High heat and low chances of rain expected for Fourth of July

Rio Grande Valley residents have endured unusually high temperatures for the past few weeks, and the weather forecast for the Fourth of July doesn’t look any different.

“What you see is what you get,” Brownsville National Weather Service Meteorologist David Reese said. “What we’ve been experiencing for the past couple of days is kind of what we’re expecting for the time being.”

In other words, it’s going to be a swelteringly hot Independence Day.

Temperatures in the McAllen area are anticipated to have daytime highs of 100 to 103 degrees. However, there will also be a bit more moisture in the area causing dew points to be a bit higher with a heat index of 108 to 110 degrees.

Reese said that there is a slim chance that the heat index could rise as high as 113 degrees, which would result in a heat advisory being issued.

“But that chance is less than 30% at this time,” Rease said. “Our forecast looks humid, mostly dry. There is about a 20% chance for an isolated shower or thunderstorm primarily along with sea breeze, but honestly, the more and more I kind of look at things. I may drop that a little bit lower just kind of going with ongoing trends.”

He added that there are a few storms in the Gulf of Mexico that the NWS is monitoring, but as of right now there is only about a 20% chance for showers and thunderstorms in the McAllen area between 3 and 8:30 p.m.

The meteorologist said that Cameron County will experience similar rain chances at 20% between 12 and 3 p.m.

“That starts along the coast and then kind of attempts to progress inland some to a little bit earlier in the day,” Reese said. “For lower Valley temperatures, we’re looking at upper 90s to 100.”

He added that heat indexes will be approaching 110 to 115 degrees in certain areas of the county, which would also result in a heat advisory Tuesday afternoon.

“So, again, we could need a heat advisory for Tuesday afternoon, it’s just whether or not it’s going to last in our criteria,” Reese explained. “Our criteria is for heat indexes over 111 degrees for two or more hours, so we may hit it for like an hour, an hour and a half like we’ve been doing this the past couple of days and then drop off some after either the sea breeze moves through or dry air mixing in.”