Frigid temperatures this weekend prompt cold weather advisories

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

It's been a hot summer with plenty of weather extremes — and it appears likely that the rest of August will bring more swelter. 

The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center 

 over the Central U.S. this weekend, heat that is expected to rise to "well-above normal to record-breaking temperatures" in areas from the central Gulf Coast and lower Mississippi Valley to the northern High Plains. Next week, the heat is expected to extend into the Central Plains and Texas.

"We're looking at a prolonged period of excessive heat with the potential there for daily highs being broken this weekend all the way through next week," Zack Taylor, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service, tells NPR.

For some locations, particularly in the Midwest, this could be the hottest period of the summer so far, says Taylor. Those areas include portions of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas, where there's a potential to break several daily high records.

What's the cause of this long stretch of very hot days? An 

 – a high-pressure area in the upper air – is going to be centered and persistent above the central U.S. It will be kept in place by a low-pressure area in the Western U.S., and interactions with Hurricane Hilary, which has prompted the first-ever tropical storm watch in Southern California.

"That's what's going to allow for this heat to build and intensify through next week and bring those dangerous heat conditions," says Taylor.

. That's when a persistent region of high pressure traps heat over a particular area, for days or weeks at a time.

Climate change is making heat waves more intense and more frequent

This summer has already been awfully hot in the southern plains and the Gulf Coast. Now,

even more of the U.S. that will feel the heat. In the coming days, a large portion of the country will see dangerous temperatures. Many areas could see heat indexes as high as 110 for several hours and potentially over several days next week.

The warming climate is making heat waves 

. Last month, an international team of researchers said that the recent heat waves that have scorched U.S. 

 without the influence of human-caused climate change.

"They are getting hotter," Kai Kornhuber, adjunct scientist

at Columbia University and scientist at Climate Analytics, a climate think tank, 

 earlier this summer. "They are occurring at a higher frequency, so that also increases the likelihood of sequential heat waves."  

Weather and Climate News

Environmental News

Climate

Homepage

Laurel Wamsley

Author

This summer has already been awfully hot in the southern Plains and the Gulf Coast. Now, a large portion of the U.S. will face a prolonged period of dangerous heat.

Heat dome over Central U.S. could bring hottest temps yet to parts of the Midwest

Go Deeper.

Like this?