Fiery Heat Widespread Next Week

Next week, July will live up to its reputation as being the hottest month of the year. From the Southwest across the nation's midsection to the Atlantic Seaboard, it's going to be wickedly hot.

High temperature records will be tough to beat since many of them were set back during the dust bowl years of the 1930s. On July 24, 1934, it went to 105 in Chicago, hottest ever there.

In Kansas City, there were a host of days with high temperatures at or above 105 degrees in July 1934 and July 1936. The hottest ever in Kansas City (113 degrees) occurred in August 1936.

Even in the East, the heat was really bad in the 1930s. New York reached 106 degrees on July 9, 1936, the hottest ever there. On the same day in Washington, D.C., it was 104 and Baltimore hit 107 a day later.

The heat will be nasty across just about two thirds of the United States next week, but definitely not as bad as what happened back in the 1930s.

By John Kocet from Accuweather.com