Summer heat starts Monday

Consider this your A.C. warning! While it’s been nice and comfortable the last few weeks, Mother Nature is about to dial up the heat really quickly. In fact, some of us maybe exceeding 90˚ already by Monday afternoon. So if you haven’t tried turning on your A.C. yet to see if it works, I would give it a whirl because you are definitely going to need it by Monday afternoon.

Our overall weather pattern hasn’t changed much in the last few weeks. While we have seen some occasional warm days, they’ve been few and far between. It was just last week that temperatures cracked 80˚ for the first time in the Twin Cities this season, the last major city in the country to hit that mark. Well, it likely won’t be long now before temps top 90˚ thanks to a big pattern shift over North America.

The eastern U.S. has really been dominated by a trough over the last few weeks. A trough is a dip in the jet stream (the river of air at the top levels of the atmosphere that separates colder air to the north and warmer air to the south) where it moves further south, allowing cooler Canadian air to invade that portion of the U.S. It’s been like this in the east for much of the last few weeks. Well, that’s about to change.  Much warmer air will be surging out of the west and heading into the Plains and the east going through the next few days. And longer range forecasts show that pattern likely holding for at least the next couple of weeks. That means that the first half of June could be VERY warm across the Upper Midwest and many other areas of the east.

Not only will the heat show up and likely stick around, but humidity levels will drastically rise as well. Now that the jet stream is pushing further north, southerly winds are likely to transport the very moist tropical air sitting over the Gulf of Mexico further northward. This will send dew points surging into the 60s and 70s in many areas east of the Rockies heading through the week.

So get out and enjoy your pleasant Sunday because it could be the last truly pleasant day until the fall.