Upper trough elongates across Western Europe causing widespread rain and cooler temperatures to initiate the week 2-4 outlook. The wet weather carries into early September. Farther downstream, anomalous heat continues in the Black Sea region.

The catalyst to the Europe 2026 heat waves was rapid strengthening of record warm marine heatwaves off the West and Southwest Coast of Europe plus the Mediterranean Sea during late spring to early summer. While African heat (also) initiated the anomalous heat, MHW’s sustained the subtropical high pressure ridge maintaining heat waves through summer 2026. Up next is influence on climate by a record El Nino episode.

NOAA/CPC issues an excessive heat/flash drought alert already underway in the Mid-south States and likely to intensify and persist most of the remainder of August while expanding into the Southeast States.

The U.S. observed the hottest July on record. Wyoming observed their hottest July on record while 20 states finished in the MUCH ABOVE normal category. 14 of 20 states observed top 5 hottest all-time while 4 states were top 3 all-time hottest.