AccuWeather.com

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meteorologist

Jun 15, 2010; 8:10 AM ET

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There is the potential for one of the hottest June's on record from Dallas to Washington, D.C., as the extreme heat/humid wave builds in the Southeast states.

Some areas in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic that have been escaping the steam bath so far will find the atmosphere turning up the heat and the humidifier over the next few weeks.

A retreating jet stream to the north will allow the tropical air to expand. Intrusions of cool, dry air, even in the northern areas, will be much less frequent.

While not a huge amount of single-day record highs will be broken, average temperatures for the month will be way off the mark.

As the saying goes, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." AccuWeather.com RealFeel® temperatures will push 100 degrees will spill out of the southeastern quarter of the nation over the next few weeks.

The high humidity levels will make it especially nasty for sleeping without air conditions, manual labor and air quality concerns.

Dew point temperatures, which typically run in the upper 60s, have been in the lower to middle 70s over much of the area from eastern Texas and the southern Plains to the Carolinas coast.

The more humid it is, the longer it takes for your perspiration to evaporate. The evaporation of moisture off your skin is the body's way of keeping you cool.

The dew point, which is the temperature to which the air much be cooled to in order to become saturated, also represents the approximate floor to which the temperature will drop to at night.

In some cases, nighttime low temperatures have been 10 degrees higher than usual. This has forced daily temperatures all month long to average 4 to 8 degrees higher than usual.

The average temperature for Richmond, Va., so far in June is hovering around 80 degrees, which puts it at third on the list for all-time hottest Junes on record.

In Nashville, the month is not yet in the top-10 list which dates back to 1871. However, the departures have been increasing with each passing day, so we are likely to exceed the current average of 79 degrees which is nearly 6 degrees above typical values. The month could finish in the top five in terms of heat for June.

Dozens of other cities and reporting stations from the mid-Atlantic to the Deep South to the southern Plains are in a similar pattern.

According to AccuWeather.com Long Range Expert Joe Bastardi, the record-challenging heat this summer could be followed by a record year for hurricane influence along the Atlantic Seaboard.

Factoring the snowstorms, heat and coming hurricane threats, Joe said it could be the most historic single-year ever for the mid-Atlantic.

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