COLUMBIA, S.C. — The southern US has been experiencing record heat and some of that heat is working our way later this week.
Summer heat is nothing new but, in some places like Phoenix Arizona, they have been above 110° in the afternoon for 26 days straight. Meanwhile, waters off the coast of Florida have reached the upper 90s as an oceanic heatwave continues.
Here in the Midlands, we are in the stretch of the hottest temperatures we have seen this summer which surprisingly overall has been running almost 2.5 degrees below average. Even with a tamer Summer, the Midlands still experiences very muggy conditions which leads to high heat index values.
According to our partners at Climate Central, Columbia is experiencing about 2 more weeks a year of impactful heat index values. This could be the case this weekend as dewpoints are expected to increase along with a large ridge moving east over the coming days.
The overall pattern doesn’t show extreme heat here in the southeast in the coming weeks. We are already passing our historically hottest time of the year so our chances of reaching triple digits are diminishing fast.
