Published Nov 3 2016 06:16 PM EDT
Days of record heat have baked parts of the Plains, South, Ohio Valley and mid-Atlantic this week.
All-time November record-high temperatures were tied or broken Tuesday-Thursday.
There is some “relief” ahead late this week.
A fall heat wave smashing not only hundreds of daily records, but also setting new November monthly records, will finally give way late this week, providing relief for the sweating South.
Dozens of daily record highs were again tied or broken Thursday in the mid-Atlantic and South. These included:
- Memphis, Tennessee (85 degrees)
- Tupelo, Mississippi (87 degrees)
- Jackson, Tennessee (87 degrees)
- Atlantic City, New Jersey (81 degrees)
- Georgetown, Delaware (83 degrees)
- Mobile, Alabama (87 degrees – also ties all-time November record high)
- Pensacola, Florida (85 degrees)
- Atlanta (84 degrees)
- Athens, Georgia (85 degrees)
- Macon, Georgia (86 degrees)
- Norfolk, Virginia (83 degrees)
- Richmond, Virginia (83 degrees)
- Salisbury, Virginia (82 degrees)
- Augusta, Georgia (87 degrees)
- Washington D.C. (83 degrees)
- Houston (88 degrees)
- Tallahassee, Florida (88 degrees)
- Shreveport, Louisiana (86 degrees)
Current Temperatures
This continues what has been a much warmer-than-average October-early November for the vast majority of Americans east of the Rockies, including a mid-October warm spell that shattered records.
(MORE: Dozens of U.S. Cities Have Seen Their Hottest, Driest or Wettest October in 2016)
Fortunately, there is relief on the horizon, as a cold front continues to push toward the East Coast. Let’s break down where more records may fall, and when the relief arrives.
Friday’s Forecast
Forecast Highs Compared to Average Friday
Displayed are the forecast high temperatures and how much above average that temperature is for the day.
- Cooler air will arrive in much of the East, and the Southeast will be cooler but still warmer-than-average.
- Highs 10-25 degrees above average will bake the northern Rockies, northern Plains and Midwest.
- 60s and 70s will surge as far north as the Canadian border with North Dakota.
- Cooler 40s, 50s and 60s will be the rule in the Northeast.
- 70s will replace the recent record heat in the Tennessee Valley, as 80s are pushed to the Gulf Coast and Florida where a couple of daily record highs are still possible.
(MORE: La Nina May Limit Drought Relief in the South This Winter)
Heat Wave Recap
Thursday, October 27, Phoenix smashed their record latest-in-season 100-degree high by four days.
Other record highs were tied or set Thursday in Denver (83 degrees), Salt Lake City (78 degrees) and Tucson, Arizona (97 degrees).
Friday, October 28, record highs were shattered in Garden City, Kansas (91 degrees – old record was 83), and Dodge City, Kansas (92 degrees – old record was 85) and new records were set in Amarillo, Texas (87 degrees), Pueblo, Colorado (87 degrees) and Meridian, Mississippi (89 degrees).
Friday was the fifth daily record high this month in Meridian, and was their hottest temperature so late in the season. Previously, the latest they reached 89 degrees was October 26, 2010. This is their average high on September 8.
Daily record high temperatures were toppled in many cities on Saturday. Among them were Huntsville, Alabama (88 degrees), and Amarillo, Texas (91 degrees), which both saw their warmest temperature so late in the calendar year.
Daily record highs were also set Saturday in Asheville, North Carolina (81 degrees), Blacksburg, Virginia (79 degrees), Nashville, Tennessee (86 degrees), Tupelo, Mississippi (89 degrees), St. Louis, Missouri (86 degrees), and Phoenix, Arizona (96 degrees).
Numerous daily record highs were broken Sunday. Atlanta’s record high of 86 degrees was the latest 86-degree day on record there, surpassing the previous date of Oct. 28, 1940.
Meridian, Mississippi, hit 90 degrees Sunday, the latest such reading on record, there, beating the previous record by a full week (Oct. 23, 1941), not to mention adding to a new yearly record of 90-degree-plus days, there.
Other daily records were tied or set Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama (87 degrees), Knoxville, Tennessee (83 degrees), New Orleans (87 degrees), Austin, Texas (88 degrees), Washington D.C.’s Dulles Airport (84 degrees), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (81 degrees), and Atlantic City, New Jersey (80 degrees).
Dozens of daily record highs were broken Monday, making it the hottest Halloween on record in those cities.
Among those, at least four cities set their hottest temperatures so late in the season, including Atlanta (86 degrees), Huntsville, Alabama (88 degrees), Muscle Shoals, Alabama (88 degrees), and Tallahassee, Florida (90 degrees).
A number of other cities reached 90 degrees on Halloween, including Colby, Kansas, Dodge City, Kansas, Garden City, Kansas, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Meridian, Mississippi, Montgomery, Alabama, Albany, Georgia, and Macon, Georgia.
Meridian, Mississippi, has arguably been an epicenter city for this heat wave, reaching 91 degrees on back-to-back days October 30 and 31.
Other Halloween daily records tied or set included Colorado Springs (80 degrees), Nashville, Tennessee (85 degrees), New Orleans (89 degrees), Jacksonville, Florida (86 degrees), Savannah, Georgia (87 degrees), and Amarillo, Texas (87 degrees).
Tuesday, Nov. 1, all-time November record highs were tied or broken in at least 22 locations, including:
- Austin, Texas (91 degrees)
- Birmingham, Alabama (88 degrees)
- Cincinnati, Ohio (82 degrees)
- Columbus, Ohio (80 degrees)
- Huntsville, Alabama (88 degrees)
- Knoxville, Tennessee (85 degrees)
- Louisville, Kentucky (85 degrees)
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin (77 degrees)
- Nashville, Tennessee (88 degrees)
- New Orleans, Louisiana (87 degrees)
Dozens of other daily records were set Tuesday from west Texas to West Virginia.
On Wednesday, numerous cities set or tied all-time November high-temperature records. These included:
- New Orleans, Louisiana (88 degrees – broken)
- Galveston, Texas (85 degrees – tied, originally set in 1886)
- Louisville, Kentucky (85 degrees – tied, set Tuesday)
- Jackson, Kentucky (84 degrees – broken)
- Roanoke, Virginia (83 degrees – tied, originally set in 1950)
- Lynchburg, Virginia (83 degrees – tied, originally set in 1950)
Daily high-temperature records were set Wednesday in McAllen, Texas (98 degrees), New Orleans, Louisiana (88 degrees), Shreveport, Louisiana (87 degrees), St. Louis, Missouri (85 degrees), Nashville, Tennessee (85 degrees), Morgantown, West Virginia (82 degrees), Joplin, Missouri (82 degrees), Springfield, Missouri (80 degrees), Cleveland, Ohio (78 degrees), and Akron, Ohio (77 degrees).
One other interesting tidbit is that Pittsburgh set a daily record of 80 degrees Wednesday, making it only the fourth time a high of 80 degrees was recorded in November.
Recent Comments