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FARGO — You might want to stay in the shade and keep a cool beverage at hand this weekend when temperatures could reach 100 degrees.
"One hundred degrees is possible this weekend," said John Wheeler, WDAY StormTracker chief meteorologist.
Temperatures recently spiked as high as 110 degrees in central and western Nebraska, a portent of sizzling weather that will soon reach the Red River Valley.
"That air is coming northward," Wheeler said. "It's a ridge of high pressure in the upper atmosphere."
This won't be dry heat, unlike a heat wave early last June, when high temperatures topped 100 degrees two days in a row.
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"It's going to be moderately humid this weekend with dew points in the 60s," Wheeler said. "So it's going to feel excessively hot."
The good news is that the heat wave likely won't linger long.
"The heat should break probably on Monday night," Wheeler said, adding that thunderstorms in the region are likely Monday night, although he can't predict their locations.
Are any records likely to fall this weekend?
Stiff competition dates back to 1933, when the high in Fargo was 104 degrees on Saturday's date and 101 degrees on Sunday's date. Grand Forks baked under a high of 105 degrees on that June 18, but the mercury fell to 91 degrees on that June 19, according to WDAY StormTracker records.
"So that record could go," Wheeler said, referring to the 91-degree Sunday from 1933 in Grand Forks.
In Fargo, the best chance to break the record is on Sunday as well, Wheeler said.
The National Weather Service predicts high temperatures of 96 degrees on Saturday and 103 degrees on Sunday in Fargo. Grand Forks could see highs of 93 degrees on Saturday and 99 degrees on Sunday, according to the weather service.
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Next week, the heat will be more moderate, with highs in the 80s likely, Wheeler said.
Unless the area around Fargo-Moorhead gets significant rain soon, however, the area could experience a short-term dry spell, he said.
One factor helping to drive up temperatures: the cool, wet spring meant a late start to planting. As a result, Wheeler said, the crops are not yet far along, leaving lots of exposed black dirt, which absorbs radiated energy from the sun, warming the air.
