself. Instead, there needs to be more rigorous discussion regarding the actual dynamics/physical mechanisms in play regarding the formation of "death ridges," as that is what can allow accurate predictions regarding formation and movement during summer (as well as reliable predictions regarding what truly will happen via the effects of climate change). Knowing these factors can aid in understanding why this heat is building even despite the overall cool and wet spring that Texas just had prior.
For instance, is it pure happenstance? That would imply these ridges popping up/staying anywhere, rather than being as persistent as it is near Texas/Mexico. Hence, there must be set pieces in play: either a distinct source of Rossby wave propogagtion, or some surface feature that reinforces the tendencies.
Some posters prior have mentioned high elevation Mexican deserts/plateaus as a causative surface factor regarding the formation of heat ridges ... but to confirm, we need to see if there are other intstances of ridges across other high elevation areas on Earth (i.e. Indian subcontinent and Tibetan plateau, South American Andes, Africa's Atlas Mountains, etc) during their respective hot seasons.
Well, it depends on where in extreme South Louisiana you were at. I'm sure being way down of Lake Pontchatrain in the marshes around Pilottown won't get you much triple digit heat ... only high heat indices at best. Whereas areas like Acadiana (and also the entire northern Louisiana into Arkansas) do get in on the heat that builds from Texas.I cannot ever remember being this hot before and I grew up in extreme South Louisiana. No rain anywhere in sight. Yay.