Record heat forecast for Texas and Florida

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) - Above-average temperatures were hitting across the southern United States on Tuesday, with drought-parched west Texas and north Florida bearing the brunt of the heat.

A high of 110 degrees is forecast for Midland, Texas on Tuesday, shattering the city's daily record of 105 degrees set in 1945, said Victor Murphy, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Fort Worth.

Florida's capital city of Tallahassee is expected to reach 102 degrees, breaking the previous record of 99 degrees, Murphy said.

Southern parts of Georgia and Alabama will also top the century mark.

The average temperature this time of year in Dothan, Alabama is 90 degrees, Murphy said. But Tuesday, the city is forecast to set a new daily record high of 103 degrees.

Only soaking thunderstorms or a tropical system will bring relief from the heat, and no significant rainfall is in the forecast, Murphy said.

Elsewhere, severe thunderstorms could bring wind gusts of 80 miles per hour and hail the size of baseballs to parts of the Mississippi and Tennessee valleys on Tuesday, according to AccuWeather.com.

Storms are expected to develop in the late afternoon and overnight in eastern Kansas and northeastern Oklahoma, as well as much of Missouri and southern Illinois, AccuWeather.com said.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton)