The official start to summer may be days away, but much of the country is already experiencing peak-season heat as a dangerous combination of extreme temperatures, severe thunderstorms and flash flooding threatens tens of millions of people this weekend.
An estimated 26 million people will experience extreme heat across the West, the Plains and the Southeast. Some areas — including Raleigh and Wilmington, North Carolina; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Tallahassee, Florida; Hattiesburg, Mississippi; and Tulsa, Oklahoma — could see temperatures reach as high as 108 degrees, with most daytime highs settling in the 90s. These readings are roughly 5 to 10 degrees above typical mid-June levels.
The West Coast is also bracing for rising temperatures, with highs climbing to 10 to 25 degrees above normal this weekend. Daytime temperatures will range from the 80s to over 100 across California, Oregon and Washington, with active heat alerts in effect for Bakersfield and Redding, California; Portland, Oregon; and Seattle.
Heat isn’t the only threat.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were in effect for parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and North Carolina through late afternoon and early evening, according to the National Weather Service.
An additional 22 million people from Texas to Kentucky are at risk for strong storms, with the strongest expected in parts of Kansas, Missouri, northwest Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma. This includes Kansas City, Tulsa, Wichita and Springfield. Storms are expected to develop in the early evening and continue overnight.
Nocturnal tornadoes, destructive wind gusts over 75 mph and large hail will all be possible in many of those areas after midnight. Flash flood alerts are also in place for many locations covered by thunderstorm forecasts.
By Sunday, showers and thunderstorms are expected to push into parts of the mid-Atlantic, Appalachians and Ohio Valley, putting as many as 54 million people at risk — including those in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. Storms in those areas could produce wind gusts exceeding 65 mph and quarter-size hail through the afternoon and evening.
The weekend’s severe weather follows a turbulent stretch earlier this week, when severe weather placed 13 million people under flood watches and triggered widespread power outages. At one point Tuesday afternoon, 35,000 customers across Kansas were without power.
Some of these temperature shifts could be linked to El Niño, a natural climate pattern that warms surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific. Its effects can amplify the warming already driven by climate change.
