The National Weather Service’s active heat alert count fell to 52 Tuesday, down sharply from 89 the day before, as cooler air pushed into the Midwest and northern Plains and trimmed the list of affected states from 25 to 19 plus Puerto Rico.
The pullback marks a break from the steady climb of the past several days, but it hasn’t cleared the map. Advisories and warnings remain posted across Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.
The most intense conditions are now concentrated in two corridors. Along the Georgia-South Carolina coast, the Weather Service says heat index values could reach 110 degrees Tuesday, with the advisory covering a wide swath of counties from Jenkins and Screven in Georgia’s interior through the coastal and inland zones of Bryan, Chatham, Liberty, McIntosh, Colleton, Berkeley, Jasper and Charleston counties in South Carolina. The agency is urging residents there to limit strenuous outdoor activity to early morning or evening hours.
In the Southwest, the border region around El Paso is forecast to reach 107 degrees, with the advisory covering most of El Paso County and the Lower Valley down through Hudspeth County. Just west, Dona Ana County in New Mexico — including Las Cruces — and the Salt Flats area of Texas near Dell City face highs up to 105 degrees. Both advisories run until 9 p.m. local time.
Southern California’s heat also persists, with advisories covering the San Bernardino County mountains and coastal sections of San Diego and Orange counties, continuing the pattern that emerged over the weekend. Texas is also seeing advisories stretch into the Panhandle, with counties including Briscoe, Hall, Childress, Motley, Cottle, Dickens, King, Kent and Stonewall under alert.
A cluster of Deep South counties spanning eastern Louisiana and central Mississippi — among them Catahoula, Concordia, Winston, Neshoba, Lauderdale and Forrest — round out the list, reflecting the humid, slow-moving air mass still sitting over the Gulf Coast.
The Weather Service is repeating its standard heat-illness guidance across all affected zones: drink plenty of fluids, stay in air-conditioned spaces when possible, avoid direct sun, wear lightweight and loose-fitting clothing, and check on relatives and neighbors, particularly those without reliable air conditioning. Most Tuesday advisories are set to expire by evening, but forecasters note the underlying pattern — a hot ridge anchored over the southern tier of the country — is likely to keep pumping out new advisories in the same regions in the days ahead, even as the northern half of the country gets a temporary reprieve.