National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Heat the Southwest; Fire Weather in the Central U.S.; Kona Low Impacting Hawaii

A rare March heat wave is ongoing with much above-normal temperatures over the Southwest U.S. through this weekend. Periods of critical fire weather will persist from the central Rockies to the central and southern Plains through the weekend as gusty winds and low relative humidity continue. A Kona low will continue to bring several rounds of moderate to heavy rainfall to Hawaii through Sunday. Read More >

Fig. 15. The combined infrared satellite imagery and regional radar reflectivity mosaic from 2300 UTC 16 July to 0200 UTC 17 July 2003 shows Claudette as it became increasingly disorganized over far southwest Texas. Satellite imagery suggests that the middle and upper level cloud structure became less symmetrical with time as the system weakened and dry air began to entrain into the circulation from the south. Plots of the regional surface observations reveal that Claudette’s low level circulation was becoming displaced from the circulation aloft as it began rapidly moving west-northwest into northern Mexico. In addition, thunderstorms can be seen initiating over the Serranias del Burro Mountains in northern Coahuila, Mexico. This convection trained north over Terrell County, and resulted in heavy rainfall and flash flooding.