Central NY’s hottest start to summer continues with heat advisory, storm alert

Syracuse, N.Y. -- Syracuse’s hottest summer on record will continue this week with more high temperatures and thunderstorms.

A heat advisory is in effect for about 20 counties across Upstate New York, including Onondaga County, for today and Tuesday. The heat index, which calculates the effect of heat and humidity on the human body, will soar into the upper 90s in Syracuse, the National Weather Service says.

Scattered but strong thunderstorms are possible, too, as the atmosphere heats up this afternoon. The weather service says most of Upstate New York has a 15% to 40% chance of storms strong enough to cause damage.

“These thunderstorms may produce damaging winds and locally heavy rainfall,” the weather service said.

Storms will move through quickly, the weather service said, so there’s little chance of flooding.

So far, this has been the hottest summer in Syracuse since official records began in 1903. Since June 1, the average temperature has been 73.6 degrees. The previous record for the period was 73.3, in 2005.

This summer has been about 5 degrees above normal. For record-keeping, the weather service defines summer as the months of June, July and August.

Through Sunday, 2024 is the warmest year on record in Syracuse. Every month this year has been well above normal, which climatologists attribute to a strong El Nino and the background effects of climate change.

A cold front will move across Upstate in the middle of the week, bringing high temperatures down in to the upper 70s and low 80s. The normal high this time of year is 82 degrees.