The abbreviated work week will feature gradually warming temperatures and chances for showers and thunderstorms each afternoon. We’ll also need to monitor the evening high tides for the potential for minor to moderate coastal flooding with the upcoming full moon.

Highs in the 90s will continue over the next few days with plenty of sunshine as high pressure aloft remains the dominant weather feature.

The first day of September marks the beginning of climatological fall, but it certainly won’t feel that way with a stretch of 90s coming up. Tuesday starts this streak, with highs expected in the low 90s after a low-to-mid-70s start. Ridging aloft will continue to build over the area, and that should suppress much in the way of shower and thunderstorm development in the afternoon, though a stray popup isn’t out of the question.

Afternoon shower and thunderstorm coverage will gradually increase over the next few days as a trough of low pressure remains draped over the eastern third of the country and moisture return continues to improve.

Tuesday will be a lot like Monday was, it looks like, with lows in the mid-70s yielding to highs in the low 90s in the afternoon. With the persisting stationary front to our west and the afternoon seabreeze, we can expect generally scattered thunderstorms to develop once again in the afternoon. Not everyone will see a storm, but those that do could see heavy downpours and even some severe weather, with damaging wind gusts the main concern.

After reaching 99° again on Tuesday, we will start to see a a slow down-trend — though not necessarily an end — to the heat wave as we get through the second half of the work week and head toward the weekend.

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.

The weather story for the rest of the work week will be the intensifying heat wave across the area as high pressure building in aloft continues to strengthen, while southwesterly winds continue to pump in high-dewpoint air that will send heat indices over 110° in spots.

It’s a very toasty start to the school year for Charleston County on Tuesday as this week’s heat wave will begin in earnest as high pressure aloft takes hold. We’ll start the day on a very mild note, with lows in the mid-to-upper 70s warming to the mid-90s in the afternoon. Dewpoints will run in the low-to-mid-70s inland, while closer to the coast, they’ll run in the upper 70s. That will help drive heat indices solidly into the 100s, with the highest heat indices expected in the Highway 17 corridor and points east. A Heat Advisory will be in effect for Charleston County and the southern part of Berkeley County from 11am-8pm, when heat indices should exceed 108° and could top out near 111° as the seabreeze pushes by. The aforementioned high pressure will make it much harder for thunderstorms to develop, though a couple popup showers will be possible. With that in mind, though, don’t count on thunderstorms to impart any relief from the heat.

Another hot and humid day awaits for Wednesday, then a bit of drier air filters in to take the edge off the heat ever so slightly to close out the work week and the month of July.