The National Weather Service (NWS) issued extreme heat warnings and heat advisories for parts of the Midwest on Tuesday, as temperatures are expected to soar into the upper 90s across the region.
“Excessive heat warnings and heat advisories are currently in effect across the mid to upper Mississippi Valley, the Midwest and southern New England, affecting nearly 61 million people,” the NWS said.
Forecasters warn that the heat wave could bring “a quick spell of potentially record-high temperatures from the Midwest into the Ohio Valley, Tennessee Valley, southern to central Appalachians, and into the Mid-Atlantic.”
Dmitriy83/NWS and Getty
“Today, at least for a lot of the Midwest, it does like the hottest day of the heat wave and the hottest day of the summer, which coming at the end of August is unusual,” Jeffrey Frame, teaching associate professor in the Department of Climate, Meteorology and Atmospheric Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told Newsweek.
Frame compared the situation to having the “coldest day of winter at the end of February, two months after the solstice.”
The combination of high heat and humidity is expected to trigger severe thunderstorms across the Great Lakes region and portions of the Midwest. The storms are likely to bring heavy rain, strong winds and the potential for flash flooding.
“The only break from the heat is going to come from the chance of scattered thunderstorms, and some of those could actually be severe,” Frame said. He described the storms as a “double-edged sword,” noting that high winds could lead to power outages.
“We saw that in the Minneapolis area last night, where a line of storms moved through and delayed the Twins game up there,” he said, referencing the Minnesota Twins’ baseball game against the Atlanta Braves that was delayed because of lightning.
Severe storms on Monday and Tuesday left tens of thousands without power in the Twin Cities metro area, according to Xcel Energy’s outage map.
The hottest day of the heat wave is expected today with heat indices climbing to 105 to 110 degrees. An Excessive Heat Warning is in effect for all of northern IL, while a heat advisory is in effect for for much of northwestern Indiana. #ILwx #INwx pic.twitter.com/E6C0T8He01
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) August 27, 2024
The record heat is expected to be relatively short-lived, as a high-pressure system in Canada is forecast to bring cooler air into the Great Lakes on Wednesday. The cooler air “will quickly overspread New England Wednesday night, reaching into the Mid-Atlantic by Thursday morning behind a sharp cold front,” the NWS said.
Despite the brief nature of the heatwave, experts advise caution during the extreme conditions.
“So for heat safety, number one, limit your time outside, especially during the hottest and sunniest part of the day,” Frame said. “Today is not a day to take a midday jog.”
“If you do have to be outside, try to spend as much time in the air conditioning as you can. If you don’t have air conditioning in your house or in your apartment, go to the movies, go to the shopping mall, go to a friend’s house or a relative’s house.”
Frame also recommends wearing lightweight, light-colored clothing and taking steps to stay cool overnight, as temperatures are expected to remain relatively high.
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