Tropics Remain Eerily Quiet, Aiding Hot US Temperatures

August 1, 2022: This summer has been much hotter than normal over most of the US for stronger than normal national demand. What’s aided the hot summer is an exceptionally quiet tropical season so far, where there hasn’t been a named storm in several weeks, and there isn’t one expected for at least another 5-days. Typically, tropical systems impact the US a couple times a year, and when they arrive, they weaken or shift the hot upper ridge to allow showers and cooling into the southern or eastern US. This tends to ease national demand when they track through with clouds, showers, and cooler temperatures. So, until tropical systems arrive into the US, national demand will be stronger than it would be without them. Overall, the coming August 2-10 pattern is impressively hot, although the forecast August 11-15 isn’t quite as hot as upper high pressure shifts over the west-central US, allowing cooling into the Great Lakes and Northeast.