Dry and pleasant weather to begin the week

Patchy fog developed this Monday morning thanks to matching dew points and air temperatures around Mecklenburg county. Visibilities are quickly improving as the lower atmosphere begins its daily mixing routine thanks to solar heating. (Fog doesn't "burn off"...it mixes out.) Temperatures will top out in the upper 70s, a few degrees below the average for this date.

While sunshine will be plentiful today it is being filtered through a thin layer of wildfire smoke at the upper altitudes. This smoke is from wildfires plaguing western sections of North America as evident in this smoke plume map (Mecklenburg county is at the black star along the East Coast):

The smoke layer will remain well above the surface - at the jet stream level - so folks aren't likely to be affected by it.

Tonight winds will again be calm, and under clear skies amid the very dry air local thermometers will drop to near the 50 degree mark. Thus more patchy fog is likely early Tuesday morning. Tomorrow's highs will be a few degrees warmer than today's, with temperatures climbing into the low 80s. Wednesday then looks to duplicate Tuesday's conditions.

The next round of significant rainfall appears elusive. At the moment forecast models aren't showing anything other than scattered showers for at least the next week. It may take a tropical system to bring the next decent rainfall to the area.