Numerous 100F Highs In The Central U.S. – National Weather Outlook For August 24, 2023

by | Aug 24, 2023 | Weather

National Weather Forecast

The heat bubble continues across the Central United States on Thursday, though we will start to see it shrink back a little from the Upper Midwest. Storms are possible on the western, northern, and eastern bounds of that heat bubble. We’ll also be tracking some storms near the Gulf Coast, in southern Florida, and in the Pacific Northwest.

Some areas of the eastern Great Lakes could see 2-4” of rain from the middle to the end of the week.

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Midwest Braces for 115-Degree Heat, Renewing Crop Worries

More from Bloomberg: “A heat wave sweeping the Midwest is threatening to dry out grain crops in the final few weeks of the growing season, putting at risk a bumper US harvest that’s key to keeping global food inflation in check. Temperatures are forecast to reach as high as 115 degrees in parts of the Midwest this week, renewing worries from earlier in the season when drought drove crop conditions to their worst since the late 1980s before they improved significantly with the return of rain. Now, excessive heat is jeopardizing what is expected to be the second largest US corn crop on record, at a time when the global market is looking to the US for supply certainty. The last few months saw military escalations in the Black Sea contribute to one of the most volatile periods in the history of grain trading.”

Weather that drove eastern Canada’s devastating wildfires made twice as likely by climate change

More from CNN: “The weather conditions that fueled record-shattering wildfires in eastern Canada earlier this summer – and sent plumes of hazardous air into the US – were made more likely and more intense by the climate crisis, according to a new report published Tuesday. Scientists from the World Weather Attribution initiative – which calculates the role of climate change in extreme weather events – found human-caused climate change more than doubled the likelihood of hot, dry and windy conditions that drove the Quebec fires between May and July, and made this fire-prone weather at least 20% more intense. The severity of Quebec’s fire season up to the end of July was also made 50% more intense by climate change, according to the report.”

Hurricane Hilary soaked an already wet California. Is the drought over?

More from Vox: “Less than a year ago, California was facing an epic drought. With reservoirs running dry and rivers shrinking, the state, and much of the broader American West, was facing steep, highly consequential water cuts. Some farmers let their fields lie fallow. Cities implemented water restrictions. And the threat of even deeper cuts loomed. Then came a winter of rain and snow that inundated central California. And then came Hurricane Hilary. The first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, Hilary brought record quantities of rain to desert cities like Palm Springs earlier this week. Some regions got a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours. The Imperial Valley, the state’s southern epicenter of farming — which was threatened by steep water restrictions as recently as last year — also received heavy rainfall from the storm.”

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– D.J. Kayser