HERE'S TO AN EARLY SUMMER...

May has been a very warm month for the Midwest and it's only going to get warmer. Here's the temperature departure for the month so far. The whole country cooking up a storm.

The past 14 days.

The past 7 days. The consistent nature of the pattern the first 3 weeks of the month is quite unusual.

The next few days a ridge begins to expand bringing what looks to be the steamiest air of the year.

Look at the extent of the warmth the CFSv2 shows. These are the temperature departures the next 10 days leading us into June.

As for those hot temperatures, they are slated to arrive later this week. Highs Thursday through Labor Day (Monday) should be in the mid to upper 80s for much of my area and the central Midwest. Here's Saturday's forecast highs on the EURO.

It won't be a dry heat either as dew points are shown exceeding the 70 degree mark. Heat index values could break 90 for the first time.

There will be some brief rain chances, (mainly Thursday-Saturday), but the showers and storms look widely scattered and brief. I sure don't see any complete wash outs and some spots may miss out on the rains entirely. Like it or not, here's to an early summer. Roll weather...TS