Syracuse, N.Y. — An extended stretch of brutal, potentially record-breaking heat is likely to descend upon Upstate New York starting this weekend.
And there’s not much relief in sight.
“There’s no sign of it turning comfortable,” said Accuweather meteorologist Bob Larson.
The heat starts to build today, with temperatures in Syracuse forecast to hit 89 degrees. It keeps getting hotter each day; by Tuesday, Larson said, Syracuse could hit 97, which would tie the Aug. 12 record, set in 1944.
Syracuse has already reached 90 degrees 12 times this year. That happens 10 times in a typical summer.
The summer so far is the ninth-hottest on record in Syracuse. The hottest was 2024.
By Wednesday, temperatures are expected to dip below 90, but not much below.
“Wednesday through Friday, and even through next weekend, I think it’s still mid and upper 80s,” Larson said.
The typical high temperatures in mid-August is 81 degrees.
The National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center forecast shows the odds of hotter-than-normal temperatures next week in the Northeast are 70% to 80%.Climate Prediction Center
The hot temperatures will be caused by a large system of high pressure, often called a heat dome, expected to be centered over Ontario and Quebec.
Humidity will be moderate during the hot stretch, Larson said, but it will still be sticky enough to make the air feel hotter than the thermometer indicates.
Scattered thunderstorms could pop up in the heat next week, but they won’t bring much rain to parched Upstate New York.
“It might take until the end of next week for there to be something a little more substantial and widespread in terms of showers and storms,” Larson said.
Nearly an inch of rain fell Tuesday in northern Onondaga County, which happens to be where Syracuse’s official measuring station, Hancock International Airport, is located. Other parts of Central New York haven’t had substantial rain in over a month.
Parts of Western New York, the North Country and the Adirondacks are considered abnormally dry, according to the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report issued Thursday.
Dry soil makes the air hotter, Larson said.
“When the ground is saturated and wet, a great deal of the sun’s energy is spent trying to evaporate all that moisture,” he explained. “When the ground is dry and arid, that tends to amplify the heat.”
There’s one benefit to the upcoming heat dome: It will steer smoke from the wildfires in north-central Canada to the east and away from Upstate New York. Air quality in Upstate has been in the unhealthy zone nearly all week.
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