Hot and Muggy through Wednesday

Good afternoon folks! With most of Sunday already behind us we'll focus on the Monday through Thursday timeframe. The upper level atmosphere doesn't change too much Monday through Wednesday, however on Thursday a cold front will move into the area from the NW and take till roughly Saturday to move SE of our region. This should set the stage for closer to normal temps and increasing shower chances after Wednesday and although we don't expect a heavy rain event, scattered thunderstorms each day should produce enough rain to provide some relief from the somewhat dry setup we have had as of late.

Temps Monday and Tuesday will continue to soar into the low - mid 70's along the ridgelines, while the valleys roast in the upper 80's, possibly coming close to 90°F on Monday for the more heavily populated ares like Downtown Sylva and Downtown Franklin; heat index readings around 89 - 93°F. Mostly sunny skies will start out each day, followed by strong isolated thunderstorms that will not move much once they develop due to weak upper level flow. Temps eventually cool down to the low - mid 60's each night under partly cloudy skies and depending upon where thunderstorms develop each afternoon, there could areas of dense fog in a few spots after midnight each night.

Wednesday will be a degree or two cooler than Tuesday (mid - upper 80's), mainly due to a slight uptick in cloud cover but for the most part it will be similar to the start of the week as muggy conditions continue; isolated thunderstorms after midday.

The front moves in Thursday and as it does cloud cover will increase and shower/thunderstorm chances increase to scattered coverage. This pattern should hold into Saturday, with temps in the low - mid 80's each afternoon, which is just around normal for this time of the year.

Our next discussion will come out Wednesday afternoon and we'll focus on the end of the work and school week, as well as the weekend.