Texas-style heat to surge into north-central US, skyrocket by as much as 30 degrees
Following a taste of fall-like air across the Midwest, a return of mid-summer heat is in store for the new week with temperature shooting upward by 20 to even 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
It’s been a cooler-than-average August in places like Chicago and St. Louis, but the heat is about to build back up before the month ends.
The heat will remain extreme for Texas into the new week, but for people in the north-central United States who have enjoyed refreshingly cool conditions, it will be heating up substantially in the coming days, AccuWeather meteorologists advise. Thunderstorms will also be on the prowl into the weekend parts of the region.
A vast region from northern and western Texas to much of Oklahoma and portions of Louisiana and Arkansas has experienced frequent days of extreme heat even for southern U.S. August standards, with temperatures 5-10 degrees above the high historical average.
Even though some of the edge was taken off the heat in portions of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and northeastern Texas in the past couple of days, heat will persist into the new week as high pressure strengthens.
"A storm charging through the western United States this weekend with much cooler air will reorient and stretch the heat dome across a wide swath of the Central states this weekend [into the new] week," AccuWeather Meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
Dallas had experienced highs at or above 100 F from Aug. 13 to Aug. 20, compared to a historical average high in the mid-90s. After a high in the upper 90s on Wednesday, highs in the low 100s returned on Thursday and Friday.
The epicenter of the extreme heat will be over the southern High Plains, with highs remaining in the low 100s to perhaps as high as 105 through early in the new week, when daily record highs will be challenged.
AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures will reach 105-110 degrees in many locations in Texas.
A shift of the jet stream will allow the heat dome to build northward over much of the Plains and into more of the Mississippi Valley and Great Lakes region this weekend to the new week. This change will send temperatures well into the 90s F with a few spots potentially approaching 100 in the Midwest.
Temperatures will trend upward from the September and October-like levels of 10-15 degrees or so below the historical average from the middle of this week to 10 to perhaps 15 degrees above the historical average by early in the new week.
"For example, Chicago's highs in the low to mid-70s on Monday and Tuesday will be swapped with highs in the mid-90s early [in the new] week. St. Louis can expect highs to trend upward from the mid-70s on Wednesday to the mid- to upper 90s early [in the new] week. Highs in the mid-70s at midweek in Minneapolis and Detroit will be replaced with highs near 90 by early [in the new] week," Buckingham explained.
The new heat dome will result in widespread areas with RealFeel® Temperatures reaching 100 degrees.
How long the heat lasts once it settles in over the north-central region will depend on the lingering strength of the storm that will send much cooler air into parts of the West this weekend.
Should that storm remain strong, it could bring a fast-moving sweep of cool air from the northern Plains to the Midwest at midweek. Should the storm weaken while traveling toward the Canada border, then extreme heat may continue or only be trimmed slightly for the middle and latter part of the new week over the north-central region.
Farther south, some clouds, showers and thunderstorms should break down some of the heat in coastal and central Texas in the new week.
Spotty thunderstorms are also in the offing for areas farther to the north over the Central states. These will extend from the central and northern Rockies and Plains to parts of the Midwest at times. A small number of these storms will tend to pulse to severe levels during the afternoon hours.
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