WEST MICHIGAN — We will truly be in the dog days of summer this week. A typical hot, summer July week is on tap.
The attached image is from the National Weather Service. It’s a heat index chart that shows what the temperature is, what the relative humidity is, and what both combined feels like on our skin. With air temperature forecast to be between 90 and 93 degrees and dew point temperatures between 65 and 70, that gives us a relative humidity of about 45 to 55 percent. So use that as a guide when determining our feels like temps this week.
You can get a lot more information on the heat and life-saving tips from NOAA here. Get the complete West Michigan forecast and check temperatures and feels like temperatures often by going to www.fox17online.com/weather.
My advice as a meteorologist to everyone this week is to find something cool to do…and do it! Temperatures are forecast to reach 90 to 93 degrees across the area from Monday through Thursday with very light winds. While there are only isolated chances for a pop up shower or thunderstorm, no widespread prolonged rain is likely until Friday when a cold front comes through the area.
Some ideas for staying cool include local movie theatres, the mall (just window shop if you don’t want to spend money), the beach (but make sure to apply high SPF sunblock), and perhaps some ice cream…that always cools everyone off. In fact, if you don’t have air conditioning, you may want to move yourself and the family down the basement for the next few nights as lows won’t fall below 70. Heat indices (or what it feels like with the temperature and dew point combined) will be in the 95 to 100 degree range most of this week.
Make sure to check on the elderly, drink lots of liquid (water is best), and wear loose-fitting (breathable), light weight, light-colored clothing. Don’t forget about the pets too! I’m now a new puppy owner and the dog will stay in the A/C with us most of the day at this point. Make sure they have plenty of water and have the ability to retreat to the shade if they need to be outside.
I can remember as a kid (as even now as a grown up) how effective vanilla ice cream was in a glass with Vernors Ginger Ale. We called that a Boston Cooler, although some people prefer root beer instead of Vernors. No matter what your taste, both will cool you down.
