On July 1st, the Artificial Intelligence Forecast System Ensemble (AIFS ENS) was introduced. So far, AIFS ENS is second-best forecasting 2-meter temperature across Australia for both the 6-10-day and 11-15-day periods. ECM ENS is number 1! The ECM ENS is routinely at the top for the past 1 year of the evaluations shown for most parts of the world including North America and Europe. The AIFS ENS debut is impressive, challenging ECM ENS at the top.

93L moves inland over Louisiana today unloading 3-6 inches of rain across the coastal region. A Flood Watch covers the entire southern half of Louisiana. The latent heat release of the stagnant convection over the next 2-3 days is released into the middle atmosphere to the north and forces a high-pressure area to build. The high pressure expands westward while continuing to strengthen causing a late July massive heatwave!

Intense heat featuring widespread risk of >100F is indicated for the southern ½ to 2/3 of the U.S. into early August. The hardest hit is the Dallas to Kansas City to Atlanta triangle. The entire area is dry enhancing the heat. There is general agreement with other models (GFS ENS and AI) except for CFS V2 which is farther west with the upper ridge.

The persistent high-pressure area over Europe producing hot and dry weather during meteorological summer so far is associated with the North Atlantic SSTA pattern featuring a vivid North Atlantic warm hole (NAWH) south of Greenland and marine heat waves (MHW) west of Europe and across the Mediterranean Sea. As mid-summer arrives, persistence begins to shift causing a pattern change for Europe for the second half of July.