Extreme heat, tropical storm threat wrap up wild weather week

After millions of Americans had to deal with extreme, record-breaking heat this week, now some are bracing for a tropical storm threat.

Parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are under a tropical storm warning for what is expected to be Tropical Storm Claudette.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a state of emergency Thursday night.

“The expectation as this weather event will be focused on rain, not so much on the wind,” Gov. Edwards said. “Although 35 to 40 mile an hour wind when you have saturated ground can easily uproot trees and so forth. So that hazard is still there.”

Up to 20 inches of rain is expected for parts of the Gulf Coast region.

The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season got off to an early start for the seventh straight year. However, experts don’t believe it will be as busy as the record-breaking 2020 season.

The weekend storm threat wraps up a week dominated by a heat wave hitting much of the Western United States.

About 40 million Americans had to deal with triple-digit temperatures. 50 million were under excessive heat warnings.

Death Valley was the hottest spot, hitting 128 degrees Thursday. That broke the previous daily record set more than 100 years ago.

Las Vegas also hit a record, reaching 114 degrees.