Bermuda high heats us up; expect more muggy nights
An atmospheric guest on its summer sojourn has cozied up to South Florida, bringing moist, hot weather that forecasters warn could shoot heat indexes to 109 degrees in some inland areas.
The Bermuda high, a semi-permanent subtropical area of high pressure in the Atlantic, nudges west during summer months and has settled this week over the Florida Peninsula.
While an easterly sea breeze will keep Palm Beach County’s coastal areas simmering with heat index temperatures of about 103, areas in western Collier County and Hendry Count y could hit 109, said Maria Torres, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami.
The heat index takes into consideration the amount of water vapor in the air to give a “feels like” temperature compared to what the mercury actually reads.
“The high is retrograding a little bit into the peninsula and into Georgia so it’s going to warm up our temperatures and the heat indexes will be pretty high,” Torres said. “It’s just another round of warm.”
Torres said the weather service will issue a heat advisory if
and at The Post’s WeatherPlus blog at PalmBeach the index is expected to be 108 or higher for two hours.
The actual high temperatures this week will range in the low to mid-90s. Tuesday’s temperature hit 92 in West Palm Beach, with today’s high expected to hit 93 — 3 degrees warmer than what’s average for this time of year.
But the most unusual weather feature this July is likely to be the overnight heat. Lows are expected to remain in the steamy 80-plus range after a break last weekend, in which cooler nights saw a return to normal temperatures that dipped into the mid-70s.
“There’s not much of a break,” said Tim Sedlock, a meteorologist with the NWS in Melbourne. “We’re in a generally warmer and drier streak than what we’re used to.”
July has been unusually warm, with the average temperature of 86.2 in West Palm Beach running 4 degrees above normal. Ten heat records have been tied or surpassed in West Palm Beach this month.
Sedlock said if the forec ast holds, Vero Beach could have its driest July, and third-hottest July on record.
Coastal Palm Beach County is down 2.5 inches of rain for July and more than four inches of rain for the season, which began June 1 as measured by the South Florida Water Management District.
The drier weather is good news for swollen Lake Okeechobee. On Tuesday, the lake stood at 14.69 feet above sea level — higher than water managers prefer as peak hurricane season approaches.
The high-pressure system combined with a plume of arid Saharan air should keep coastal Palm Beach County on the dry side this week. The Saharan dust sucks moisture from the upper levels of the atmosphere, discouraging cloud formation while the surface stays humid.
“We won’t see much relief,” Sedlock said. “Maybe early next week it will let up a little bit.”