Weather

Heat wave pattern, largely dry weather to build across the Heartland

Record-setting heat, which currently covers the Northwest and is spreading toward the northern Plains, will shift eastward during the weekend and early next week.  By Monday, triple-digit high temperatures will be common on the northern Plains, with 100-degree heat subsequently spreading into the western Corn Belt. 

Crop impacts from the building heat may be aggravated by lack of precipitation, as little or no rain will fall during next 5 days across much of the northern half of the U.S.  Among the most crops most vulnerable to the hot, dry weather will be reproductive to filling corn and soybeans in the western Corn Belt. 

Farther south, hot, mostly dry conditions will linger from Texas to the southern Atlantic Coast, while a band of locally significant rain (1 to 3 inches or more) will stretch from the Four Corners region to the middle Atlantic Coast.   

Elsewhere, cooler air will overspread the West, although areas outside the influence of the Southwestern monsoon circulation will remain dry.