Record breaking heat and fire danger in the West, mid-Atlantic flood risk in East

Several daily high temperature records were broken from Washington State to Texas on Saturday like in Shreveport, Louisiana, which hit its first 100-degree day of the year.

Today, we expect more of the same across the western third of the country and parts of Texas with temperatures in the triple digits.

In total, 54 million Americans are forecast to experience 100-degree heat this week and more than 100 daily high temperature records could be set through Wednesday.

Elsewhere, a Red Flag warning is in effect today across the West as abundant lightning is expected along with gusty winds as isolated thunderstorms pop up this afternoon and evening.

These conditions increase the likelihood of new fires starting and also spreading existing fires as wind gusts could reach 55 mph within thunderstorm outflow boundaries.

A flash flood watch is in effect for parts of the mid-Atlantic through this morning as the heaviest rain pushes through northern Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.

The heaviest rain will continue to work its way to the coast this morning and by the afternoon things will start to wind down inland. By around 7:00 p.m. we will see drier conditions for most folks along the coastal mid-Atlantic.

New rainfall amounts today could be between 2 and 3 inches on already saturated ground. Flash Flooding is a threat from eastern Virginia through Maryland where the heaviest rain is expected to fall.

Tropical Storm Kyle was the earliest 11th Atlantic named storm on record. The previous record was Katrina in August 2005. Kyle is now a post tropical cyclone while Josephine remains a Tropical Storm. Both storms will be making their way to the East and away from the U.S. coastline. However, it looks like we have more activity brimming off the west coast of Africa and in the central Atlantic.

A tropical wave is moving toward the windward islands with a 30% chance of development over the next five days.

A second tropical wave is moving off of Africa’s west coast with a 20% chance of development in the next five days. We will be watching both waves as they move through central tropical Atlantic, by the middle to latter part of the week, where there is a more favorable environment for development.