Dangerous, potentially record-breaking heat will scorch portions of the Southwest and Plains through the weekend.

Minnesotans are being encouraged to drink lots of fluids and stay in air-conditioned buildings to escape heat that will have thermometers registering temperatures in the mid to upper-90s in the Twin Cities and across much of southern and southwestern Minnesota. That combined with high humidity levels will make it feel like it’s 100 degrees or warmer, the National Weather Service said.

Most of the continental United States is facing elevated chances of well above average summer temperatures, according to the latest outlook from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

April 2016 was the warmest April on record for the globe, making it the 12th consecutive month that earth has recorded its warmest respective month on record. NOAA's global State of the Climate report released Wednesday found April's temperature over the Earth's surface was 1.10 degrees Celsius above the 20th century average. This crushed the previous warmest April set in 2010 by 0.28 degrees Celsius.

Climate analysis shows that periods of unusually hot weather are on the rise for one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change, even if the increase in global average temperature remains at a modest level.