Refreshing change ahead for the Midwest and Northeast

Autumn air will arrive in the Midwest and Northeast just as the calendar flips to September, replacing the recent spell of hot and humid conditions.

Residents from the Midwest states to the mid-Atlantic coast are poised for a shift in the weather pattern over the upcoming week, AccuWeather forecasters say. A cooldown is on the horizon, with incoming high temperatures comparable to late September.

A burst of late-August heat has led to sweltering temperatures across portions of the Plains and East since the start of the weekend. AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures soared into the upper 90s and even lower 100s F across the Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic states, but they will soon drop closer the 70s.

A widespread dome of high pressure has been anchored over the Plains and East lately, helping to cause the building warmth across the region. This pattern will begin to break down over the upcoming week as rounds of storms move across the central and eastern United States.

When will relief arrive?

While some across the Midwest will begin to feel relief from the heat by late in the week, the primary push of cooler conditions will arrive between early to the middle of next week. As a drier, cooler air mass moves southward out of central Canada later this weekend, lower humidity will expand from the Dakotas to the Northeast coast.

"Across much of the Midwest and Great Lakes, comfortably warm conditions are expected to start to the holiday weekend with temperatures ranging from the low to middle 80s F. More noticeably cooler conditions are expected to hold off until Sunday into the start of next week when temperatures are expected to be in the upper 60s into the 70s F," explained AccuWeather Meteorologist Elizabeth Danco.

Danco added that temperatures later this weekend into next week are expected to be between 3 and 6 degrees Fahrenheit below historical averages for the start of September.

As school kicks off, students may appreciate the more comfortable weather after returning from the extended Labor Day weekend, especially those living in dorms without adequate air conditioning.

College football games across the Ohio Valley and Northeast this weekend, such as the in-state rival matchup of the Akron Zips and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Saturday, Aug. 31, may still feature relatively warm and humid conditions before the cooldown reaches into the Eastern states.

Likewise, fans attending the Illinois State Redbirds and Iowa Hawkeyes matchup midday Saturday will experience highs in the middle 80s F with plenty of sunshine. This is still above the typical late-August high temperatures, but it's also an improvement from the middle to upper 90s F observed earlier this week.

Farther east, daily highs across cities such as Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C., and New York City will trend into the 70s F next week, comparable to late September temperatures. By next week, many spots will observe a temperature drop between 15 and 20 degrees lower than early this week.

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At the end of next week, a northward bulge in the jet stream will once again usher in a return of comfortably warm conditions. Highs are projected to return to the lower to middle 80s F by the next weekend, forecasters say.

However, conditions can be a bit more bearable than this week as humidity levels are not expected to rise as high as before.

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