The first full week of July will bring the season's first sustained heat wave. At the National Weather Service, forecaster Scott Hickman tells WOSU's Tom Borgerding afternoon high temperatures will climb into the 90s all week.
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Hickman: Well, we expect hot temperatures when we get into July and August, but this is above normal with the temperatures pushing into the mid to upper 90s as we head into mid to late week.
Borgerding: So, it doesn't look like triple digits at this point?
Hickman: No, it doesn't look like triple digits but with the moderate humidity in place heat index values will make it feel like near 100 degrees.
Borgerding: So is this a situation where the weather service issues heat advisories for cities?
Hickman: Well, there's sometimes different values used in different parts of the country for heat advisories or excessive heat warnings. For our area, a heat advisory is issued when we expect the heat index to be 100 degrees.
Borgerding: You know, yesterday I was out a little bit. I noticed even in the afternoon there was a little bit of breeze. And, sometimes that's not the case when it gets real hot. Will we see a slight July breeze during this time or will the atmosphere be pretty calm?
Hickman: No, unfortunately its not going to be that breezy, maybe a little bit of light winds, around five miles-per-hour, but, no not a whole lot of breezy conditions expected.
Borgerding: Has this been kind of a year of extremes? I noticed in January and February it seemed colder.
Hickman: What you said is true. We had an above normal season in terms of snowfall. February was a very snowy month and a cold month at that. And of course as we headed into the spring, especially April, temperatures have been above normal. And, these things happen, you know, from year to year.