Active Weather
Two things are active today and they ask for different responses. Heat covers most of the region. Severe storms cover the Carolinas and eastern Kentucky.
Heat advisories are in effect for Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Kentucky also carries an extreme heat warning, which is the step above an advisory and means the heat is expected to be dangerous rather than merely uncomfortable. Florida is the one state in the region without a heat alert this morning.
On storms, the Storm Prediction Center's outlook for Saturday holds a slight risk of severe thunderstorms running from the Ohio Valley across the Appalachians into the Carolinas. Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Durham in North Carolina and Lexington in Kentucky are among its named population centers. A slight risk is the second of five steps and means scattered severe storms are expected. A marginal risk area surrounds it and includes Atlanta and Louisville.
Damaging wind is the hazard forecasters name, not tornadoes and not large hail. The strongest signal is in the eastern Carolinas, where very humid air and about 30 knots of wind shear are expected to support scattered strong to severe storms during the afternoon and evening. In the western Carolinas the discussion notes that air sinking off the mountains may hold storms back, and confidence there is lower.
For households in central and eastern North Carolina, South Carolina, and eastern Kentucky the day's action is small and specific. Bring in or tie down what is loose on a porch or deck, expect scattered outages rather than a regional one, and do not drive into water across a road, which is the National Weather Service's Turn Around, Don't Drown guidance.
Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee sit outside the slight risk area, though Atlanta is inside the wider marginal zone.
Infrastructure
No large wildfires are burning in the region. The national wildfire preparedness level is 4, down one step from 5 yesterday.
No grid emergencies or water system disruptions are reported across the eight states this morning. Heat of this coverage does put steady demand on the grid, and scattered storm outages are the more likely disruption today.
If you lose power and run a generator, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's guidance is to operate it outdoors only, at least 20 feet from the house, with the exhaust pointed away from windows, doors, and vents. Working carbon monoxide alarms belong on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas, and should be tested monthly. If a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get outside first, then call 911. An outage during heat is exactly when generators come out and when this guidance matters most.
Public Health
Heat is the public health item today, and it is the one worth reading carefully because the guidance is specific and easy to act on.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention names the people who need to take extra care on hot days: adults 65 and older, infants and young children, children with asthma, people with heart disease, pregnant women, and outdoor workers and athletes.
Its practical guidance is to stay in the shade as much as possible, take breaks when you can, and do outdoor activities during the coolest parts of the day. Indoors, the CDC notes that fans should be used only if indoor temperatures are below 90 degrees Fahrenheit, because above that a fan moves hot air rather than cooling a person. Dialing 2-1-1 connects to information on local cooling centers. On water, the guidance is to carry a water bottle and drink and refill it through the day, and to limit drinks high in sugar and sodium along with caffeine and alcohol.
The signs of overheating the CDC lists are muscle cramping, unusually heavy sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness, headache, weakness, and nausea. Those are the point at which someone stops what they are doing and gets somewhere cool.
The household version of this is a short list. Know which room in your home is coolest. Know whether a neighbor over 65 or living alone would be checked on today, and check on them. If your air conditioning fails, a public library or cooling center is a better plan than waiting it out.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Health Alert Network archive could not be read this run, so this brief makes no claim about national health advisories in either direction.
Watch Item
The Atlantic basin holds no tropical cyclones. In the first week of September, in the region that carries more hurricane exposure than any other on this list, that is unusual and worth noticing.
It is a week to use rather than a week to relax about. The work that becomes difficult once a storm has a name is exactly the work that is easy right now. New flood insurance policies generally carry a waiting period before they take effect, and a standard homeowner policy does not cover flood, so a policy started this week is one that is actually in force later in the season. Photographing the interior of your home, including inside closets and cabinets, takes about twenty minutes. If you are on the coast, your evacuation zone is a county level question with a definite answer, and looking it up now removes a decision from a day when you will not want to be making any.
The plainest advantage of a quiet week is supply. Shelves are stocked, generators are in stock, and nothing is rationed.
On heat, the near term question is how long this pattern holds. The heat advisories in effect this morning run into Sunday evening in the western part of the region. A stretch of consecutive hot days is harder on a household than a single hot day, because houses hold heat overnight and never fully reset. If this is day three or four for you, treat it as cumulative rather than as a fresh start.
Explore Today
The household plan for a stretch of hot days, including what to do when the air conditioning fails.
What happened when a long heat wave met an electrical grid, and what households learned from it.
The quiet week is the week to do this. Step by step, without urgency.