The societal risks posed by heat waves can be reinforced and magnified during drought conditions. To explore this further in the United States, heat waves and drought events were defined at U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) stations using daily maximum air temperature and weekly time series of the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM). … Given that 5-cm standardized soil moisture anomalies were found to both vary (wet and dry conditions) within drought events and strongly impact both air temperature and heat index intensity, the muted intensity response to drought may be related to the USDM’s limited response to short-term precipitation events that are sufficient to moisten the soil and impact heat waves, but not ameliorate drought. This highlights the importance of evaluating heat waves at subdaily scales and explicitly accounting for the role of soil moisture in influencing heat wave intensity and exposure.