Record setting temperatures forecast in Dallas as scorching heat wave continues to bake the U.S.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Record setting temperatures are expected Saturday and Sunday across Texas as the southwestern U.S. continues to bake during a scorching summer.

Highs of 109 degrees Fahrenheit (42.8 degrees Celsius) forecast for Saturday and 110 F (43.3 C) on Sunday in Dallas would break the current record of 107 F (41.7 C) each day, both set in 2011, and comes after a high of 109 F (42.8 C) on Thursday broke a record of 107 F set in 1951, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Tom Bradshaw.

“There really is no relief in sight, there is some hint by the end of August, maybe Labor Day, high temperatures will begin to fall below 100,” Bradshaw said. “It’s possible to see 100 degree plus temperatures through the first half of September, at least off and on.”

“The problem is an upper level ridge of high pressure that’s been parked over the southern Plains for the past couple of months, since actually June to be honest,” he said.

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In Waco, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Dallas, there has been no rainfall for a record-tying 49 straight days, since only a trace amount on July 1.

“There’s no sign that’s going to change anytime soon ... Waco is on track to be driest summer on record,” Bradshaw said.

In Oklahoma City, the high is expected to reach 106 F (41.1 C) degrees, tying a record set in 1934 and in Topeka, Kansas, the high is forecast to reach 108 F (42.2 C), one degree shy of the record set in 1936.

An excessive heat warning is in place from south Texas, western Louisiana across eastern Oklahoma, eastern Kansas and all of Missouri. Excessive heat warnings were also issued for parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports just 600 to 700 heat deaths annually in the United States, but experts say the mishmash of ways that more than 3,000 counties calculate heat deaths means we don’t really know how many people die in the U.S. each year.