Heat wave to bring Chicago ‘oppressive heat’ next week

It’s time to toss those coats in the closets: Chicago’s first heat wave of the summer is coming.

After anticipated scattered showers Saturday, heat and humidity are expected to build until the “true heat” arrives, National Weather Service meteorologist Brett Borchardt said.

“Oppressive heat. You walk outside and it hits you like a wall,” Borchardt said.

Air temperatures are expected to get well into the 90s on Tuesday and Wednesday, with humidity making it feel like the lower 100s, the meteorologist said.

The National Weather Service’s Chicago Twitter account described the incoming heat wave as “dangerous.”

Borchardt said Chicago temperatures have been fairly normal so far this year, but that the incoming blast of heat will still feel unusual, like the first serious heat wave of the year often does.

“We’re just not quite used to it,” he said.

The heat wave should be brief, however. After Wednesday, a cold front is expected to bring temperatures back into the 80s on Thursday, Borchardt said.