Expect to feel the heat because forecasters are saying temperatures will reach or be near triple-digits for the next few days.

Expected to reach 102 degrees Wednesday, Meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Midland Katherine Hawley said the previous record set for April 25 was in 1996 when the temperature reached 98 degrees.

Temps at a glance:

Wednesday: High: 102, Low: 68.

Thursday: High: 98, Low: 63.

Friday: High: 95, Low: 61.

Temperatures are also expected to inch toward 100 degrees again Thursday and Friday, Hawley said, with the weather staying in the mid to upper 90s.

“Basically, all this is happening because we’re having an upper ridge move over (the area)” Hawley said.

Relief from the heat is expected Saturday when a cold front is forecast and expected to bring the best chance of rain for the rest of the month.

“Until that front moves in our area, we’re going to see a lot of very warm, very hot, near record or record breaking temperatures,” Hawley said.

In April, the average high temperature for Odessa is 79 degrees, Hawley said, with the hottest normal temperatures usually arriving in June at an average of 93 degrees. Hawley also said the Climate Prediction Center has Odessa forecast to see warmer than normal temperatures, but did not know if the area would have as many days of triple-digit as 2011 did.

Last year, there were 65 recorded days of temperatures reaching 100 degrees and 15 of those days reached 105 degrees, Hawley said.

“On average, we have about 14 to 15 days (of 100 degree weather or more) per year,” Hawley said. In 2011, Odessa had 14 consecutive days with at least 100 from June 7 though June 20.

Meteorologist Kurt Kotenburg with the NWS said the first day of triple-digit heat in 2011 happened on May 27 when temperatures reached 104 degrees.

“It’s defiantly rare,” Kotenburg said about 100 degree days in April.

Though the weather is expected to be warmer, Hawley said the total amount of precipitation is higher than it was last year.

So far, Odessa-Schlemeyer Field has received 1.4 inches of rain as of Tuesday, Kotenburg said, compared to 0.1 inches at the same time in 2011.

The increase in rain still isn’t enough to bring West Texas out of a drought and Monday, the Ector County Commissioners reinstated the burn ban after. Residents are not allowed to use a burn barrel, welding is OK only for commercial purposes and barbeques can only be done in a pit with an iron grate.

As of Tuesday, 95 of Texas’ 254 counties were reported to have declared a burn ban, most of them in West Texas, south Texas and the Panhandle. In 2011, a record-setting 251 counties issued burn bans because of the drought.

@OAgovernment