Extreme Heat, Wildfires, Dangerous Storms Continue To Rattle Nation

Wildfires burned Monday near Los Angeles amid a
record heat wave. Photo from the Associated Press.  

That well-advertised heat wave in the southwestern United States peaked as expected Sunday and Monday, with temperatures in some areas definitely over 120 degrees.

Way too hot for this pup!

Yuma, Arizona reached 120 degrees Sunday, it's fourth hottest day on record and earliest in the season it's been so hot. Tucson, at 115, tied for its third hottest day on record. Piedra, Arizona reached 127 degrees (ouch!)

It made to 122 degrees in Palm Springs, California.

Across the border, Altar, Mexico reached 119 degrees, it's hottest temperature on record there for any date.

At least four people in Arizona succumb to the heat. They were hikers who died in the hot temperatures, says CNN.

The heat wave is unsurprisingly worsening wildfires in California, Arizona and other southwestern states.  Two wildfires northeast of Los Angeles have forced evacuations and might merge, forming one big conflagration

The heat wave is also straining power grids in the Southwest, leading to power blackouts in the Los Angeles area, the Los Angeles Times says.

The heat will subside a tiny bit out there the rest of the week, but not by much. It'll still be a hotter than normal in what is already a hot part of the country.

With that heat ridge in place across the south for the forseeable future, weather disturbances continue to zip around the northern periphery of the hot zone in the United States, as I noted the other day.

One such disturbance yesterday caused severe weather in parts of Indiana, Ohio and New York. Even here in Vermont where I'm at, we got into the act a little bit last night with a 61 mph thunderstorm gust around Bennington and a quick 108 mph blast atop Mount Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak.

Thunderstorm winds also knocked down trees in Johnson and Craftsbury, Vermont. 

As I write this early this afternoon, severe storms are threatening the area around Washington DC and Baltimore.

Tomorrow, a particularly strong weather system buzzing just north of the heat ridge threatens a much more substantial risk of severe weather and tornadoes.

NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has a moderate risk of tornadoes, very large hail and damaging winds in the southern Great Lakes. That's a pretty high level of concern, as usually they stick to a somewhat lower level of slight or enhanced risk.

There's a good chance the severe weather will extend into the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic States tomorrow night and Thursday.

For what it's worth, long range forecasts, which are often iffy to be honest, indicate a warmer than normal summer, with plenty of heat waves for most of the nation through July, August and into September.