Summer's arrival was fast and furious over Memorial Day weekend. Heading into the holiday weekend, the hot weather started to settle in Wednesday and Thursday, May 23-24, as we hit our first 90s of the year.
Then the record heat began. May 25th's high of 97 degrees at Omaha's Eppley Airfield tied the record high temperature from 1967.
It become even hotter Saturday and Sunday, hitting our first triple digits of the year. Both afternoons set new records, breaking the old ones set in 1912 and 2012.
Memorial Day was nearly as hot on May 28th, with Omaha hitting 97. That tied the 123-year-old record from 1895.
In total, the heat wave tied or broke record high temperatures 4 days in a row.
According to the National Weather Service (NWS) in Valley, this was only the second time on record we had two or more days in a row at or above 100 degrees in Omaha during the month of May.
The first time we saw a streak of triple digits was May 29th through May 31st. The year was 1934, during the drought known as the Dust Bowl. The NWS says the summer of 1934 ended up being the 3rd driest on record in Omaha.
Another record we came close to, but failed to break, was the earliest time Omaha has seen 100-degree heat. We were about two weeks late on that one. Omaha once hit the triple digits on May 14th.
The heat wave came to an end as scattered storms and more clouds moved in on May 29th, the day after Memorial Day. This held Omaha back to 88 degrees.
There are more 90s in the forecast later in the week, and looking further ahead, the Climate Prediction Center expects more heat in early to middle June.
In it's June 6th to 12th temperature outlook, Nebraska and western Iowa fall under an increased chance for above average temperatures.
As far as rain, we have equal chances of seeing above or below average rain during the second week of June.
