INDIANAPOLIS — The heat wave in central Indiana is now up to 7 straight days of 90s and saved it's hottest for last in Indianapolis. The official high so far at NWS Indianapolis is 96°. That's a new daily record high for August 30th...the hottest temperature in Indy since 99° on July 5, 2022...and the latest 96°+ day in Indy since September 10, 2013.
It should be noted that the temperature got a few degrees hotter today due to the air "drying out" some as dewpoints dropped into the lower 60s. Less humid air gets hotter than more humid air that produces high heat indices. So as we've said leading into and during this heat wave it was a "pick your poison" situation. Would you rather have heat indices near/above 100° or a "drier heat" but hotter temperatures? Today we got the latter in Indianapolis.
Either way, it's uncomfortably hot and remains that way for the remainder of the day until sunset. We're monitoring radar closely as isolated to widely scattered storms are beginning to develop. These storms will produce highly localized heavy rainfall that may cause street flooding in their path. They'll be slow-moving due to limited steering currents which means some areas get quickly get 1"-2"+ rainfall.
Additional heavy storms develop in western-northwestern Indiana along an approaching cool front that's slow to arrive. That slower arrival time means a slower departure time on Saturday. Plan on a wet start to the weekend with many showers on radar tomorrow morning before the rain scatters-out in the afternoon.
It will be a very humid day on Saturday with miserably muggy air lingering until Sunday. The finish of the weekend will be less humid but still seasonably warm in the mid to upper 80s.
The real refreshing air arrives Sunday night and paves the way for a very pleasant Labor Day holiday.
