Well…it’s our turn. We haven’t had a lot of heat alerts so far this Summer. However, today everyone in the viewing area is going to be dealing with dangerous heat. We have heat alerts up for the entire viewing area.
High pressure is offshore with a cool front to the west.
We’ll have a stronger southwest breeze today that will pump up the temperatures. The wind may occasionally gust to 25mph. While this will help a little with how it feels, it will also push our high temperatures up to the upper 90s this afternoon.
A few inland locations may actually hit 100 degrees. The heat index will be over 100 for a big portion of the day. It will likely be between 105 and 110 for some of the time. Under these conditions heat illnesses are more likely.
There may be a few showers and storms popping up during the afternoon to cool down some areas. I think we’ll have a bigger cluster of showers and storms this evening as that cool front gets a little closer to the region.
With all of that said…Here are some reminders to beat the heat.
Staying hydrated and taking breaks in the shade (or inside) are probably the most important things to do. Keep the curtains in the home closed to keep out the light and the heat. Use the microwave or grill versus the stove.
Tomorrow the cool front will stall out over the region. We will be just a little cooler and slightly less humid. High temps will be in the lower 90s.
The heat index will still be in the upper 90s. We’ll have a variable wind at 5-10mph. Skies will be partly cloudy, and we’ll have some isolated showers or storms.
We’ll be partly cloudy over the weekend. High temps will likely rise back into the mid-upper 90s. Why likely? Well, some of the models are backing off of the temps, but I’m going to stick with the pattern and climatology. So I’m going to hold onto the hotter temps for now. There’s a stronger signal in the models that we’ll break the heat by the middle of next week. We’ll see.
Speaking of heat waves. I did find this neat article that talks about the big heat wave of 1936 in the U.S. It was a different time as it was during the Great Depression. Also, the Winter before that Summer was one of the coldest on record. Here’s the article with more information: Heat Wave of 1936.
Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler