Heat indices will be 100°+ for the next few hours, barring any severe thunderstorms that may develop.
INDIANAPOLIS — Ready or not, the well-heralded heat wave is here and it’s already producing dangerously hot and humid conditions. In fact, today is only the 37th day in the last 30 years in Indianapolis with a dew point of 78°+. It’s very wet and as bad as the Muggy Meter gets around.
This highly tropical air, combined with temperatures in the mid/upper 80s, makes all of central Indiana feel like 100+. Please take this heat seriously. We recommend limiting time outdoors if possible and/or taking frequent hydration breaks, seeking shade, and taking A/C breaks when you can.
This miserably heavy air will be there until our next cool front passes early Friday morning. Until then, we’ll be sweating in the hottest air we’ve seen since the brutal summer of 2012. A heat advisory runs until 9 p.m. today and we’ll have another Tuesday/Wednesday, with the potential for an upgrade to an excessive heat warning. Either way, this heat should be taken seriously.
In addition to the extreme heat, we are also under radar watch this afternoon with extreme “potential” energy in the atmosphere above central Indiana. It remains to be determined whether this potential energy will be exploited or not. All of central Indiana is at risk for severe weather, but there remains great uncertainty as to whether or not an atmospheric “ceiling” will continue to sustain and suppress local storm development. In the last hour cells have been noted on the radar and these could break through the “plug” and if they did there would be an explosive development.
We will also need to watch for a storm complex in Wisconsin that eventually turns southeastward, potentially intensifying into destructive wind power in parts of the Great Lakes/Ohio Valley. If the aforementioned cap holds, this feature could bypass a decent chunk of central Indiana to the east and northeast.
Stay tuned to the weather and realize that severe storms could come quickly today due to the very humid and unstable nature of the air above us.
Tuesday and Wednesday produce record highs with very little chance of rain. The heat indices will again be in the 100°-110° range as well. Thursday will be another steaming high in the 90s with heat indices near 100° before strong scattered storms emerge along an approaching front.
This front brings relief for the Father’s Day weekend with a string of sunny days from Friday into next Monday, and a significant drop in the wet meter as dew points reach 40/50 on Sunday morning. But we’ll gain every bit of that nice air over the next 72 hours.
