A week of extremes: Southwest, Rockies, Gulf Coast brace for severe weather

Severe weather is forecast across the United States the week of June 17 with extreme heat in the Southwest, heavy rain in the Gulf Coast, and snow in the Rockies. Last year, the U.S. saw the most heat waves since 1936.

First Look

Hot and cold extremes are expected this week in the U.S. Officials warned Southwest residents to take precautions as a heat wave moves east, while heavy rains and flooding could drench the Gulf states and snow threatens parts of the Rockies and Northwest.

Extreme heat spread across Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of Texas, Colorado, and Kansas as severe weather swept across many parts of the United States on Sunday. There was unseasonable cold in the Pacific Northwest, snow headed to the northern Rocky Mountains, and heavy rainfall forecast from the northern Plains to the Upper Midwest.

The National Weather Service estimated more than 63 million people were under heat advisories on Sunday, stretching from the Southwest northward up through Denver and into Chicago.

Temperatures in Phoenix, which hit 112 degrees Fahrenheit on June 15, eased slightly on June 16 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Weather service forecasters say the first two weeks of June in Phoenix already have been an average of 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal, making it the hottest start to June on record.

“We have already seen some pretty significantly high temperatures in our area,” said Ted Whittock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. “We are recommending that everyone reduce their time outdoors between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., stay hydrated, and wear light, looser fitting clothing.”

The heat in metro Phoenix will ease a bit on June 17 through June 19, with the highs pushing back up as the week progresses, likely prompting another excessive heat warning, Mr. Whittock said.

The heat has been especially dangerous in recent years in metro Phoenix, where 645 people died from heat-related causes in 2023, which was a record.

The city and Maricopa County have adopted additional measures this year in hopes of keeping people safer, including two new overnight cooling centers where people can rest in air conditioning after the sun goes down. There are more than 100 other cooling centers that have been open since May 1 where people can get cold water and sit in a cool space during daytime hours.

In neighboring New Mexico, a heat advisory was in effect over the weekend for the Chavez County plains including Roswell, where the high was forecast to hit 107 degrees F on June 10. The high for Albuquerque reached 99 degrees F on June 16 and is forecast to cool slightly to 98 degrees F on June 17. The high Sunday, June 16 was 104 F in El Paso, Texas, which opened five cooling centers.

Temperatures in Colorado ranged from near 90 degrees F in areas of metropolitan Denver on June 16 to 100 degrees F in the southern city of Pueblo, with temperatures expected to surpass 100 degrees F on June 17 in the southern reaches of the state.
The heat wave was moving eastward on June 16 into the Plains and the Great Lakes area and was expected to arrive in the Northeast by June 18. The threat of thunderstorms with potential high winds and heavy rainfall increased in the Chicago area, even as heat indices were forecast to reach near 100 degrees F through the middle of the week.

As the heat wave spreads eastward, temperatures in Washington, D.C., and the rest of the mid-Atlantic, as well as New England, were likely to see highs in the mid- to upper-90s as the week progresses, with excessive humidity making it feel even more oppressive.

The U.S. last year saw the most heat waves, consisting of abnormally hot weather lasting more than two days, since 1936.

While much of the country swelters, late season snow was forecast for the northern Rockies on June 17 and 18. Parts of Montana and north-central Idaho were under a winter storm warning, with as much as 6 inches of heavy, wet snow expected in the mountains around Missoula, Montana. As much as 20 inches was predicted for higher elevations around Glacier National Park.

Meanwhile, a fresh batch of tropical moisture will bring an increasing threat of heavy rain and flash flooding to the central Gulf Coast on June 17 and 18. Heavy rain is expected to start June 17 morning, with the moisture shifting toward the Gulf Coast by June 18.

The intense flooding from heavy rains continued to dissipate in southern Florida, where some areas in and around Miami and Fort Lauderdale were left underwater in recent days as storms dumped up to 20 inches.

That unnamed storm system coincided with the early start of hurricane season, which this year is forecast to be among the most active in recent memory.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.