Friday saw 62 million people wake up in heat alerts. This is the story of two heatwaves, one more humid centered over the Southern Plains/Southeast and the other very dry building over the Rockies/Southwestern.
As of Friday morning, Memphis, Nashville, Tennessee and Dallas all had excessive heat warnings, while Atlanta was still under a heat advisory.
Although the average temperature in Memphis and Little Rock, Arkansas was 10 degrees higher than normal, heat indexes will soar to almost 115 degrees due to the combination of humidity and heat.
Some relief may be available Friday with afternoon showers or thunderstorms from Texas to Indiana.
Temperatures will drop by a few degrees this weekend in Tennessee and Arkansas, but they will rebound early next week. High heat will also surge into the northern Plains this week.
In the next few days, the Southwest and Rockies will also feel the heat. Phoenix and Las Vegas will see temperatures of 110 degrees Saturday. Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City will reach 100 Friday. Denver will remain in the same place on Sunday.
This weekend could see record highs in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and San Antonio.
The excessive western heat will persist and possibly worsen for some people going into next week.
As it has been for most of the first week of July, strong and severe thunderstorms will be fueled by the heat and humidity.
Friday’s severe weather risk zone includes 7 million people in the Ohio Valley, Montana and western Dakotas. Large thunderstorm clusters moving eastward through the day will pose a threat to the eastern risk zone. Large hail and dangerous wind gusts are the primary threat in the northern Rockies, Plains.
Saturday will see severe weather in the northern Rockies, Plains and Plains (Montana and North Dakota in the afternoon, and far western Minnesota in the evening). Storms that flare up could bring with them large hail and dangerous winds.
On Sunday, severe weather will be more prominent in the Upper Midwest. A cold front could bring down storms that could produce large hail and dangerous winds in the eastern Dakotas or Minnesota.
Over the next two days, there will be rounds of locally heavy rainfall. This is from the Ohio River Valley to the Mid-Atlantic as well as parts of the Southeast. East-central North Carolina is where the most heavy rains are likely to fall, with up to 5 inches possible.
