The US looks set to face scorching temperatures this week, as the first significant heatwave of the season gets underway. Much of the Midwest, Great Lakes, Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic are forecast to see potentially record-breaking heat lingering throughout the first half of the week. The longevity of the extreme temperatures expected in some locations has not been experienced in decades.
Numerous daily high-temperature records and even a few monthly records for June could be broken from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast, with local maximum temperatures predicted to reach up to 40.5°C (105°F).
But soaring temperatures are far from the only weather phenomenon the US will have to contend with, as heavy rainfall, flash flooding, snow, and storms have all been predicted in various locations across the country.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS), Americans should anticipate “heavy wet snow across the northern Rockies into the new week. Meanwhile, deep tropical moisture is expected to move ashore across the Gulf Coast States with the threat of heavy rainfall. This threat extends into the upper Midwest where flash flooding and a few severe storms [are expected].”
In the meantime, the heatwave will spread from the central Plains to the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley, and the Northeast today and will remain across the Northeast through midweek, as per the latest update from the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center.
Over the next couple of days, a low-pressure system is forecast over the central High Plains, which is expected to intensify as it heads toward and reaches the upper Midwest. Ahead of this low-pressure system, “a heat wave is quickly emerging,” the Weather Prediction Center explains.
“The heat will surge into the Northeast by Tuesday where high temperatures well up into the 90s [90°F/32°C] are forecast as far north as Vermont and New Hampshire. By Wednesday afternoon, some locations in interior New England could see temperatures topping the century mark [100°F/38°C], which will break daily records at certain locations.”
This means that, by Sunday, 268 million people are forecast to see air temperatures reach or exceed 32°C (90°F), Axios reports.
Meanwhile, in the Four Corners region of the Southwestern US, “critical fire danger conditions are anticipated today under persistently dry conditions.”
Heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the US, so the NWS urges that people take the heatwave seriously and tread carefully, particularly those who are at greatest risk from the effects of extreme heat, such as older people, pregnant people and infants, and those with chronic medical conditions. For tips on how to stay safe in the heat, check out the NWS’s handy resources.
No comments