If it's not storming where you are this weekend, you might want to fire up the grill for Mother's Day or eat outside. It could be a while before much of the country sees temperatures this nice again. Many locations soon will be saying goodbye to milder May days and hello to summer heat.
An 8- to 14-day outlook from the National Weather Service shows a ridge moving in from the west that is expected to bring "unseasonable warmth," to much of the country. The outlook's map looks like a large orange-red bullseye centered over Nebraska and ripples out across the U.S., with the exception of a strip along the East Coast and a slice of the Pacific Northwest.
"Heat will build across the western US this weekend into early next week," the National Weather Service posted on social media on Friday, May 8. "High temperatures could climb 20 to 30 degrees above normal for some locations. New daily high temperature records may be set."
Several states got a head start on summer-like temperatures in April, the weather service said. Nationally, April 2026 was the warmest April in 20 years and the third warmest on record, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
The Ohio Valley saw its warmest April on record. Eight states in the region set statewide records for April: Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia.
