Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Climate

School Is Back in Session, But Summer’s Not Over Yet

The week in heat, August 26 to September 1.

Chicago.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

This week’s weather forecast is like the Uno reverse card: Texas might finally get a break from triple-digit temperatures, but the summer heat is making its way back into the Northeast.

After some taste of fall, summer returns to the north

Those west of the Appalachians might have already started to feel a shift in the air this weekend. After a week of below-average temperatures and fall-like weather, heat maps for the Northeast have gone back to looking very red. Temperatures could run 5 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit above average this week, Paul Pastelok, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather, told me. “Highs will be the low to mid 80s, nights in the upper 50s to lower 60s,” he said.

Philadelphia, which has already started to get warmer, might see even higher temperatures, with some days later in the week hitting the low 90s. But for those in the state hoping to make the most of the heat by turning it into a beach vacation, I am sorry to say this week will likely be cloudy from beginning to end.

New England will also see the return of some warmth this week, but it’ll be “slower and less impressive” than other nearby states, according to Pastelok. Temperatures there will be closer to average, and will very soon cool back down.

A cold front is finally in store for Texas

This summer hasn’t been fun for Texas. The unrelenting heat — more intense there than in any other state — has shattered multiple temperature records, increased wildfire activity, and contributed to severe drought. Just last week, when most of the country got a taste of cooler days ahead, the Texas energy grid broke its demand record. While it’s still too soon to call off the season of scorching temperatures, the new week brings some good news.

A strong cold front will bring temperatures down below average across northern Texas later this week. Some precipitation in South Texas could pull readings a few degrees lower still, Pastelok told me, even though humidity is expected to remain high. Central Texas has already started to get some relief, finally dropping out of the triple digits this past weekend.

Heat to intensify in the West

Those in the Midwest will have to bear through an increase in temperatures this week. The Great Plains, the Mississippi Valley, the Ohio Valley and the Great Lakes can all expect temperatures in the high 80s and mid 90s, Pastelok told me. The heat won’t last long, though. Starting Thursday, a cold front will start moving through the region, and temperatures are expected to drop well below average across the Plains and the Midwest for at least a few days.

  • Back to School: This quick but intense heat wave is making its way across the Midwest right in time for back to school season. Chicago Public Schools went back into session today with a series of heat adaptations in place — athletic games have been canceled until Wednesday and outdoor practices were moved indoors. While in Chicago all classrooms are equipped with air conditioning, that is not true across all of the region. According to The Washington Post, as heat waves become more constant in the North, almost 14,000 public schools that did not need AC back in 1970 need it today.

In California, the week will be hot and wet. After a series of storms pass through the state earlier this week, temperatures will go back to rising. “The Central Valleys of California by late next week will be well above average, along with the Desert Southwest,” Pastelok told me. Cities such as Sacramento, Modesto, and Fresno, can see temperatures above 100 degrees.

Fall will be toasty

According to the National Weather Service’s forecast, the entire country will experience above average fall temperatures this year. Seriously, I mean the entire country. The hardest hit states will be New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and then over on the top of the Northeast, from Maine to New York.

According to AccuWeather forecasts, for many, fall will feel more like a “second summer” than a new season. In fact, only two states — Washington and Oregon — will see a quick transition into fall. The rest of the country is, well, doomed.

Not only will fall be hotter, it will also be dryer, raising concerns over increased wildfire risk across California, parts of the Great Lakes and the Northeast. Severe weather, such as tropical storms and hurricanes, will also define the season. AccuWeather has predicted six to 10 storms to hit the country from this week through the end of September alone.

For snow lovers such as myself, it seems like flakes might not make an appearance until November, and only in some of the coldest spots in the northern Plains, Rockies, and Upper Midwest.

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Spotlight

The Moss Landing Battery Backlash Has Spread Nationwide

New York City may very well be the epicenter of this particular fight.

Moss Landing.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Library of Congress

It’s official: the Moss Landing battery fire has galvanized a gigantic pipeline of opposition to energy storage systems across the country.

As I’ve chronicled extensively throughout this year, Moss Landing was a technological outlier that used outdated battery technology. But the January incident played into existing fears and anxieties across the U.S. about the dangers of large battery fires generally, latent from years of e-scooters and cellphones ablaze from faulty lithium-ion tech. Concerned residents fighting projects in their backyards have successfully seized upon the fact that there’s no known way to quickly extinguish big fires at energy storage sites, and are winning particularly in wildfire-prone areas.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Hotspots

The Race to Qualify for Renewable Tax Credits Is on in Wisconsin

And more on the biggest conflicts around renewable energy projects in Kentucky, Ohio, and Maryland.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. St. Croix County, Wisconsin - Solar opponents in this county see themselves as the front line in the fight over Trump’s “Big Beautiful” law and its repeal of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits.

  • Xcel’s Ten Mile Creek solar project doesn’t appear to have begun construction yet, and like many facilities it must begin that process by about this time next year or it will lose out on the renewable energy tax credits cut short by the new law. Ten Mile Creek has essentially become a proxy for the larger fight to build before time runs out to get these credits.
  • Xcel told county regulators last month that it hoped to file an application to the Wisconsin Public Services Commission by the end of this year. But critics of the project are now telling their allies they anticipate action sooner in order to make the new deadline for the tax credit — and are campaigning for the county to intervene if that occurs.
  • “Be on the lookout for Xcel to accelerate the PSC submittal,” Ryan Sherley, a member of the St. Croix Board of Supervisors, wrote on Facebook. “St. Croix County needs to legally intervene in the process to ensure the PSC properly hears the citizens and does not rush this along in order to obtain tax credits.”

2. Barren County, Kentucky - How much wood could a Wood Duck solar farm chuck if it didn’t get approved in the first place? We may be about to find out.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Q&A

All the Renewables Restrictions Fit to Print

Talking local development moratoria with Heatmap’s own Charlie Clynes.

The Q&A subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s conversation is special: I chatted with Charlie Clynes, Heatmap Pro®’s very own in-house researcher. Charlie just released a herculean project tracking all of the nation’s county-level moratoria and restrictive ordinances attacking renewable energy. The conclusion? Essentially a fifth of the country is now either closed off to solar and wind entirely or much harder to build. I decided to chat with him about the work so you could hear about why it’s an important report you should most definitely read.

The following chat was lightly edited for clarity. Let’s dive in.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow