After reaching 98° today at the airport and 95° downtown, another very hot day awaits for Wednesday as air temperatures should once again make a run for the upper 90s in the afternoon, with heat indices once again peaking in the mid-to-upper 100s.

We will need to keep an eye on the skies on Wednesday afternoon and evening, though, as several of the high-resolution models suggest some sort of thunderstorm complex will develop in southern North Carolina and move southwest through the afternoon and evening hours. Plenty of instability will be available, and there will be a risk for these thunderstorms to produce strong, damaging winds. NWS’s current thinking on timing for any severe storms would be from 6PM-midnight, with the best risk for severe weather inland of Highway 17. We’ll keep an eye on this throughout tomorrow and will update as needed.

A very hot Tuesday is in the offing as high pressure at the surface and aloft remain in place, allowing temperatures to head into the upper 90s to around 100° across the area away from the coast, where temperatures should peak in the low to mid-90s. Regardless of where you are, heat indices should peak around 108-109° as well, prompting a Heat Advisory for the Tri-County area — the first of 2025 — that’ll go from 1-8 PM. If you are working outdoors during that period in particular, be sure you’re getting plenty of fluids and taking frequent breaks in the shade or, preferably, an air-conditioned environment. Be very vigilant about any children or pets in the car, too — it doesn’t take very long at all for temperatures to become very dangerous in cars, and we don’t want any hot car deaths. Look before you lock!

If a high of 100° verifies at the airport, it would be the first time since May 29, 2019 (the Before Times!) that the temperature at the airport reached 100° or higher. Triple-digit heat isn’t expected east of 17, including in downtown Charleston and at the beaches, but the closer proximity to higher-dewpoint maritime air will still send heat indices into the danger zone despite the lower air temperatures.

Looking for thunderstorms to cool you off? I wouldn’t count on it, though a stray storm can never be fully ruled out this time of year.

The main weather story this week will be heat, especially for the first part of the week as strong high pressure aloft affects much of the Eastern Seaboard.