Pleasant Weekend Ahead as Return of Summer Begins

Good Friday afternoon,

Hope everyone is doing well across the region. The weather this week has been magnificent as a taste of early fall weather moved in to the Carolinas. Afternoon temperatures in the 70’s with refreshing morning lows in the lower-to-mid 50’s.

All good things must come to an end as the trough across New England is lifting out and a heat dome that has impacted Texas this week will begin to shift east taking over the Southeast US by next week.

You can see the evolution of the ridge starting this weekend and by the middle of next week it will be centered over the Tennessee Valley and Southern Appalachians. This will bring summer-like weather back to the Carolinas as temperatures are expected to go above normal next week.

Numerical guidance is lining up with the projected 500 mb pattern for next week. Our Piedmont counties may reach the mid 90’s come next Tues-Thurs with lower 90’s expected along and north of Interstate 40. That will result in temperatures about 5-8 degrees above the normal values for the last week of August.

The combination of heat and moderate amounts of humidity will help re-introduce shower and thunderstorm activity for the ridge tops by mid week and a backdoor front may slide down late next week providing a better trigger for storms.