Start or end your story with a heatwave announcement.

Posted in Summer on Aug 2, 2024

Submissions are closed

Sorry, we are not accepting submissions for this prompt as it is not part of an active contest. Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy Prompts account.

Or create a new Reedsy account:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 34 stories

“All That Could be Said.” by Rozmarin Ideas

Submitted to Contest #262

“… thanks, Tom. Heads up, folks, the National Weather Service has issued a heat warning for Fort Worth and Dallas, as well as surroundin’ counties, as you can see…”Norah looked up from her phone, alarmed.“… highs of 120 over the next week’r so…”She was up in an instant, rushing for the front door, grabbing keys from a dish and hat from a hook.“Norah? Where’r you goin’?”This from Clyde, her husband, whose head had appeared around the corner from the kitchen.“Checking on dad,” she said, already half out the door.His brows knitted a foreh...

10 comments 10

Read story

“The Restless Prince” by Kim Olson

Submitted to Contest #262

“Hear ye! Hear ye! Your attention please!” The official kingdom crier stood at the front of the room, dressed from head to toe in the palace’s royal colors of purple and yellow. All eyes were upon him. No one spoke or moved. Everyone was simply too hot to do much of anything. The large gathering hall, used for meetings with dignitaries and the kingdom’s royal subjects, was particularly stifling. Although it had a high, vaulted ceiling, the room was airless due to thick gray stone walls that heated up like an oven. Moreover, the room’s n...

20 comments 20

Read story

“The Last Heatwave” by Samantha Bull

Submitted to Contest #262

The sun was just barely peeking over the top of the Cedar Rock Mountains, casting a fiery glow over the sleepy town of Wynnemiller. The morning dew was still thick on the grapevines that crept up the town sign – proudly announcing, “Welcome to Wynnemiller, Innovation Central!” Static cracked on an old radio as the familiar voice of DJ Lynn Sparkling filled the silence. “It’s going to be a scorcher today, y’all. The local weather service has issued a severe heat advisory for the tri-county area, starting this Friday through the weekend. Temp...

5 comments 5

Read story

“Bubblegum Bat-paste” by Lonnie Russo

Submitted to Contest #262

Hanging upside down for twenty-four minutes really had to suck. The thought made Brady’s head swim—probably because all the blood in his body had rushed there two days ago when he swung the backs of his knees around the monkey bars and dangled for at least two whole minutes, at least by his friend Vinnie’s count. But Vinnie was a stupid bullshitter who lied a lot; he underestimated things that made other people look good. And what was absolutely not good was that the metal had only taken those “two minutes” to burn red stripes into Bra...

3 comments 3

Read story

“England Turns up the heat for 90 minutes! UEFA Euro 2004 ” by Stefania Katz

Submitted to Contest #262

"Due to the extreme heat forecasted for the next few days, cooling centres will be open across the city. Please visit our website for locations and hours of operation."Tailed Flower, a girl, is studying for the Panhellenic exams to enter the university. The study started two years ago with private lessons and group lessons. In the mornings she was at school, in the evenings she was at the tutorial schools, and she was studying at night and noon. Two years and the only thing she could hear was: study, sleep, eat. the exams are always in June....

8 comments 8

Read story

“Leaving Las Vegas” by Thomas Wells

Submitted to Contest #262

Trigger Warning – Murder, domestic violence, alcoholism, explicit language= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =NVC003-090000-/O.CON.KVEF.FA.Y.0035.000000T0000Z-280806T0000Z//00000.N.ER.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.000000T0000Z.OO/Clark NV- 855 AM PDT Thu Aug 6 2028 /1155 AM EDT Thu Aug 6 2028/ ...EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM PDT /11 PM EDT/ Thu Aug 13... * WHAT...Extreme high temperatures and unusually strong monsoonal flow will lead to **EXTREMELY DANGEROUS** conditions with dew points near 72 and record heat ind...

3 comments 3

Read story

“The Glory of Nothingness” by Anna Fothergill

Submitted to Contest #262

The swallows dipped and dive-bombed, feathered pilots dog-fighting across a cloudless sky. My skin was sun-kissed, burnished gold in the unexpected July heatwave. This was England. Temperatures above 21 degrees Celsius were not something we understood. There was nothing to be done but spend the long days wearing a big hat and big glasses, posing by a turquoise pool in a motif reminiscent of Golden Age Hollywood. This glamourous visage was in fact staged in Surrey, in a corner of lush growth tucked away in the garden of England. The onl...

4 comments 4

Read story

“Nine Lives” by Grace Mcnabola

Submitted to Contest #262

Carolyn – “Tilly, Tilly come on then, nice puss, come on Tilly, foodies, come on now, come on.” She shook the bag of biscuits and rattled the bag of treats. Nothing. No Tilly. “Bloody cat, this is serious, where the hell is she,” she mumbled. Carolyn had been all over the house and garden, for half an hour, rattling the bag and calling out. She looked in the cat's usual hidey holes. But there was no sign in any of them. Little bitch, she thought, she must have found a new one. Typical, any other day it wouldn’t matter but today, o...

3 comments 3

Read story

“Heat Wave” by Suzanne Jennifer

Submitted to Contest #262

In the town of Steam Pump, known for its scorching summers, the unwelcome news of a heat wave had spread among the residents. With temperatures usually in the high 90s, the projected temperatures exceeding 100 and reaching the scorching 110s caught everyone’s attention.While checking the time on her cell phone screen, Marcy turned the ignition key, putting an end to the supply of cool air pumping into the now empty transit bus. Even with the A/C unit running full blast, the interior of the vehicle was like a sauna; only ten degrees cooler th...

4 comments 4

Read story

“What Happened To Summer?” by Tiana Might

Submitted to Contest #262

“…Crank up those AC’s, it’s hot out here!”The heat was UN. BEAR. A. BLE. I sat backwards on a kitchen chair with my sweaty chin rested against the headrest. Dizziness engulfed my head while I spun myself round and round for air. My sister laid flat on the counter beside the radio as she fanned herself with a pink folding fan.“…temperatures reaching about—Huh?” The radio broadcast continued, “Hold on folks, we were just informed—NWS issues a warning for an extreme heat-”“Phbbth…!”My little sister, clearly uninterested, blew raspberries. She t...

3 comments 3

Read story

“Flares of Exodus” by Daniel Brandt

Submitted to Contest #262

"Good evening, this is the headlines for tonight. Our top story: humanity's final chance for survival. In a historic and unprecedented effort, millions of people are set to leave Earth aboard massive colony ships as a catastrophic solar flare threatens to scorch our planet with a brutal heatwave set to scorch the earth. The International Space Agency, in collaboration with global governments, will send some 10 million to ensure our species' future on 100 potentially habitable planets. Cryo-sleep technology, still in its experimental stages, ...

1 comment 1

Read story

“We’ve all been dammed.” by Yana Sobachevskaya

Submitted to Contest #262

The screen buzzed on, and the reporter mumbling behind his Mask. All eyes behind the Masks went to the screen, and the ones that weren’t were the dead ones. The mourge became silent, as if the silence before was screaming. “Laudate omnes gentes laudante” The reporter stopped moving entirely.The whole mourge spoke in unison, reciting the words that had been burned into their bodies and minds. “Magnificat in secula”The reporter moved once more. “Et anima mea laudate” And once again, the mourge spoke in unison.“Magnificat in secu...

2 comments 2

Read story

“The End of the World, Together” by Seth Conner

Submitted to Contest #262

“You’ve heard it right folks, we have an even larger heatwave coming to hit the south this weekend, once again breaking the previous heat record. While we’ve had temperatures in the high 100’s this week, we’re gonna get up into the teens of the hundreds reaching at least 115 today.” “Man again? Texas is getting a little too hot for me,” said Melanie, my wife. We were just recently married three months ago but have been together for a little over three years. And she was right, it was getting way too hot. “We might have to move to Alaska or s...

6 comments 6

Read story

“The Day The Music Died” by Nicole N

Submitted to Contest #262

**This story may contain offensive language or material, not suitable for most people, please proceed with caution** “Today hundreds more are under a heat alert, as a blanket of hot air settles in for the fourth day in the row, and it’s only going to get hotter….” RRRRIIIINNNNGGGG“CAN’T BE ANY WORSE THAN HELL!” Bret yells over the blaring fire alarm as he shuts off the TV and suits up. “Boys, we got a 2 alarm apartment fire downtown, possibly victims inside, we need 2 trucks and probably an ambulance” says the Captain. “I’ll give you t...

0 comments 0

Read story

“Hot Ones” by Mary Mercer

Submitted to Contest #262

“Going to be another hot one folks. Temperatures over one hundred degrees again today. No showers predicted for the next ten days.Prepare for extreme heat and rolling power outages. Take extra precautions if your area is under a red flag warning. Be mindful of the…”Kyle flicked off the radio. Great, another sweltering day. In the West, forest fires blazed leaving the air tainted with smoke for hundreds of miles. What had been three separate fires along the front range of Colorado recently merged into one gi...

0 comments 0

Read story

Load more stories

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a summer vacation gone wrong.

Summer – 66 stories

Write about a character who is allergic to heat.

Summer – 26 stories

Center your story around an unexpected summer fling.

Summer – 53 stories

Set your story during the hottest day of the year.

Summer – 89 stories

Contest #262

Enter our weekly contest!

This week's theme: Turn Up the Heat

$250

Prize money

268

Contest entries

91

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Aug 09, 2024 EST

Won by Tess Ross-Callahan 🏆

Title: Hair-Dryer Day

View details

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

We'll send you 5 prompts each week. Respond with your short story and you could win $250!

Menu

CONNECT

BLOG

APPS

TOOLS

ABOUT

Start or end your story with a heatwave announcement.

Submissions are closed

✍️ 34 stories

“All That Could be Said.” by Rozmarin Ideas

“The Restless Prince” by Kim Olson

“The Last Heatwave” by Samantha Bull

“Bubblegum Bat-paste” by Lonnie Russo

“England Turns up the heat for 90 minutes! UEFA Euro 2004 ” by Stefania Katz

“Leaving Las Vegas” by Thomas Wells

“The Glory of Nothingness” by Anna Fothergill

“Nine Lives” by Grace Mcnabola

“Heat Wave” by Suzanne Jennifer

“What Happened To Summer?” by Tiana Might

“Flares of Exodus” by Daniel Brandt

“We’ve all been dammed.” by Yana Sobachevskaya

“The End of the World, Together” by Seth Conner

“The Day The Music Died” by Nicole N

“Hot Ones” by Mary Mercer

🌟 Similar prompts

Write about a summer vacation gone wrong.

Write about a character who is allergic to heat.

Center your story around an unexpected summer fling.

Set your story during the hottest day of the year.

Contest #262

Enter our weekly contest!

$250

Prize money

268

Contest entries

91

Stories

Win $250 in our short story competition 🏆

Explore more writing prompt ideas: