00:00 Top story today is the Midwest as temperatures were sore as a massive heat dome builds over
00:06 the central United States.
00:08 The hottest weather of the summer so far, likely for many cities.
00:12 We could be talking about that toward Chicago, Minneapolis, and even toward Des Moines, Iowa.
00:17 Yeah, Des Moines with the state fair over this weekend.
00:19 Big event.
00:20 Through the weekend, yeah, it's going to be awfully hot.
00:22 And one factor contributing to the quick buildup of heat has been the stubborn drought as well
00:27 over the middle of the nation.
00:29 Remember, heat and drought, they go together.
00:31 Dry ground tends to heat up quickly as opposed to moist ground.
00:35 And less of the sun's energy is used up in the process of evaporating that moisture.
00:38 We talk about that drought cycle all the time here on AccuWeather Early.
00:42 You'll see it in full swing this coming weekend.
00:44 We'll take you live to Minneapolis right now as we start this top story.
00:48 And we're starting off into the mid-60s.
00:51 Not looking overly active right now, but hey, changing conditions are coming up as we work
00:55 our way down the road.
00:56 We're going to be following some storms.
00:58 In fact, right now, a little breeze, subtle breeze coming up from the south.
01:03 That's going to start to transport a modest amount of moisture back into the picture.
01:07 We're also going to be talking about some of those wind fields higher up in the atmosphere
01:11 starting to increase.
01:12 And now we're starting to see those ingredients gelling.
01:16 And as a front slides south and east, the air is forced to merge.
01:21 And what merges is forced upward.
01:22 That rising motion will, again, spark thunderstorms.
01:25 And you can see those beginning to develop, really not until later on today.
01:29 Much of the morning, relatively quiet, even toward the midday hours.
01:32 But now we go toward 4 or 5 o'clock and thunderstorms are developing.
01:36 These again will pack some potency as they slide their way again throughout Lake Superior.
01:40 We begin to see these building their way back to the south and the west.
01:44 And this is where we have our greatest concern with severe weather for today.
01:47 In fact, much like the last couple of days, you do see that moderate risk introduced,
01:53 meaning numerous severe thunderstorms, Thunder Bay south toward Duluth, toward the Keewanaw
01:58 Peninsula.
01:59 Beautiful area.
02:00 Modes of severe we're going to be following for today.
02:02 Well, everything's on the table here, including isolated tornadoes, damaging hailstones, and
02:07 localized damaging wind gusts.
02:09 Look at that, 65 to 75 miles per hour.
02:12 And these winds can mean business.
02:14 Look at that, all the way up to 90 miles per hour.
02:17 That's where you find the AccuWeather local storm acts.
02:19 Anywhere in the yellow or the orange, be prepared for severe weather today.
02:23 Even in the yellow, that means severe thunderstorms in parts of the area.
02:28 But increased coverage as we work our way into that moderate risk.
02:32 You know, we go down the road here, Christina, we're going to be talking about those thunderstorms
02:35 sliding east and some changes coming up with the air mass too.
02:38 Yeah, wait till you see what's behind the thunderstorms.
02:41 And you know what?
02:42 I'm not going to make anyone wait too long.
02:43 It's the heat and it's going to heat up quite quickly.
02:46 That's the one thing I need you to know for this coming weekend across the central United
02:51 States, is that this is some of the hottest air of the summer on the way.
02:55 Let's take a look.
02:56 Shocking, shocking.
02:57 It's high pressure.
02:58 Remember that same high pressure system that's been building the heat in Texas, Louisiana,
03:04 out toward Arizona?
03:05 Well, guess what?
03:06 It's expanding.
03:07 It's growing.
03:08 And as it does, the heat grows too.
03:10 Record highs will be challenged across a large portion of the country, including the Midwest.
03:15 We mentioned earlier cities like Chicago and Des Moines.
03:18 Well, just wait.
03:19 Temperatures on the upswing.
03:20 Friday is just the start.
03:22 You'll notice the mid 80s for Kansas City, St. Louis on Friday, even Peoria and Chicago
03:27 in the upper 70s and low 80s.
03:29 It's actually going to be quite nice.
03:31 So enjoy this last day of the work week.
03:33 Maybe go out for a nice dinner outdoors.
03:35 But just wait.
03:36 There are the temperatures as we look toward the weekend.
03:39 And you'll notice that quick uptick into cities like Kansas City, where we're in the triple
03:44 digits, even looking back to Minneapolis, where we're in the 90s over the weekend as
03:49 well.
03:50 Peoria up to 90 degrees by the time we get to Sunday afternoon.
03:53 We're going to be keeping a close eye on things as some records could fall.
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