Cooler conditions ahead!

Today - Wednesday - looks to be the final day of the current heat wave for Mecklenburg county. Yesterday afternoon the heat index at the South Hill airport touched 111º, and the National Weather Service has issued yet another Heat Advisory beginning at 11:00 a.m. today. One weather factor which may hold down the heat somewhat is an area of clouds and light showers moving northeast across the region. Regardless, the temperatures and humidity will continue to make the outdoors highly uncomfortable again today.

Later this afternoon into the evening strong to severe storms are possible across the county. In this type of mid-summer weather setup here in Virginia there is little wind shear (change of wind speed or direction with height) to create tornadoes or large hail. However, the extreme heat and very juicy humidity can foster microbursts from thunderstorms as heavy rain plunges toward the ground. One is pictured here:

These microbursts can create damaging straight-line winds, one reason it's important to heed severe thunderstorm warnings. It doesn't take a tornado to topple trees or remove roofs!

By Thursday morning the next "cold" front will approach and pass through Mecklenburg county. More rain and storms will thus be likely tomorrow. The precipitation and cloud cover will keep Thursday's high temperatures in the upper 80s. This next boundary will then stall out near the Virginia / North Carolina line for the next several days. Generally cooler conditions will stick around, with the 90s looking to remain scarce through the beginning of next week.

And a quick peek ahead at the upcoming weekend reveals that both Friday and Saturday will feature highs in the mid-80s for LakeFest in Clarksville. Of the two Friday looks to be the drier day overall. More weekend weather details will be in Friday morning's blogpost.