Humidity and rain chances return for the second half of the week

The very pleasant late August conditions continued this Wednesday morning, with local thermometers recording lows at or just below the 60º mark. Correspondingly low dew points made for another night of low humidity and comfortable sleeping. However, both temperatures and humidity will be on the rise later today as the high pressure responsible for this pleasant weather finally moves off the East Coast.

Under partly cloudy skies this afternoon's temperatures look to top out in the upper 80s, with southerly winds pumping higher humidity into Mecklenburg County. Since humid air is more efficient at holding in the day's heat, overnight temperatures will only drop to near 70 degrees by dawn Thursday. Tomorrow afternoon's highs will again be in the upper 80s, but the stickiness will be much more noticeable. Shower and storm chances will also be on the increase Thursday afternoon, continuing into the overnight hours.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of media chatter about the current El Nino setup. One of the effects of that specific weather pattern is to suppress the development of hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, while over in the eastern Pacific things can be rather active. This graphic illustrates the current difference:

Even the one potential storm shown on Atlantic (left) panel isn't likely to strengthen or even survive. The peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is still a couple weeks away, so it's worth keeping an eye on. But at the moment there's nothing that looks to affect local conditions.