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American Morning

Early Heat Wave Sweeping the Midwest

Aired May 15, 2001 - 11:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, let's get a tour of weather maps

(CROSSTALK)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, it's air-conditioned in here, which might be nice for the people in the Midwest.

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tell you what, this is really early heat season, if you will. A big heat wave coming through Central Plains not only for the southern sections where you'd expect it, nineties and one-hundreds down across the south central regions today and then again for tomorrow.

Things warming up here all the way into the nineties into Omaha for tomorrow. But even Minneapolis and all the way up into the northern sections of Minnesota, very warm yesterday and even hotter today with more humidity. And one of the guys I used to watch when he was in Omaha, Nebraska, now joins us, Chris Grote. Yeah, believe it or not, we both worked in that city a long, long time ago.

CHRIS GROTE, MINNESOTA WEATHERMAN: That was a long time ago.

MYERS: Lots of heat, lots of humidity for you guys today breaking another record, huh?

GROTE: Yeah, I think we will. You know, I'm loathe to forecast records because you're just begging to be wrong. But nevertheless, I'm thinking about 92 in the Twin Cities this afternoon.

Yesterday, we hit 94. It was our first 90-degree reading since last August and the warmest we've been since last June. Yesterday morning I heard the furnace click on in my house. And by the time I got home in the afternoon, the air conditioning was rolling. So people in Minnesota just aren't getting a break from the energy costs, that's for sure. But we're not California.

MYERS: You also had quite a bit of severe weather, especially south of your city, a couple days ago too. This has really been an up-and-down season for you guys.

GROTE: It has been amazing. We have been thrown into the -- while in the arms of severe weather season, very, very quickly. Last week and the week before we had tornadic events around the Twin Cities metropolitan area.

And I'm concerned about later on this afternoon. Right here in the Twin Cities, I think it's actually too warm for thunderstorms. There is a lid in the atmosphere that has to be broken by those thunderstorms. So I think thunderstorm development here should be suppressed.

But if you go 40 miles up the road just north of here, I bet there's going to be some massive thunderstorms later on this afternoon. Is that what you guys are thinking in Atlanta for us?

MYERS: Well, I was looking at the dew points, or the humidity in the air, yesterday compared to today. And you actually have more humidity in the air. So your heat index is going to be higher today. And also, you have that wind shift coming through later. So you may break that cap, as we call it, that kind of gets the inversion going where's it's really warm up above, you can't get the storms to go through. You get a little bit of a lift, and you can actually push those storms right on through that cap.

GROTE: Well, as you know, timing is going to be everything. And that wind shift that you are speaking of might show up a little later tonight. So, the guess for the best we can come up with here is that central and northern Minnesota just north of the Twin Cities where a lot of people have cabins that they're opening up this week will see big thunderstorms. And then I think they could roll through the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities will be on the southern edge of that severe stuff.

And I'm sure you are telling folks in Milwaukee and Chicago and Madison that overnight tonight they might see the big thunderstorms roll their way.

MYERS: They really got them yesterday as well coming in from the northwest, not a usual direction. Actually, the jet stream blowing it in from the wrong way.

GROTE: That's right. You would generally watch the southwestern horizon here in the Twin Cities. And, as a matter of fact, when I was growing up, they always told you to go into the southwestern corner of the basement. That's generally where the storms come from.

Now the theory is, the thinking is, you want to get under the steps wherever they are because there's the most structure over your head in a tornado. And that all makes sense. But storms firing up, moving in from the northwest, all of sudden, all of a sudden it's hot around here.

MYERS: I guess so. Well, don't expect that so early. But I'm sure mosquito season is right around the corner.

GROTE: You know how it is. We love our two-week spring and our two-week fall not because the weather is so wonderful, but that's the four weeks of the year where we don't have the mosquitoes up here lurking about.

MYERS: Exactly. Chris, thank you. Good to see you again. Good talking to you again.

GROTE: Good seeing you.

MYERS: All right, have a good Tuesday.

Temperatures pretty good across the central plains right now. But later on today, that sun is going to be out. Things are going to warm up rapidly, in fact Minneapolis all the way up to 94 again today, and with the heat index, many suburbs may feel more like 105 later on this afternoon. So get ready for that.

Eventually, cooler air does work its way in. And by Thursday, here's another cold front will push on through, dropping temperatures at least 10 degrees. So we're not going to have that heat wave that's prolonged for months and months like sometimes you can get in the central plains throughout the middle of the summer because, obviously, it isn't summer yet. And there will still will be big cold fronts that drop all the way into the central sections of the country.

And by Friday, more storms developing all the way south into parts of Missouri. Folks there will take the rainfall for sure.

Wow, that was fun talking to somebody from Minneapolis for a while, hey?

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: Chad, we've just been sitting enjoying watching two weather guys dropping names...

KAGAN: Oh, man.

HARRIS: ... your inversion and your lift...

KAGAN: Your wind shift.

HARRIS: ... and your jet stream and...

MYERS: And your vorticity...

(LAUGHTER)

HARRIS: ... humidity.

KAGAN: It was like weather geek heaven listening to you two talk.

MYERS: Four years of college plus a little bit more will do it for you.

KAGAN: And I say that as a term of endearment, you know that.

HARRIS: You know it.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: See you later.

MYERS: All right.

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