Oppressive 100 degree heat continues Northeast & Mid Atlantic. Severe thunderstorm risk next 2 days

This is likely to be the hottest day of the summer season across much of the Northeast and Mid Atlantic states. We have heat advisories and excessive heat warnings up from Maine to the Carolinas. Sunshine into this afternoon will send temperatures up to 95 to 100 degrees from Eastern Pennsylvania to Southern New England. Central and Southern New Jersey, Southern Pennsylvania southward to Northern Virginia could see high temperatures over 100 degrees with heat indices near 110 in some places.

Photo byNational Weather Service

All this daytime heating is going to create a very unstable atmosphere. An upper air disturbance that last night crossed the Midwest and produced widespread severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, including one in downtown Chicago, is heading eastward. This system will set off thunderstorms and the potential for severe weather and flash flooding. The Storm Prediction Center has a large geographic area from Virginia to Western New England at an elevated risk for severe weather late this afternoon and evening.

Photo bystorm prediction center

Once any thunderstorms play through it will be very warm and humid overnight with most lows in the upper 60s to mid 70s. Warmer urban centers may have a hard time seeing temperatures drop below 80 degrees. Wednesday will be another brutally hot and humid day but it will also be the last hot day before some relief arrives. A cold front will be moving out of the Northern Plains and head southeastward into the Northeast and Mid Atlantic states.

Photo byTropical Tidbits

Ahead of this front temperatures Wednesday will still reach the low and middle 90s so they will be a bit lower than today across Eastern Pennsylvania to Southern New England southward. Thunderstorms will develop ahead of the front in the form of a line or a series of broken lines of storms. Once again the Storm Prediction Center has elevated severe weather risk from New Hampshire southward to Virginia.

Photo bystorm prediction center

This front is going to push southeastward and bring humidity relief to the Northeast and Northern Mid Atlantic states though the push will not be much further south than Northern Virginia and it make take an extra day or so to get there. The front is going to slow down just offshore and there will be lingering clouds around Thursday along with lower temperatures. Highs will just be into the 80s but dew points will come off the extreme levels so it will feel better on a relative basis.

Photo byNational Weather Service

Friday the front will be far enough south so it should be a mainly sunny day with highs in the low to middle 80s and humidity levels will be reasonable. Over the weekend we see temperatures and humidity levels heading up again especially by Sunday however we are not going back to the extreme levels we have seen over the last several days.