We’ve made it to the first Weekend of summer, and mother nature sure didn’t waste any time in reminding us of that fact. Today we had highs in the lower to mid 90s, which itself is already above average as far as temperatures go for this time of year… but the real story was the oppressive moisture which led to those dreadful heat indexes upwards of 105+ at times across the area. Fortunately SOME of us got lucky and found ourselves beneath a few showers, but they were brief, weak, and left the environment nearby humid and sticky as ever… so you win some, you lose time! Naturally with this humidity tonight will be dry precipitation wise, but will be “mosquito weather”… if you’ve lived here long enough, you know what I’m talking about!
Tomorrow looks very similar to today in most aspects, including the fact that spotty t’showers look rather likely thru the afternoon. This isn’t the type of day where we can pin down precisely where showers and rain will be – it’s a very typical summer day in that it is moreso pop-up type activity, that comes and goes, and only for a handful of us who are lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you look at it!). Our heat index values will be a touch lower, but still will be hovering in the 99-101 range and as a result we do keep that Heat Advisory until 7pm Sunday – this in mind, let’s of course stay hydrated and not push ourselves in the heat tomorrow, and wear light clothing. No shame in taking frequent breaks on hot days like this when it’s your well-being in the equation!
It’s looking quite likely that we will see more heat related advisories by the workweek, as well, if current indications are to be believed. Of course, we don’t issue those, our friends at the National Weather Service do, but the criteria looks sustained throughout the workweek as heat index values ramp up each day, ending up in the 104-107 range once more consistently by Wednesday or so… so if you have an outdoors job, keep this in mind and stay tuned with us so we can let you know the timeframes through the afternoon of peak heat so you can plan accordingly.
That roughly midweek timeframe has indications that we could see more isolated t’shower/downpour activity as well, as is fairly typical for this time of year. Some indications suggest that may persist for much of the week after as well, but it’s a very subtle signal and closer, higher-resolution models will tell us more… but pure environmental analysis suggests that trend is there, and by tomorrow we may well mention it more in our forecasts. With that in mind, I think the best way to summarize the next 7 days is… summer is here ALL AT ONCE! Let’s stay cool folks! We’ll keep you updated as we progress through the week to see if we pick up any more heat advisories in the Tennessee Valley.
