Paris Alston: This is GBH’s Morning Edition. Things are heating up across most of the state today as temperatures get into the 90s this afternoon, and we’ll see a heat wave over the next three days. Joining us to talk more about that and answer your listener questions is our meteorologist and gardening expert, Dave Epstein. Hey there Dave.

Dave Epstein: Good morning Paris.

Alston: So let’s get into this heat here. What are the next three days looking like?

Epstein: Yeah, we’ve got definitely warm weather to hot weather moving into the region. Starting today, we’re going to see temperatures which will be getting into the 90s. We should be at or above 90 degrees today, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I think that we may see some cooler air starting to move in from the north on Friday, and that could sort of put an end to the heat wave for many locations. If we’re going to see it on Friday, it may just be south of Boston. But the next three days, we have the heat advisory today, and then we have an excessive heat watch for Wednesday afternoon through Friday. And that’s because of that potential for that extreme heat, especially Thursday. Thursday is the day that’s going to be really, almost dangerous heat if you’re outside for an extended amount of time with temperatures of 95 to 100.

Alston: Now, we usually do get somewhat of a heat wave just about every summer. But is this one coming earlier in the season than in past ones, Dave?

Epstein: Yeah. So it’s a great question. And as I was getting ready to come on this morning, I did a little deep dive into the database. We’ve had 84 heat waves since 1872, and they go back really early in some cases: 2017, just to pick one, we had one, which ended on May 19. So we can get heat waves as early as May. They can last into September as well. So it’s not really that unusual to get a heat wave. It’s a little more unusual this early in the season, but we’ve had them as late as mid-September.

Alston: And what, if anything, do they tell us about how the rest of the summer will go?

Epstein: Yeah, not a lot, because, you know, in years where sometimes you get an early heat wave, like in May or early June, you end up with nothing else the rest of the summer and some summers don’t kick in until later on in the summer, where you end up with multiple heat waves in July and August. So I do think that, as we’ve been saying for a few months now, this summer is going to be very different than last summer. Last summer, we only had five days of 90. In Boston, at Logan Airport, the average is 14 at Logan Airport. I think we’ll probably exceed that this year. It does look like a hotter and drier summer than we experienced in 2023.

Alston: All right, well, let’s turn to the garden now, Dave, because we have quite a few listener questions here, starting with one from Morning Edition’s own digital producer Gal Tziperman Lotan says, Hi Dave, how can I make sure my newly planted spinach, kale, and lettuce plants don’t die in the heat? Speaking of the heat. They’re in small planters outdoors and get a lot of direct sun. Should I move them into the shade or indoors?

Epstein: Yeah, it’s a great question. I would move them into the shade if you can, over the next few days, so you can put them in the shade, maybe give them some morning sun and afternoon shade, or if you can’t move them, they’re in a big container or like some of my stuff in the ground, obviously I can’t move it — I’ll be covering it with shade cloth. Now, if you don’t have shade cloth, you can take like a white sheet and kind of take some hangers from the closet and make like little, like almost like a little tent, and then put the sheet over that so they’re not crushing your plants. And that will also protect them. The strong June sunshine and these kind of temperatures are definitely going to cook some of the things. And they want a bolt, which means flower, when it gets this hot. So things like spinach probably aren’t going to do very well.

Alston: Okay. Gotcha. There’s some expert advice for you there, Gal. Next up we have a question from Karen asking: Although my peace plant is flowering better than ever, the lower leaves are all brown. Am I giving it too much water or not enough?

Epstein: Yeah, it may be a little bit of both. So when the leaves tend to brown on those house plants like that, especially tips, it tends to be irregular watering. So it’s drying out too much and then it gets too much water. So you kind of want to keep the soil in that particular plant from getting too wet. It sort of wants to be, I want to stay evenly moist on the slightly drier side. So a little bit of moisture in there, not too much, not too little, but certainly the ebb and flow, you don’t want it to be too great.

Alston: All right. Well, that is GBH meteorologist Dave Epstein. You can always text your plant and weather related questions for him to us at (617) 300-2008. Dave, thanks so much and stay cool out there.

Epstein: Thank you. Paris.

Alston: You’re listening to GBH news.

Meteorologist Dave Epstein is our go-to person for pressing weather questions on everything from winter blizzards to summer droughts. He’s also a horticulturist, meaning he’s an expert in anything that grows leaves and flowers. GBH’s Morning Edition asked our audience for weather and gardening questions, and Epstein graciously answered them on the air.

Have a gardening or weather question for meteorologist Dave Epstein? Tweet him  @GrowingWisdom, email us at  thewakeup@wgbh.org, or text 617-300-2008.

What can we expect from the heat wave?

Highs will reach into the 90s on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with more heat possible on Friday, Epstein said.

That means the Boston area will meet the definition of a heat wave: Three days or more with highs above 90 degrees.

“Thursday is the day that’s going to be really, almost dangerous heat if you’re outside for an extended amount of time with temperatures of 95 to 100,” Epstein said. “I think that we may see some cooler air starting to move in from the north on Friday, and that could sort of put an end to the heat wave for many locations. If we’re going to see it on Friday, it may just be south of Boston.”

A heat wave this early in the season is unusual, but it is not unprecedented, Epstein said.

“I did a little deep dive into the database. We’ve had 84 heat waves since 1872, and they go back really early in some cases: 2017, just to pick one, we had one, which ended on May 19,” he said.

One June heat wave does not necessarily say anything about how the rest of the summer will go, he said. Heat waves can come as early as May and as late as September.

“I do think that, as we’ve been saying for a few months now, this summer is going to be very different than last summer,” he said. “Last summer, we only had five days of 90 degrees in Boston. … I think we’ll probably exceed that this year. It does look like a hotter and drier summer than we experienced in 2023.”

How can I make sure my newly-planted spinach, kale and lettuce plants don’t die in the heat? They’re in small planters outdoors and get a lot of direct sun. Should I move them into the shade or indoors?

Some plants can’t take the heat either, Epstein said.

“The strong June sunshine and these kind of temperatures are definitely going to cook some of the things. And they want a bolt, which means flower, when it gets this hot. So things like spinach probably aren’t going to do very well,” Epstein said.

It can be a good idea to move them into a shady area, perhaps letting them get some natural light in the morning and moving them into the shade before the noontime sun starts beaming.

If you have plants you can’t pick up and move — say, those in larger planters or those planted in the ground — don’t despair.

“I’ll be covering them with shade cloth,” Epstein said. “If you don’t have shade cloth, you can take like a white sheet and some hangers from the closet and make almost like a little tent, and then put the sheet over [the ground] so they’re not crushing your plants.”

Although my peace plant is flowering better than ever, the lower leaves are all brown. Am I giving it too much water, or not enough? —Karen

It may be a bit of both, Epstein said.

“When the leaves tend to brown on those house plants like that, especially tips, it tends to be irregular watering,” he said. “It’s drying out too much and then it gets too much water.”

His advice: Keep the soil moist, but not sopping wet, slightly on the drier side.

“A little bit of moisture in there, not too much, not too little,” Epstein said. “But certainly the ebb and flow, you don’t want it to be too great.”