Relief Finally Arrives for the Central US as Heat Shifts East

It has been a toasty start to September for millions of people in the central U.S. The region will finally catch a break as a cool front pushes into the region. The same cannot be said about the East, an area where temperatures will once again be on the uptick. This is what you need to know as you make plans for the rest of the week.

Cool Front Bringing the Mercury Down in Central U.S.

Extreme heat has plagued the central portions of the nation for days, forcing school cancellations and other life disruptions. The stubborn heat dome is on the march to the east this week, bringing cooler temperatures to the central U.S. while pushing the mercury up for many areas of the East Coast.

Temperatures have hovered 12.5 degrees above the historical average in places such as Kansas City since the end of August. It has been a similar story for cities such as Des Moines and Omaha. Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Nashville, Cincinnati, and Little Rock have seen average readings land between 5 and 10 degrees over the norm for the first part of September.

A cool front is now chipping away at the heat dome, resulting in a downward trend in temperatures across eastern Montana, the Dakotas, western Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa. Residents in these states can look forward to temperatures that land 5 to 15 degrees lower than what was notched to start the week.

The existing heat dome will also collapse to the south as the cool front slices away at the northern edge. Metro areas such as Oklahoma City, Dallas, and New Orleans will continue to be dealing with widespread highs that bounce around in the 90s.

Temperatures Climbing Again in the Eastern U.S.

The unseasonable heat will drift into the eastern U.S. just as it is breaking to the west. After enjoying cooler readings and a break in the humidity over the holiday weekend, Mother Nature will throttle up the thermostat once again in the Ohio Valley, the mid-Atlantic, the Northeast, and southern New England. In addition to the warmer air, humidity levels will also inch up again, making it feel even warmer. The forecast is calling for highs in the 80s and low 90s for these regions.

The same cool front responsible for a break in the extreme heat in the central U.S. will gradually shift to the east by the weekend. The arrival of the frontal boundary will support the development of rain showers and locally severe thunderstorms.

For instance, rain and storms will first ignite across the northern Plains and the upper Midwest on Friday before tracking into the eastern third of the nation. The northern Rockies may also see temperatures fall enough to translate to the first snowfall of the season for the higher terrain as a band of moisture moves in from the Pacific and into the northwestern quadrant of the U.S.

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