The upcoming work week will feature temperatures right in line with what we would expect from the third week in May with low-to-mid-80s quite common away from the coast. Humidity will be creeping up a little bit beyond Monday, which will be felt primarily through slightly warmer low temperatures in the low 60s. Keep the sprinklers on standby throughout the week as you’re going to need them with dry weather expected for the next seven days thanks to high pressure at the surface and aloft keeping a lid on afternoon convection. This will expand on this spring’s rainfall deficit, which stands at 2.19″ at publish time. (We are hanging on to a 0.66″ surplus for the year, but this should be erased by the end of this week.)
As we reach the weekend, we’ll start to see the heat kick up a notch as the ridge aloft strengthens. The first 90° temperature at the airport in 2021 should be achieved by Sunday; if this ends up being the case, it’d be the latest first 90° day since 2005. Dewpoints in the low 60s will keep heat indices in check for now, but it’s only a matter of time before the humidity begins to kick in.
Expect a bit more in the way of cloud cover and showers for Tuesday as a moisture plume courtesy of Tropical Storm Eta begins to spread northward. Temperatures will remain rather warm for this time of year. We’ll start the day in the upper 60s to low 70s (especially near the coast). Temperatures will top out in the low 80s, with periods of cooling where showers develop. Shower chances will continue to ramp up with time on Tuesday, with thunderstorms becoming likely as we head into Wednesday.
Fall’s hiatus continues this week as we sit between high pressure to the north and Tropical Storm Eta to the south. Monday looks to be the driest day of the week with just a slight chance of showers throughout the day. Rain chances head up into Wednesday as tropical moisture associated with Eta gets drawn up into the area by a frontal system approaching from the west. This front looks to stall out by the end of the week, keeping a chance for showers in the forecast through the weekend. (Eta could make the weekend a little more wet and windy, so consider that forecast somewhat low-confidence at the moment.)
Temperatures will remain rather warm for early to mid-November. NWS notes that some record high minimum temperatures could fall this week, with lows in the 70s forecasted especially Wednesday and Thursday. (For contrast, the typical high temperature this time of year is around 71-72°.) Highs will generally run in the upper 70s to low 80s, roughly 8-10° above normal for this time of year.
If you’re looking for a shift back into Fall, this week ain’t it. While we may cool off as we get into the following week, long-range guidance continues to hit on above-normal temperatures remaining the norm (as one would expect in a La Niña winter, which tends to trend warmer and drier in the Southeast).
It’s been a minute since we’ve needed to take a critical look at the Atlantic here on this site, but that does not mean things have not been busy. Undoubtedly, if you’ve been following the Atlantic season via the National Hurricane Center or other outlets, you are aware of just how active this hurricane season has continued to be. Let’s recap:
Hurricane Laura making landfall just shy of Category 5 status on Lake Charles, Louisiana, causing significant damage;
Hurricane Marco, which was fortunately not the initial punch ahead of Laura that forecasters had feared;
Tropical Storm Omar, which spent several days battling wind shear as it meandered harmly out to sea before dissipating
Now, we have Tropical Storm Paulette and Tropical Storm Rene far out in the Atlantic, in addition to two areas being monitored for potential development over the next five days. One of these areas is well off of Africa, but the other is somewhat close to home. We’ll talk about that in a sec.
After a brief respite from suffocating humidity today — the overnight temperature dropped to 69°, according to NWS, the coolest since June 20’s low of 67° — we will see rain chances return to the forecast as the upper trough which has kept things quite unsettled remains in place for the next few days. Brief bouts of heavy rain will be possible once again, but it won’t rain all the time or even every day at one particular spot. As we get into the weekend, Atlantic high pressure looks to build back into the area, which will help tamp down the overall coverage of storms (and begin sending temperatures back upwards a bit).
We continue our midsummer heat, humidity, and thunderstorm chances as we close out July and head into August. Temperatures will continue to run in the low 90s each day; heat indices will top out in the low to mid-100s in the afternoons before the onset of thunderstorms. After more isolated coverage on Monday, expect an uptick for much of the rest of the week with a little upper-level support getting in on the action. Some of you who have been on the “miss” side of the “hit-or-miss” thunderstorms these past few days will have plenty of chances to get a free lawn watering in the upcoming week!
After the wettest day since Dorian, a ridge of high pressure will usher in fall weather for a few days, with the potential for the first 40° readings of the season Thursday and Friday mornings. Then, a slug of tropical moisture will bring in another solid rain chance late this weekend into next week.
We’ve just got one more sweltering Augtober day left before a backdoor cold front swings through the area, cooling us off for the weekend. This will come with a little bit of much-needed rain, too, but don’t expect a washout. After that, another frontal system will usher in a little bit more Fall weather.
Our abnormally warm and dry September will roll into the first few days of October as strong high pressure aloft remains anchored over the southeast U.S.
Changes are coming, though, and I suspect many of you will be OK with them.
Fall fans, the news isn’t great: Above-normal temperatures will continue for the foreseeable future as a strong ridge of high pressure remains firmly entrenched over the area. A weakening front nearby will help kick off a few showers and maybe a thunderstorm or two across the area. This would be good — it’s been twelve days since measurable rain at the airport — but not everyone is going to get relief. Rain-free conditions move back into the area for the weekend while temperatures in the upper 80s remain more in line with mid-August norms than late September.
