Excessive Heat Watches & Warnings Up

The prospect of the worst of the season's longest heat wave is coming upon us for late this week, with Excessive Heat Watches and Warnings out for much of the region due to the nasty combination of heat and humidity that is poised to worsen over the latter half of the week.   Excessive Heat Warnings are out for the Delaware Valley for now through at least Thursday, likely extending to Saturday given current trends, with watches out in Central Pennsylvania and in the New York Metro area for later this week.

We all know it's going to be hot, with computer guidance suggesting 100 is certainly within possibility for Friday and upper 90's sandwiching around that for both Thursday and Saturday.   The heat itself is bad enough and on Friday and Saturday, potentially record breaking.  However, the humidity will be the worse impact as dew point values in the lower 70's could yield heat index values upwards of 110 in some parts of town.   The heat/humidity combination is arguably much, much more potent and to be frank, it doesn't matter if anyone is forecasting 100 or not...the heat index will be higher and frankly makes the weather that much worse.

Thursday's records are rather tough to hit but Friday could pose a potential record breaking day, especially in Atlantic City and perhaps Philadelphia.  Saturday's record could be tied in many locations.   Even if we don't break a record, Friday will likely be the season's hottest day in terms of both temperatures and heat index.