Another extremely hot day is on tap for Tuesday as temperatures take what should be one last shot at the 100° mark before sanity begins a slow return to the forecast. We’ll start the day near 80° inland of the coast, and we’re almost assuredly not getting below 80° at the coast and in downtown Charleston. From there, temperatures will soar into the upper 90s to near 100°, with the best risk of reaching the 100° mark inland of Highway 17. And then there are the dewpoints running in the mid-to-upper 70s, which will propel heat indices well into the mid-110s for many of us, with a few readings getting uncomfortably close to 120° in more rural spots. For the first time in this heat wave, an Extreme Heat Warning is in effect for the entire Tri-County, including Dorchester; to this point, we’ve only seen those warnings come out for Berkeley and Charleston. Continue to heed precautions for extreme heat: air conditioning if at all possible, but frequent breaks in the shade with water if you must be outdoors.

There will be a slightly better chance of thunderstorms Tuesday afternoon than we saw on Monday, which will cool some of us off. The price for this, though, is an elevated risk for strong and potentially damaging wind gusts, excessive lightning, and very heavy — perhaps flooding — rain in a few spots. Instability will be running on the high end of what we usually see around these parts, so any storm that can take advantage could take off like a rocket. The good news is that without much shear, storms will generally pop, rain for a while, and then collapse.

We have a few more days to go in the most dangerous part of this heat wave before the pattern finally begins to dislodge, allowing temperatures to trend back toward — but remain above — normal for mid-August.

Extreme Heat Warnings look to take a break on Sunday, but that is little solace with heat indices expected to continue to peak into the lower 110s in the afternoon, well into Heat Advisory criteria. Scattered showers and thunderstorms should develop again in the afternoon along the seabreeze, and a few of those could be on the strong side given plenty of instability once again. We’ll also see a risk for flooding, especially where storms train in the same areas, courtesy of a well-saturated atmosphere. Be ready for conditions to change quickly, particularly after 3-4 PM.

Dangerous heat will continue to be the main weather story as we head into Friday and the weekend, with an isolated to scattered afternoon thunderstorm the only real shot at bringing about any reprieve.