THURSDAY WEATHER: Our miserable “Sweatember” continues. We’ll top out around 92 degrees today. There’s a very slight chance of an afternoon thunderstorm, which could provide some heat relief, but don’t hold your breath. Tonight we’ll drop to about 70 degrees.
Tomorrow will be more of the same. We’ll top out around 91 degrees with a slightly better chance of an afternoon thunderstorm, before dropping to about 67 tomorrow night. Saturday and Sunday will be dry with temperatures in the low 90s and heat indices in the upper 90s.
NEXT WEEK: We’ll see rain chances return to the forecast next week. We may hit 90 degrees again Monday, but we should cool off ever so slightly after that, with rain becoming likely on Tuesday.
The major models are surprisingly different after Monday. The American global shows the heat breaking, with temperatures mostly in the 70s after Monday. The European global shows above-normal temperatures that are well into the 80s persisting through the end of the month. If you’re gonna bet on one, bet on the European model. Hopefully Monday will be our last 90-degree day, but there’s no strong reason to hope the heat is truly done after Monday. Early-autumn heat domes like this usually persist until early to mid October. The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting hot, dry conditions through the end of September.
RIVER CONDITIONS: The Big South Fork River is flowing about 70 cubic feet per second (cfs). New River is at about 30 cfs and Clear Fork is just above 10 cfs. These are below average for this time of year. Water clarity is excellent, and water temperatures are still topping out in the low to mid 80s each afternoon. The summer swimming season continues.
TROPICAL WATCH: A disturbance just east of Bermuda continues to be monitored by the National Weather Service and has a slight chance of developing into the fifth tropical cyclone of the 2026 hurricane season over the next several days. While it does not look like much of a threat to the U.S. mainland, it will influence our weather slightly by helping to dislodge the heat dome that’s currently delivering record heat to our region. However, this doesn’t mean that the summer-like heat is going away; only that it’ll “cool off” a few degrees. Otherwise, tropical storms are not expected for at least the next seven days.
