Hampton Roads will get its first extended exposure of the year to summer heat over the next week.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service in Wakefield expect Hampton Roads and much of the Mid-Atlantic will be blanketed in heat indices reaching triple digits into the coming week.
Forecasters are looking at a period of “prolonged heat” reaching to the end of June. There’s a good chance for the heat index to reach 110 degrees after a brief lull this weekend.
“The 105-degree probability across the region is almost a slam dunk,” Wakefield Meteorologist-in-Charge Jeff Orrock said Wednesday. “The probability of 110 is still pretty hot across a pretty wide area here of the commonwealth.”
Heat indices, or a measure of how hot it actually feels using a measure of humidity and air temperature, will climb past 100 throughout most of the southeast Virginia region Wednesday and Thursday.
Orrock said through the remainder of Wednesday going into Thursday, a band of scattered severe storms would be coming from around the Appalachians and push southeast toward the coast.
It’ll reach southeast Virginia sometime Thursday evening, he said, having lost some strength, though noted that the region was under a slight risk and could see windspeeds reach 65 miles per hour and a small possibility of hail.
Over the next seven days, forecasters don’t expect more than about 1.5 inches of rain. The wet weather sets the stage for humid conditions.
Across the region, forecasts show Friday and Saturday’s heat index maximums being 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the beginning of the next workweek. Starting Sunday, heat indices will climb past 100 degrees in most cities, with many reaching 105 by Tuesday.
Forecasts show that being the case for Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton, Suffolk and Williamsburg. In Williamsburg, forecasts predict perhaps the highest indices blistering to some of the highest in the region, with Monday at 108 and Tuesday sitting at 110.
“We’re pretty much bullseye here for heat,” Orrock said. “We’re going to see a prolonged period of above normal temperatures.”
John Buzbee, 757-879-7421, john.buzbee@virginiamedia.com