Whew! Did you feel the difference today? The humidity jumped and so did the heat. The high temperature out at RDU reached 85 degrees and with dew points in the low 60s, we had a taste of the weather to come in the next few months.
Thursday will be the pinnacle of the heat with high temperatures in some locations reaching 90 degrees. Now before you start saying, " I am not ready for 90s!" rest assured this heat will be brief only lasting the day.
We have a back door cold front(named so because it moves in the from the north down the Mid-Atlantic as opposed to the typical direction from the west) moving into the northern part of the state during the first part of the day tomorrow. It will activate with showers and storms beginning in the north and gradually descending southward. (There could be an isolated severe storm or two, but we are not anticipating a widespread severe outbreak with this system.)
Storms will start in the early afternoon in the north and move into the Sandhills and Fayetteville during the late afternoon and evening.
Now the heat tomorrow is entirely cloud cover dependent. We know the northern part of the viewing area will likely have a fair amount of cloudiness the first part of the day so that will limit the heating. Around the Triangle there could be enough sunshine to reach the upper 80s. Again this is all cloud cover dependent. If we see storms fire up early enough we may not get all that hot around the Triangle.
Since the southern sections of the state are not expecting the showers and storms until later in the afternoon, this region has a better opportunity to heat up and possibly reach 90 degrees.
Once this cold front passes we will have a cooler air mass build in upon the area Friday. the main feature will be a northeast to east wind off the Atlantic carrying low-level moisture. Aloft we will have a southwest wind. The cooler air will undercut the warmer air aloft. When this dynamic sets up, we typically have an overcast day with cooler temperatures. This is the scenario we anticipate for Friday. So although it won't be anywhere near as cold as last Friday, it will still be a cool end of the week and a change from what we will have Thursday.
Code Yellow Ozone for Thursday
