A ridge of high pressure parked over the central United States will cook Arkansas for the next several days, with heat indexes well over 100 degrees, National Weather Service meteorologists said.
It's not the first hot spell to hit the state this year -- Arkansas was placed under an excessive heat warning June 16 -- but it will be the longest-lasting so far, said Dennis Cavanaugh, a weather service meteorologist in North Little Rock.
The weather service issued a state heat advisory for all but Northwest Arkansas through 7 p.m. Friday, meaning heat indexes will reach between 105 and 110 degrees. The heat index is a measurement of how the combination of temperature and humidity feels on the skin.
Eight counties in Northwest Arkansas are excluded from the heat advisory because temperatures there are not expected to reach above the lower 90s. Fayetteville recorded a high of 88 degrees Wednesday afternoon, and Harrison saw a high of 87 degrees.
Cavanaugh said the lower temperatures in that area are because of the hilly terrain. Higher temperatures tend to be recorded in lower-lying areas.
"This is likely to last," Cavanaugh said of the hot weather around the rest of the state.
The heat wave stretched from Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana north to Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Emergency officials issued a heat alert Wednesday in central Oklahoma after emergency personnel there responded to six heat-related illnesses. Emergency services typically issue heat alerts after responding to at least five heat-illness calls, The Associated Press reported.
In northern Illinois on Tuesday, authorities found a 4-year-old girl unresponsive in a hot vehicle in McHenry County, according to AP. The girl reportedly had gotten into her parents' car after hearing conversations about going to her grandmother's house.
Excessive heat warnings, indicating that heat indexes will reach 115 degrees, were issued for parts of Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and the Dakotas.
In Little Rock, where the heat index climbed to 108 degrees Wednesday afternoon, Dunbar Community Center opened as a cooling center. No one had used the center as of Wednesday afternoon, but officials said they are prepared to keep the center open for the duration of the heat wave.
Corning in northeast Arkansas recorded a heat index of 110 degrees Wednesday afternoon, and Stuttgart, southeast of Little Rock, saw a heat index of 109 degrees.
Swimmers flocked to John Cain Aquatic Center in Stuttgart on Wednesday afternoon, said Cole Sherman, who works at the center. Usage nearly doubled this week, he said.
"I'm sure the heat is a factor," he said. "We've been well above average for a Wednesday. It feels like an oven out there."
Sherman said workers at the center have to ensure that the pool's pumps are working and that water continually cascades over the slides.
"If you don't, the water gets hot pretty fast," he said. "You don't want to hop into a hot tub when it's hot outside."
Dry conditions have been reported in parts of the state. The U.S. Drought Monitor, a University of Nebraska-based agency in Lincoln that issues weekly reports about drought conditions across the United States, said Arkansas' dry areas doubled in size in a week.
The agency releases drought reports each Thursday. Two weeks ago, 13.2 percent of the state -- mainly in west-central Arkansas -- was considered to be "abnormally dry," meaning the area has a 1-2 inch deficit in rainfall over a 30-day period. Last Thursday, the monitor listed 27.3 percent of the state as "abnormally dry."
The agency is to release this week's report this morning.
In Batesville, where the heat index hit 107 degrees Wednesday afternoon, workers at the White River Area Agency on Aging gave electric fans to the elderly.
Betty Box, a representative of the agency in north-central Arkansas, said she gave away three fans Monday and has given about 10 fans to people since the heat wave began.
"As it gets warmer, they know we will help them with fans," Box said.
Isolated thunderstorms popped up Wednesday afternoon in Arkansas, helping cool those areas briefly, Cavanaugh said. The storms' cloud cover lowered surface temperatures a bit, the meteorologist said, but the relief was short-lived.
Some of the storms were large, capable of producing severe weather. The rains, however, cooled the centers of the huge cells, and the storm system dissipated.
"The storm drops its rain and then knocks itself out," Cavanaugh said.
The hot weather is expected to last into early next week. Surface temperatures may not reach 100 degrees because of the moisture in the ground and the chances of showers each afternoon, but forecasters warn people to be aware that the heat index will reach dangerous levels.
Highs in Little Rock are forecast at 98 degrees today and 97 degrees each day through Monday. After that, forecasts call for a higher chance of storms that could cool central Arkansas a bit, Cavanaugh said.
Texarkana in the state's southwest could see a high of 99 degrees Friday, he said.
A Section on 07/21/2016