A surprise storm and a major weather pattern flip are coming, and it’s going to knock your socks off. In this forecast I break down the dangerous, summerlike heat wave that’s developing right now and shattering records across a huge chunk of the country. We’ve got an intense ridge parked over the Desert Southwest with the jet stream way too far north for mid-March, and that’s allowing 90s and even 100s to surge deep into the Plains and Midwest. Near Phoenix into Southern California, we’re pushing 105 to 110 degrees, which is just mindboggling for March, and we’re talking about 100+ record highs either tied or broken today and again tomorrow. But the heat dome comes with consequences. As we head into tomorrow, a strong cold front and developing low pressure will flip the pattern across the central and eastern U.S., and that’s where a new severe weather threat shows up from the Ohio Valley into the Mid-Atlantic. I’m watching for widespread storms after lunchtime with damaging winds and very large hail as the main hazards, plus at least an isolated tornado threat that could still trend upward in future outlooks. Then later next week, another stronger system looks likely to organize somewhere around Wednesday into Friday, and depending on timing (GFS vs Euro differences), we could see another round of severe weather from Texas into the Ohio Valley. Keep an eye on early April too—signals for West Coast troughing usually mean big-time storms are coming.