JAMESTOWN – As we’ve been advertising, we’re are going to be going through the hottest weather we’ve seen so far this year for our Independence Day weekend.
The National Weather Service in Buffalo has issued a Heat Advisory for all of Western New York, going into effect at 12:00 PM Saturday, and running through 10:00 PM Monday. Heat Indices will be upwards of 105 degrees, leading to dangerous conditions to those outdoors for a lengthy period of time.
What has changed is the duration. Our original thought was by the time we go into Tuesday, the heat would back off a little bit. Now, it looks as if the 90s are here to stay over the next 6 or so days.
While it’s not as rare as it may seem to get this steamy this time of the year as climatology, we’re in the hottest part of the year, the length of this heat is bit anomalous for Western New York. We’re not used to days and days of constant heat and humidity. You don’t need me to give you “heat tips” on how to stay cool in the heat; it’s common sense. Just use it.
This heat wave will also cause some rewrites of the history books. We will either likely tie or shatter the record highs for Saturday, Sunday and Monday, and maybe even tie a couple records throughout next week.
Just for reference, the all-time record high ever recorded for the city of Jamestown was 100, set on July 17th, 1988. I don’t think we will hit the 100-degree mark, but we will certainly come within a couple degrees of that, especially on Sunday. We’re definitely talking some big time heat.
While this heat wave is is the result of a big ridging area of High pressure, and High pressure generally means “good weather”, the potential does exist for scattered afternoon and evening showers and thunderstorms Monday through Wednesday; the “thunderstorm lottery.” With the oppressive amounts of moisture in the air, combined with the heating generated from the sun, that could be just enough to make a storm pop.
You know these things work; they develop at random times throughout the day, they do not last very long, and not everybody will get wet. Some could end up with downpour, some will see absolutely nothing.
