Hoosiers will have to wave farewell to the cool breezes that have recently graced Indianapolis and prepare for a heat wave. Starting at noon Monday, the city will be under a heat advisory as temperatures rise into the mid-90s and lows only dip into the 70s.
Making the situation even more intense will be heat indices between 100 and 105 degrees, said Matthew Eckhoff, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. At this point, the heat advisory extends through Thursday evening, he said, but it has the potential to remain through the July 4th weekend, which will significantly heat up Hoosiers’ celebrations of the U.S.’s 250th birthday.
The weather pattern “could start to diminish a little bit, and the jet stream might start to come back, but the signal for that happening is pretty weak at the moment,” Eckhoff said.
A few factors are contributing to the heat index, he said. The relatively cool temperatures Indianapolis has recently enjoyed are courtesy of a jet stream that has been dipping south from Canada into the Midwest. That will retreat, he said, allowing warm air from the south to spread back into the region. A ridge of high pressure overhead this week will contribute as well.
“Air will literally go from the upper levels of the atmosphere and sink towards the ground,” Eckhoff said. “As that happens, it compresses under the higher pressure and causes it to heat up. And so that adds to the heat that we’re going to experience, which is why it’s going to get as hot as we’re thinking it’s going to get.”
The coming week also will see high humidity levels with dew points in the mid-70s and relative humidities between 60% and 90%. Eckhoff encouraged Hoosiers to remain hydrated, avoid working outside and find ways to stay cool since the temperatures could spike heat-related illnesses.
“Low temperatures look like they’re going to be in the 70s, so there’s not going to be much relief in the evening,” Eckhoff said. “So if you expect that nighttime is going to help cool things off, it might not. It’ll probably stay hot, and if you don’t have air conditioning in your house, it’ll just cook all night long.”
Contact IndyStar reporter Domenica Bongiovanni at 317-444-7339 or d.bongiovanni@indystar.com. Sign up here for the newsletter she curates about things to do and ways to explore Indianapolis. Find her on Facebook, Instagram or X: @domenicareports.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Say bye to cool temperatures. This week is about to heat up big time
Reporting by Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Domenica Bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
