TheWeatherSpace.com- 6/25/13

A ridge of high pressure will cause elevated temperatures across most of the Western United States, from Arizona and California, northward to the US/Canada border.  This also may bring the first monsoon storms to the region as this abnormally large ridge of high pressure takes hold.

It’s that time of the year again, where a hot desert meets the Summer.  Temperatures in the 100s across Phoenix will turn to 115+, with 120+ along the Colorado River Valley as a ridge of high pressure builds in the area.

This ridge will be very large, bringing temperatures 15-20 degrees higher than normal for Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, New Mexico, and Utah.  Other areas like Montana, and Wyoming may also be in the outer fridges of the heatwave ridge.

With that heat will bring monsoonal moisture into play, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah may see the first monsoonal thunderstorms of the season with this event.

Accuweather.com - 6/19/13, Jim Andrews

A withering early summer heart wave has sent temperatures soaring throughout central Europe since Monday.

Wednesday, excessive heat spread northward from the Alps to nearly all of Germany, where some hot spots topped 35 degrees C (95 degrees F). For a wide area surrounding the Alps, it was the third straight day of readings hitting 30 to 35 degrees C (86-95 degrees F).

For more on this story please see Accuweather.com

Notlinkednewschannel - 6/21/13

Amazing footage of a waterspout. Minor damage reported.

Published on Jun 21, 2013

Bigstory.ap.org- 6/19/13, Rachelle D'Oro

Liz Gobeski soaks up the sun on the beach at Point Woronzof as a Polar Air Cargo jet comes in for a landing at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport as the temperature reached into the 80's in Anchorage, AK on Tuesday, June 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Anchorage Daily News, Bob Hallinen)

With temperatures topping 80 degrees in Anchorage, and higher in other parts of the state, people have been sweltering in a place where few homes have air conditioning.

The official afternoon high in Anchorage Tuesday was 81 degrees, breaking the city's record of 80 set in 1926 for that date. Mid-June normally brings highs in the 60s.

For more on this story please see Bigstory.org

Wunderground.com- 6/18/13, Dr. Jeff Masters

Tropical Depression Two is slowly spinning west-northwest across Belize after making landfall late Monday afternoon in southern Belize. The storm is bringing heavy rain to Belize, Northern Guatemala, and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, as seen on Belize radar and satellite loops. The center of TD 2 will remain over land all day Tuesday, but TD 2's west-northwest track may be able to bring the storm over the Gulf of Mexico's southern Bay of Campeche on Wednesday--if the storm hasn't dissipated by then. The Bay of Campeche is a region where the topography aids the spin-up of tropical cyclones, and TD 2 may have barely enough time to become Tropical Storm Barry with 40 mph winds before making landfall on Thursday between Veracruz and Tampico. However, the track of the storm may also keep it just inland during the remainder of the week, keeping it from ever getting to tropical storm strength. Heavy rains are the storm's main threat, but a ridge of high pressure over the Gulf of Mexico should keep any of TD 2's rains from reaching the U.S. Observations from an AMSU instrument on a polar orbiting satellite on Monday afternoon found that TD 2 had developed a modest warm core characteristic of a weak tropical storm, and it is possible that NHC will upgrade TD 2 to a tropical storm in post-analysis after the hurricane season is over. Elsewhere in the tropical Atlantic, none of the reliable computer models is showing tropical cyclone development in the next seven days