Dangerous heat, wildfire smoke and severe weather all possible Tuesday - July 20, 2026

[00:00:00]Now, >> [music] >> from your weather authority, meteorologist Cody Bailey.

[00:00:06]>> Well, pretty typical July afternoon with the heat, the humidity, a couple pop-up storms, but those were confined to primarily our western Kentucky counties.

[00:00:14]Tomorrow could be a little bit better of a chance, but still some scattered broken showers and storms with that threat for severe weather. It's a pretty active Tuesday overall with that severe weather threat that will say opens up by about the lunch hour. Think 1:00 to 7:00, that's going to be the time frame of some of those storms developing.

[00:00:31]Where they develop, that's still a question mark and somewhat of a wild card as to what type of severe weather event we will see. Some products, I just posted on my social media pages as well, showing you an example of several models we look at in the weather center what different scenarios they are playing out as well. The other factor that all of us will be dealing with is the heat. A heat advisory for some and extreme heat warning for the majority of the tri-state. So, on the low end with those advisories, you're looking at heat index values as high as 105. The heat extreme heat warning as high as 115. Dangerous heat levels, so if you don't have to be outside tomorrow, a good day to stay inside, enjoy the AC. If you are working, stay hydrated, take frequent breaks, wear loose-fitting and light-colored clothing to try and keep yourself as cool as possible. The third aspect of tomorrow's forecast, air quality issues that could be a concern for some, especially in the sensitive category when it comes to air quality and breathing concerns from that Canadian wildfire smoke that will be drawn down with that cold front actually. That system is going to bring in some of that wildfire smoke from the north right now down here to the tri-state, at least up to the Ohio River later on tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening. But, here's a look at the severe thunderstorm risk from the Storm Prediction Center. Most of the tri-state still under that slight risk. It was scaled back a tad from our northwestern counties. So, Wayne County, northern Edwards County, you're now in that marginal threat right on the edge of the level one to level two threat. Just some ground clutter, some false returns around the radar site. Uh not reaching the surface there. We should stay dry tonight and into early tomorrow morning.

[00:02:02]There's a chance maybe of some leftover showers from the storms up to our northwest. I'll show you in a moment that could clip part of the tri-state and that could also be somewhat of a wild card for our severe weather uh threat for tomorrow. Where that boundary lays out and stalls in the morning could determine where the firing line will end up being later on tomorrow. Outside right now though our heads construction tower camera looking down at the US 41 strip in Henderson. Quiet but warm and muggy on this Monday night. Here's how the day played out from downtown Evansville. A little bit of haze, maybe some fog early this morning and uh we'll be dealing again with the haziness and maybe some of that wildfire smoke in the sky tomorrow as well.

[00:02:40]And a beautiful sunset this evening.

[00:02:41]Despite the heat and humidity, it's a beautiful sky with the colors of oranges, yellows, some pinks uh showing up with those thin areas of clouds that were moving on through. 78 is the air temperature, dew point in the low 70s and that is well within the very humid range. And we still have Owensboro holding on to 81° for the hotspot. But this is what we're looking at for tomorrow. The feels like temperatures, the heat index values as high as 105 to even 115, especially in the southern half of the tri-state. That's where the extreme heat warning will be in place.

[00:03:11]Though thankfully that cold front will bring some much needed relief as we head into Wednesday and especially Thursday and Friday which may end up being condition feeling wise the two nicest days of uh the upcoming several days.

[00:03:23]But there's a look at the map right there. Again, the area in pink, that's your extreme heat warning. Heat advisory elsewhere. Nothing technically in effect to our north and we do have that air quality alert that's in place for our northern counties. Wildfire smoke, our system showing maybe a little bit in the atmosphere up to about I-64. The shades of blue likely aren't noticeable or at least impactful just yet. But when you get into these yellows and especially the oranges, but we'll get some pretty uh impressive returns, at least enough to notice by tomorrow afternoon as that cold front pushes on through. And again up to the north and northwest this is the leading edge of the system. We're not concerned with this batch moving through overnight tonight. Could give us a little bit of rain activity first thing in the morning but future tracker not overly impressed with that batch kind of fading away as it approaches the tri-state by daybreak tomorrow morning.

[00:04:09]But again where that boundary fades away could determine where storms redevelop in the afternoon. Future tracker is a little farther north this evening as some of the other products are as well.

[00:04:18]The farther north we see storms develop that's the better chance for the Evansville metro getting in on the storms but still primarily our southern and southeastern counties and future tracker has the threat ending by 5:30 6:00 tomorrow evening. So that's some good news. If any storm does turn severe would primarily be a damaging wind threat. All modes of severe weather are in play including hail and maybe a spin up tornado. Those threats though increase east of the tri-state. So we'll keep an eye on things for tomorrow. I think the bigger impact area wide for all of us will be the heat but again relief on the way comfortable conditions for the rest of the work week then humidity and the heat creep up by the end of the weekend and the start of next week.