Heat on blast through the weekend in portions of central U.S.

Autumn officially begins in 10 days — it’ll feel much more like summer through the weekend into next week from the central to eastern United States. The tropics are still trying to do their peak-season thing.

Weather watch

Weekend heat. Afternoon highs 10 to 20 degrees above average will be common this weekend from the Upper Midwest and southern Canada to the Mid-South. This means several days of mid-90s to around 100 in St. Louis, Memphis and Paducah, among other spots. Similar warmth compared to normal will persist in the Great Lakes and surrounding areas early next week.

Tropics. We have a new tropical depression in the eastern Pacific Ocean near the coast of Mexico, which will likely gain the name Mario shortly. It is currently expected to see winds increase to 70 mph by Monday. In the Atlantic, a disturbance coming off Africa is forecast to take shape south of Cabo Verde islands then shift west-northwest. It’s way away from being anything more than an interest to ships and weather weenies.

Lightning links

Met Office extends UK weather warning as heavy rain and wind forecast for weekend. (Chris Fawkes and Simon King, BBC)

Plains face heightened severe weather risk from Friday into Saturday. (Alex Sosnowski, Accu Weather)

More than two million people evacuated from deadly floods in Pakistan. (Koh Ewe, BBC)

Astronauts capture stunning views of lunar eclipse from space. (Emilee Speck, Fox Weather)

Now for something different

While we’ve seen some temperatures at or below freezing in recent weeks, I think this is the first time the Weather Prediction Center highlighted the potential for such on their maps.

Much of the central Rockies are expecting solid freezes in the next week. Temperatures are forecast to dip as far as the low 20s in the region.

Fall is just about here, which can only mean winter is coming.

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

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