Record high temperatures continue to sear the Southwest through the Mississippi Valley, driving weekend energy demand as people turn to air conditioners to cool down, with the heat forecast to spread to Chicago and the Great Lakes early this week.
Across the Western U.S., 27 record daily highs were set or tied on Saturday, with many of them in Texas, said Bob Oravec, a senior branch forecaster for the U.S. Weather Prediction Center. The heat will continue across much of that area Sunday as it spreads east and north up the Mississippi Valley toward the Great Lakes Monday and Tuesday.
“It’s going to be pretty hot across the South,” Oravec said. “It’s a pretty standard heat wave pattern, a big area of high pressure stretching from the central Plains to the Southwest.”
