The Midwest and Northeast will begin the week with a dangerous heat wave. AccuWeather's Jon Porter urges residents to practice caution and stay hydrated to avoid heat-related health problems.
00:00After a hot weekend in Philadelphia, it's kind of ironic that we actually haven't started our heat wave.
00:04It starts now.
00:05No, and you know you're off to the races there when it's already 90 degrees at 9.32 Eastern Time.
00:12So that gives you a sense of the type of day that we're on the way here in a dangerous heat wave.
00:18We want everybody to be best prepared.
00:20So when you're looking behind you, it's the AccuWeather Heat Wave Severity Index.
00:23There's so much to take away from the information here.
00:26That's right. This is another unique AccuWeather tool that helps you best understand the intensity of heat waves.
00:32And the AccuWeather Heat Wave Severity Index, the number here, 15 in the case of this current heat wave in Philadelphia,
00:40that number becomes larger the longer the heat wave goes on and the higher the temperatures rise.
00:48So that is a way that we can quantify for you the impact of various heat waves.
00:53And if we go back to that graphic real quick, I just want to show that that's actually going to be,
00:57that's a 15 on the AccuWeather Heat Wave Severity Index.
01:00That's right in the middle of a strong heat wave.
01:03Of course, severe and extreme heat waves would have higher numbers.
01:06But you can see this 15 is the first heat wave of the year.
01:09And that's an important point here as we talk about the risks to health.
01:13My apologies, John. I got excited to show the 7th day because people want to know what is it going to end, although it just started.
01:20That's always the important question.
01:22And the story on that one is, look at these high temperatures, 99 on Monday and Tuesday, 96 Wednesday, 93 on Thursday.
01:30But then a break in the heat in Philadelphia, 83 not as warm on Friday.
01:35But another key point we want to point out is, look at these overnight minimum temperatures.
01:40They remain, in some cases, above 80 in the urban areas in the northeastern part of the United States.
01:45That's extremely dangerous because there's little relief at night and a real health concern, especially if people do not have air conditioning.
01:53And I feel like it seems the northeast, that's where it can be more extreme with the heat wave and the temperatures.
02:00But even areas like Raleigh, North Carolina, are going to have a huge problem.
02:04And this will take us into the month of July.
02:07That's right. This is going to be, this is a severe heat wave in the Raleigh area because we're looking at a 17 on the AccuWeather heat wave severity index.
02:15You can get these, by the way, from many different cities on the stories that we have about the extreme heat on the AccuWeather.com website.
02:22But look at the duration of the heat all the way, the heat wave all the way through July 1st in Raleigh.
02:27It's going to take a while for the cooler air to get down there.
02:30It's going to be toward July 1st, as we mentioned, before the heat wave ends.
02:35So a long duration heat wave on the way in Raleigh as well.
02:39And we focus on high temperatures a lot.
02:40That's when most people are going to be likely outside.
02:43What is so important about a little relief at night during this heat wave?
02:47Well, it gives your body no time to recover from that extreme heat.
02:51And the combination of the heated humidity, that's why those AccuWeather real field temperatures have been so elevated.
02:58And the AccuWeather app is a great resource.
03:00The free AccuWeather app is a great resource to track that during this particular heat wave.
03:04But when you deal with overnight minimum temperatures not falling below 80, that's somewhat unusual in the northeastern United States.
03:11In fact, we were just looking at New York City, which fell to only 80 degrees early this morning.
03:16Early tomorrow morning, we're forecasting only down to 82 and early on Wednesday morning, only down to 81.
03:24So a three-day stretch of temperatures in New York City not falling below 80 degrees.
03:29In order to do that in the historic record, you have to go back to 2013 in order to find that so you can see how rare that is.
03:37Yeah, that was going to be my question because our second bullet point there about near record high low temperatures.
03:41We talk about reaching afternoon record highs a lot.
03:45Why is it more rare to reach the overnight low records?
03:49Yeah, it's just an unusual, it's unusual for temperatures to be able to fall not below 80 degrees in those urban corridors.
03:57And of course, a big part of that is just how moist the air has been here due to recent rain across the eastern part of the U.S.
04:03A lot of factors in there.
04:04And there's so many factors that go into the AccuWeather, the real field temperature, which if you do want to be outside, this is such an important number to look at.
04:11It is, and again, available on AccuWeather.com here in the AccuWeather network and the free AccuWeather app.
04:15And look at the numbers, 105 to 110 up into the Philadelphia area, about 100 to 105 of the AccuWeather real field temperature in New York City this afternoon.
04:24Dangerous heat, and if you're going to be outside, be very careful.
04:28All right, John, this is just the beginning, whether it's the beginning of this heat wave or just obviously the beginning of the summer season.
04:33So what are some key takeaways?
04:35Well, the health risk for this heat wave is amplified because it's the first of the year and our bodies are just not used to this extreme heat.
04:42Yet there's, again, little to no heat relief at night, which is a specific concern.
04:47I want to highlight once again people working outside, including high school and college students, perhaps with a summer job working outside, at an elevated risk for heat impacts.
04:55And remember, the last day of the heat wave or the day after the heat wave breaks can actually be most dangerous in terms of heat illness.
05:02So even though if the heat ends, it doesn't mean that the risk for heat illness does.
05:06Those last two points I think really stand out.
05:09It's not something that most people are covering, so we really appreciate your expertise.
05:12AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist John Porter, thanks again for joining us.
