Scorching!
WSI, a Weather Channel company, expects most of the U.S. to be, on average, warmer than it has been over the past 30 years. This forecast for prolonged heat suggests both increased energy usage and an even more active hurricane season. “A new La Nina event continues to rapidly evolve as we head deeper into summer. This will favor more heat across the northern US as the summer progresses,” said WSI Chief Meteorologist Dr. Todd Crawford. “In the Atlantic, record warm ocean temperatures also favor warmer-than-normal temperatures across a majority of the US. On the other hand, near-record soil moisture levels across parts of the central and northern Plains, along with a lack of any significant drought conditions in the US, will temper the overall magnitude of the heat. By early July, we expect heat to spread across most of the western US and to persist across the Southeast, while relatively cooler temperatures persist across the north-central and northeastern US. By August and September, we expect the heat to become more widespread across the northern US. For the July-September period as a whole, we are forecasting 836 population-weighted cooling degree days, 7-8% more than last year and about 10% more than the 1971-2000 mean.” Many of us will be revising our budgets for the second half of the year as air conditioning proves to be a larger line item than expected.