A rare August ends with no tropical storms, but activity is ramping up. A heat wave for the West to bring scorching temps through Labor Day. Meteorological fall starts tomorrow. See today’s weather alerts and forecast.
NWS weather alerts for Wednesday
Here are Wednesday’s weather alerts from the National Weather Service (NWS).
Flood warning: central and southern Louisiana.
Flash flood warning: southwestern Texas.
Flood advisory: southwestern Texas.
Flood watch: western, north-central, and southwestern Texas.
Excessive heat warning: northern, central, and southern California; northeastern and southern Nevada; eastern, northern, and south-central Arizona.
Heat advisory: Washington, eastern Oregon, northern and southern Idaho, northern Nevada.
Excessive heat watch: northeastern California; western, northern, and central Nevada.
Wednesday and Thursday forecast
Here’s today’s forecast from the NWS and a look ahead to Thursday.
Wednesday: Scattered thunderstorms, Southwest flooding
Scattered thunderstorms for parts of the West and Midwest in Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Thunderstorms in the Southwest over parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where heavy rain will bring the risk of flooding to parts of the state (see alerts above).
Parts of the South will see scattered thunderstorms, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
To the north, scattered thunderstorms over New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Thursday: Fewer storms, flooding threat for Texas
Expect some spotty thunderstorms over parts of Arizona and New Mexico, with heavier storms in the southeastern portion of the state. Heavy storms continue over taxes bringing the risk of flooding to the Western region, as well as the central and northeastern portion of the state around Dallas-Fort Worth. More scattered thunderstorms over portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.
Scattered rain showers over portions of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Indiana.
Scorching heat through Labor Day and beyond in the West
The West Coast is bracing for some of the hottest temperatures of the year throughout the week and into Labor Day weekend. The Weather Prediction Center is warning, “Temperatures could exceed 110 degrees Fahrenheit in parts of the Southwest,” CNN reported.
The National Weather Service warned: “This heat may be record-breaking and will produce a very high risk of heat illness. Triple digit heat is expected… Even hotter conditions are expected over the Labor Day weekend until early next week.”
On Sunday, very high temperatures are predicted throughout central and southern California, as well as the Las Vegas, Nevada, area. High temperatures are also anticipated near Reno as well as Salt Lake City.
Rare August with no tropical storms, but activity is increasing
Thus far, August 2022 has seen no tropical storms. Since 1929, an absence of tropical storms in August has only occurred four times, MySuncoast reported. And unless something changes in the next 24 hours, 2022 will likely be the fifth cyclone-free August.
Three systems active in the Atlantic
There were two systems active on Tuesday, but now a third system has spun up in the Atlantic. “Disturbance 1” has an 80% chance of cyclone formation in five days and a 60% chance in the next 24 hours. It is moving slowly toward the Leeward Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The American and European forecast models predict the system will curve northwest and back toward the middle of the Atlantic next week.
“Disturbance 2,” off the West Coast of Africa, currently has a 50% chance of five-day development. “Disturbance 3,” in the central subtropical Atlantic, has a 70% chance of five-day development and a 60% chance of 48-hour development.
