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Dexter delivering windy rain to fish as Atlantic begins to light up

As peak hurricane season begins, it's also hot and smokey.

Author

Ian Livingston
August 04, 2025

The first week of August is feeling rather August-like, given a focus on heat, the tropics and flooding potential. Plus there’s more smoke from Canada wildfires.

Weather Watch

Southwest heat. It has been kind of an unmemorable year for heat in the Southwest U.S., especially compared to the broilings of recent ones, but what may be the worst so far in 2025 is inbound for portions of the region. Phoenix is looking at several days of record highs this week with readings making the upper 110s.

Dexter develops. Tropical Storm Dexter was named Sunday night between North Carolina and Bermuda — it will remain out to sea. The fourth named storm of 2025 in the basin, we are running a little above average on that metric as the Atlantic starts to come to life with peak season (Aug.-Oct.) now here. Another area of disturbed weather off the Southeast coast will contribute to a flood threat in that region over the next several days.

Smoke lingers. The latest bout of Canada wildfire smoke has been blanketing the source region of Canada to the Northeast U.S. since late last week. Code Orange air quality is forecast for most of New England and the Great Lakes region Monday, with some areas expecting Code Red for the day. I saw the haze firsthand in Connecticut yesterday — it was murky.

Monday morning weather map on vacation

Since I’m not in my normal seat and running late, we’ll come back to this next week.

About

Weekday morning newsletter by a journalist/forecaster. Connecting weather and climate change dots while occasionally stirring the pot.

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