The National Weather Service expects a dangerous heat wave to continue through Aug. 20 in West Tennessee.
In Memphis, the maximum heat index — what the temperature feels like to the human body — is expected to remain at or above 107 degrees through Thursday. Heat indices in more rural areas of the state are also forecast to exceed 100 degrees for most of the week.
The agency issued an extreme heat warning for the entire mid-south region through 8 p.m. Sunday. Southwest and Southern Middle Tennessee are expected to remain at slight risk for extreme heat from Aug. 22 through Aug. 27, according to NWS.
“Many areas are forecast to see their hottest temperatures so far this year or even in the past few years,” NWS stated Friday. “There will be little nighttime relief from the heat and urban areas may not cool below 80 degrees Fahrenheit.”
The number of “unusually warm” summer nights has risen since 1970 in 95% of 243 major cities across the United States, according to an analysis of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by Climate Central, a nonprofit that tracks climate change and its impact.
The nonprofit states that human-caused climate change made extreme overnight temperatures around three times more likely across the majority of the contiguous United States, particularly in the South, Southeast and West.
From 1970 to 2025, Memphis saw an increase of 12 nights of above-normal temperatures from June through August, according to Climate Central’s analysis. Nashville saw 28 more hot summer nights compared to 1970, and Chattanooga saw a 42-night increase.
NWS recommends limiting outdoor activity during the hottest hours of the afternoon, staying hydrated and accessing air conditioning or cooling centers if possible.
But according to a U.S. Census data model released in May, 49,722 Tennessee households may not have access to any kind of air conditioning. An estimated 3,200 of those households are in Shelby County.
The model is experimental, and Christopher Uejio, a Florida State University professor who modeled his own estimate of residential air conditioning across the United States in 2025, said the Census model may overestimate air conditioning access in rural areas and underestimate it in cities.
The Census model uses information from American Housing Surveys and data from the American Community Survey from 2019 through 2023. Its margin of error for Tennessee’s 49,772 households without air conditioning is plus or minus 3,972 households.
Originally published on tennesseelookout.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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