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Subscribe to RSSTODAY's Al Roker tracks dangerous storms moving in from the West after sweltering heat blanketed most of the country.
Updated at 2:50 p.m. ET — Americans in the Midwest and East Coast are getting a break from last week’s extreme heat, but weather experts say severe storms could take its place.
“Scattered showers and thunderstorms occur from the Mid-Atlantic to the central and southern Plains and southern Rockies,” the National Weather Service predicted. “Some thunderstorms may become severe from southern Virginia and the Carolinas to eastern Oklahoma and northeast Texas.”
The agency added: “Very hot temperatures are still possible across parts of the South, Midwest and southern Plains, but the area of 100 degree-plus temperatures will be much smaller than last week”
TODAY show meteorologist Al Roker said a change in the jetstream has cooled temperatures in the eastern U.S., but resulted in high pressure -- and rising temperatures -- in the western part of the country. Reno, Nev., and Salt Lake City were expected to hit 96 degrees on Monday.
The death toll from last week's heat wave jumped to 82, The Weather Channel reported Monday. Storms, meanwhile, left hundreds of thousands of Americans without power.
The heat wave that gripped the Midwest in recent weeks appears to have broken, but for farmers in the heartland, relief will only truly come with a downpour. NBC's John Yang reports.
On Sunday, National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrew Orrison said a cool front will move through the South and the mid-Atlantic bringing thunderstorms and showers.
The cooler air began sweeping southward Sunday in the eastern half of the country, bringing down some temperatures by 15 or more degrees from Saturday's highs, which topped 100 in cities including Philadelphia, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Louisville, Ky., and Washington, D.C.
It was 80-plus degrees in New York City on Sunday night. Some visitors said they'd spent much of the weekend shopping in air-conditioned stores rather than exploring Central Park as they had planned.
"But that's OK, shopping is always good in New York," said Linda Boteach of Baltimore, waiting to board a bus that was spewing exhaust into the already hot night.
"It was worse in Baltimore," Boteach said. "It's all relative."
In Chicago, the Cook County medical examiner's office determined Sunday that eight more people died from heat-related causes, adding to the 10 deaths confirmed Saturday. The deaths included a 100-year-old woman, a 65-year-old woman, a 53-year-old man, a 46-year-old woman and an unidentified man believed to be about 30 years old.
In Tennessee, the third heat-related death of the year was a 62-year-old woman found dead in her home. She had a working air conditioner, but it was not turned on.
Deaths have also been reported by authorities in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
To stay cool, Americans tried familiar solutions — dipping into the pool, going to the movies and riding subways just to be in air conditioning.
Gregory Englebach relaxed on a bench Sunday evening near the Starbucks coffee shop in Philadelphia where he'd worked all day, enjoying temperatures that had dipped into the 80s.
"It's the humidity that gets me," said the 24-year-old Englebach. He said he thinks his utility bill has already gone up by $30 or $40 because of his increased use of electricity at home. But he's resigned to it: "It's air conditioning or I can't sleep at night," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Despite the relief in the heat index, it's starting to look like global warming is for real.
Starting? This started happening before this year. We've had increased and more frequent El Nino cycles that are sucking away moisture from some parts of the country, creating unprecedented droughts, then dumping it all in other places creating highly unusual events like "snowmageddon" in DC, major hurricanes, an El Derecho (something most people had never heard of until recently). We've had fire seasons out west starting months earlier than they're supposed to due to unprecedented drought conditions. We've had unusually massive tornados a mile wide. We've had weather flip flopping with Dallas having one of its coolest winters ever (with snow) at the same time London was having its warmest winter ever with spring-like temps, then just a few months later Dallas (last summer) had a record-breaking number of days above 100 degrees. Each year, the global temperature sets a new record high. There's a lot of weirdness going on in the weather and it's only going to get worse. We're not going to see this high temps all the time everywhere, but we're going to see it more frequently. And none of this should surprise anyone because these events were being predicted by climate scientists for 20 years. But most people would rather stay in denial than listen. It's easier to deny and make no lifestyle changes than to take action. But there are grave consequences for inaction.
Starting? We've had increased and more frequent El Nino cycles that sucked away moisture from some parts of the country, creating droughts, then dumping it all in other places creating events like "snowmageddon" in DC, major hurricanes, an El Derecho (something most people had never heard of until recently). We've had fire seasons out west starting months earlier than they're supposed to due to unprecedented drought conditions. We've had unusually massive tornados a mile wide. We've had weather flip flopping with Dallas having one of its coolest winters ever (with snow) at the same time London was having its warmest winter ever with spring-like temps, then just a few months later Dallas (last summer) had a record-breaking number of days above 100 degrees. There's a lot of weirdness going on in the weather and it's only going to get worse. We're not going to see this high temps all the time everywhere, but we're going to see it more frequently. And none of this should surprise anyone because these events were being predicted by climate scientists for 20 years. But most people would rather stay in denial than listen. It's easier to deny and make no lifestyle changes than to take action. But there are grave consequences for inaction.
Thank God the Texas State Board of Education and the 2012 Texas GOP platform are trying to eliminate the teaching of "critical and higher level thinking skills" in their "schools."
There is NOT enough science to determine global warming or not. Official temp records started in 1895, that is nothing in the scientific community. Well that and the whole debate is no longer about science it's now more about politics than anything else (see Al Gore's investment in green products in 2000, long before anyone knew anything about global warming)
Weather is cyclical. Like the great white sharks appearing off the coast of MA and ME this year. The Sun actually determines the weather a heck of a lot more than people wish to believe. The Sun blasts us with radioactive waves that get absorbed into our atmosphere. In high sun spot cycles the temp on Earth can be raised anywhere from 5-10 degrees overall. In a maunder minimum, the temps plummet anywhere from 10-20 degrees (see the Little Ice Age in Europe in the 1500's). Also, volcanic activity also effects the temps on Earth, as when Krakatoa blew there was no summer in Europe.
You can attack me for not believing in global warming. When there is more science and more proof, maybe people will.
Not enough science, really? Only about 95 percent of climate scientists agree what is happening now is extraordinary and largely manmade. Most of those who disagree are funded by the oil industry. Tell me, if you went to 20 doctors and 19 of them told you you needed an operation or you'd die, and one told you you didn't need the operation, would you take the advice of the one dissenting doctor of the other 19?
Al Gore was right. The thing about it the Eco people rightly said it was a natural occouring event from time to time. Makes sense as there was ice ages etc so on the other side over warming makes sense. What they wanted was to lessen our foot print on the event by keeping our emissions lower. Same thing happened after that the polluters had a cow and paid thier trolls to wage war on a very sensible thing.
I totally agree with Halo!
So what do you think the probability is that GW is for real and that it could have dire consequences for the human race? Surely you don't think it's zero. Just because it's not 100%, do you really think it's worth risking our future? Is it worth risking the futures of our kids and grand kids? That seems pretty selfish. We should tax carbon starting now at a low level and ramp up over 10 years so emissions will be expensive. That way people have time to plan. Use the money to pay for natural disasters. If GW is not for real, use the extra money to pay down the debt. Either way it plays out, we'll be better off and most likely less dependant on foreign energy sources. Those getting rich off oil and coal will obviously fight and those that can't think for themselves will follow. If they win, we could be doing ourselves in.
There are geological and botanical, and written records such as captains logs, articles from other ages, tree rings and the like that concur.
Unless, you think maybe the Phd scientists from all these other fields of study are all making it up for apparently no benefit to themselves or any other group. For there to be a conspiracy, there needs to be real financial benefit to some group.
Frankly, I think any idiot can see that billions of furnaces, engines, and factories and the like just may have an impact. Our best bet is to do more research and do something about before it is too late and we kill our great-great grandchildren in a mass extinction of all life on Earth with a runaway greenhouse effect.
OMG - we have been in the 70's here in Colorado. Makes you want to go roll around outside in the grass (or what's left of it) like a happy puppy!!!! The storms have been rather intense at times but we are getting rain. RAIN!!!! Thank you thank you thank you......
Here in central IL if we don't get some rain soon we might as well just plow our corn crop under.
When I was a boy back in the late 50's early 60's when the temperature reach 90 degrees in July and August it was considered very hot. We did not have air conditioning in our house in St. Louis, Missouri. My brothers and I sleep in a make shift attic bedroom and it was bearable. With the atmosphere changing so rapidly now I would be will to bet by 2020 temperatures will easily reach at least 115 degrees everyday. Is there any truth in globle warning? And, who should I believe, the oil companies or the government enviornmentalist? And, can anything be done no to stop it????????????? At the rate the temperature is climbing every year .... by the year 2050 comes around St. Louis, Missouri's average temperature for July and August may be nearing 135 degrees or more per day. In my opinion, that's a little hot and the corn fields around St. Louis, Missouri will be all dried up by April or May.
Hey we let them pollute our rivers and streams dump our waste into our lakes and oceans send tons of pollutants up in to the air daily over farm our land and create dust bowls and wonder why all because some corporation wants to get richer. We get what we deserve for not paying attention.....I used to wlak 36 holes on Sunday a few years back last few days I could probably do 9
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog
I have lived all of my 50 years in the same city. It is all a cycle people. The only thing I haven't seen happen again (yet) is the dust storms that central Texas got in the late 60s and 70s. I will not be surprised if those return soon as west Texas dries out from droughts during the cooling phase of this 60 year cycle.
Yes, the cycle was towards cooling, as we can see from this recent article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120709092606.htm
Then we started putting out greenhouse gases and it's reversed itself.
From http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120618152733.htm :-
The globally-averaged temperature for May 2012 marked the second warmest May since record keeping began in 1880. May 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive May and 327th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average.
Basically, we were headed towards another ice age, which actually gave us a little bit of leeway, and allowed the nay-sayers another chortle.
As the trend is towards getting worse but there is still variation, and I am sure we will still continue to get "Oh, look at that ice storm, global warming haha."
The thing is, everyone reasonable has already been convinced, so the argument will go on perpetually, as it is impossible to convince an unreasonable person.
Yes, Al
"severe" storms are usually the way we get relief from severe heat waves.
Is there ANY weather condition people won't find a reason to whine about?
The earliest bad effects wil occur in red states, karma.
Good weather makes me nervous. Like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
I don't believe in weather.