Record heat can occur anytime in the summer, but based on 30-year temperature averages, this is the time when the warmest days consistently occur.

In Omaha, this is the one week (July 14 through July 20) in which the average daytime high is its highest - 88 degrees - and the average nighttime low is at its highest - 67.

Farther west, in Scottsbluff, day and nightime temperatures reach their simultaneous peak over three days, July 19 through July 21, when daytime highs average 92 degrees and nighttime lows average 59.

Compared to Omaha, Scottsbluff gets hotter during the day and cooler at night because it is in a drier region.

The drier a region is, the more quickly it heats up under sunlight, and the more quickly it lets go of heat at night.

When there's moisture in the air or in the ground, the sun's energy also must go toward warming that moisture, which is why the wetter, eastern part of the state has a narrower range of high-to-low.

Source: National Weather Service