A fair Friday is followed by sweltering heat

The 614cast

Friday tl;dr

🌤️ Mostly sunny in the morning then partly sunny, high in the middle to upper 80s.

Forecast highlight

🥵 Hot. Humid.

Summer begins today, and yikes is it going to feel like it very soon. Today will be warm but quite tolerable, though, since the mugginess won’t be out of hand and temperatures will stay in the 80s.

Highs ought to sneak past 90 already on Saturday and hit the mid-90s on Sunday. The heat index should top out near 95 on Saturday and near 100 on Sunday… the only thing that might help just a tiny bit is an afternoon breeze of 10–15 mph.

Peak heat indices continue to reach 100–105 Monday through Wednesday or perhaps Thursday. Actual temperatures will be well into the 90s… and keep in mind, that’s in the shade.

Not only will we be near record highs on Monday and Tuesday, we’re also facing the the real possibility of record warm morning lows nearly the entire week. The current National Weather Service forecast predicts over 80 near or new record lows across the U.S. Tuesday morning.

This is a potentially dangerous weather pattern because of the combination of 1) high heat and humidity during the day, 2) very warm overnight lows, and 3) these conditions lasting for several straight days.

Heat is an overlooked killer. It’s known to be a contributing or underlying cause of death in over 1,200 people in the U.S. each year, and that number is likely underestimated.

Know the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke.

📊 Today’s almanac

Normal low/high: 63 / 83
Record low/high: 45 (1914) / 97 (1994)
Sunrise/set: 6:03 a.m. / 9:05 p.m.

🏖️ July outlook

The Climate Prediction Center issued its updated July outlook yesterday.

The temperature outlook shows much of the country has odds that favor warmer-than-average readings for the month overall. Central Ohio is on the edge of the “leaning above,” so there’s not an overwhelming signal at this time that it’ll be notably hot.

The rainfall outlook leans toward odds for being wetter than average. The forecaster notes that probabilities are “modest overall,” though. But at least it’s not likely we’ll face developing and expanding drought like we did last July.

🌭 Bonus weather weenie content

• Erick makes landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, the strongest to hit Mexico so early in the year (CNN)

• Meet the bug that uses the stars to navigate hundreds of miles (Associated Press)