USA TODAY International Edition
Midwest ending summer with a sizzle
‘ Dangerous’ heat sidelining students, teams, residents
An intense and record- breaking heat wave is searing much of the upper Midwest, closing schools and canceling outdoor events.
The heat is “oppressive and even potentially dangerous,” Weather Channel meteorologist Jon Erdman said. Several record- high temperatures were set this week across the Midwest, including a 97- degree reading Monday in Minneapolis, he said.
After- school sports practices and evening games were canceled this week in St. Paul. Misting stations were set up to keep people cool at the Minnesota State Fair, where about 90 fairgoers were treated for heat- related illnesses over the weekend.
Several school districts in the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska shortened school days or canceled classes altogether Monday and Tuesday because of the heat.
“Excessive heat warnings and heat advisories remain in effect over a large portion of the upper Midwest, where uncomfortably high temperatures and dew points will combine to create triple- digit heat indices,” National Weather Service meteorologist Mary Beth Gerhardt said in an online report Tuesday.
Despite the heat, Minneapolis public schools remained open Tuesday, though after- school events were canceled. Parents had the option to keep children home.
Just to the north and east of the intense heat, a risk of severe thunderstorms remained across parts of the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley, from northern Wisconsin across lower Michigan and into the upper Ohio Valley, the weather service said.
Large hail and damaging wind gusts were likely to be the main threats from the storms.
Today, the Mid- Atlantic will be at high risk for heavy rain and thunderstorms, AccuWeather said.
As of midafternoon Tuesday, parts of seven states were under some form of heat advisory or heat warning from the weather service.
Some of the cities hit hardest by the heat this week include St. Louis, Omaha and Des Moines.
Amanda Leinen of Des Moines said it felt as if summer finally arrived after a cool, dreary year.
“Snow in May and 100 degrees in August: That’s just Iowa,” she said.
The heat wave is likely to last though the week across the Midwest and Plains, with highs in the upper 90s and 100s each day, AccuWeather meteorologist Brian Lada said.