Excessive heat will affect most of Virginia

As expected, the Excessive Heat Watch has been expanded farther into central Virginia, and for a longer time-frame. The Watch now covers most of central, west-central, southeast, and northern Virginia from Thursday through Saturday, when the combination of higher air temperatures and rising humidity levels will lead to common heat index values of 105-110 degrees (in the shade).

We are just one state of many in the nation to be affected by this large upper-level ridge bringing dangerous heat and humidity. Here's a map of every state under some form of Excessive Heat Warning (pink), Excessive Heat Watch (dark red), or Heat Advisory (orange) as of Wednesday morning:

Although we will come close to record high temperatures Friday and Saturday (we are forecasting highs around 100 degrees), it's the record warm low temperatures that are in real danger of falling. This Wednesday morning, we've already cooled below that record warm low temperature for this date (July 20th), so we won't break that record. But the rest of the week, overnight low temperatures will be very close to the records:

You may recall that last week we set our all-time record warmest low temperature in Richmond at 81 degrees on July 12, 2011.
--Meteorologist Carrie Rose (Click "Like" here to join the weather conversation on my Facebook page).
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