WEATHER: Heat Advisories expected through rest of July 4th holiday week

Air conditioners across the nation are set on high and will remain there for the coming days as the heat wave pushing across the nation continues push temperatures into the triple digit range with the heat index.

Northwest Georgia remains under a heat advisory through the daytime hours as the heat index gets up to 107 in spots, with Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Murray, Polk, Walker, and Whitfield Counties under the advisory through 8 p.m. Haralson, Paulding and other metro Atlanta area counties are under a heat advisory as well.

An extreme heat warning is in effect for Northeast Alabama counties as well.

It is the third day in a row that the region has been under a heat advisory as hot weather spreads northward.

A severe thunderstorm risk – at level 1 across North Georgia, much of Tennessee and most of Alabama – is also being watched by NWS Peachtree City, with scattered storms likely to develop that could include damaging winds up to 60 mph.

Heat indexes will continue to be in the upper 100s through the remainder of the week in the region, and is likely to continue past the Independence Day holiday. Shower chances are slight for the moment, but could bring scattered showers to the region through Saturday night.

Chances of showers and thunderstorms – low at the moment – will be low but will be increasing heading into the latter half of the upcoming weekend. Look for the start of next week to remain hot, but there will be increasing chances of showers and thunderstorms to help break up the heat starting on Sunday and through the early half of next week.

The heat wave bringing record temps to areas not used to triple digits in the summer will continue to spread north and east as it settles over the nation to start the month of July. Much of the nation from Colorado to Maine will be under some form of heat advisory over the days to come, with 175 million experiencing major or extreme heat.

Another heat wave has been plaguing Europe for the past weeks, bringing temps up into the 90s on a continent not used to seeing the thermometer rise so high. At least 1,300 have died in nations around Europe dealing with triple digit temps during the latest heatwave.

European summers average at most into the low to mid 80s in most countries during the June and July months depending on location and altitude, and typically don’t invest in air conditioning retrofits in structures never designed for the technology.