WEDNESDAY WEATHER: Our hot, dry week continues. We’re expecting a high of 91 degrees today with mostly sunny skies. Tonight, we’ll drop to about 69 degrees.
Don’t expect much difference the next several days. We’ll top out around 90 to 91 degrees with mostly sunny skies each day through at least Saturday, with nighttime lows hovering in the upper 60s to around 70 degrees. Sunday will also be around 90 degrees, with a very slight chance of thunderstorms.
NEXT WEEK: Rain chances enter the forecast on Monday, and the heat should begin to back off a bit. There’s about a 50% chance of thunderstorms Monday and Tuesday, with temperatures dropping back to the low 80s by Tuesday. This will hopefully signal the end of the 90 degree heat for the year, but it’s too soon to say that for sure. The medium-range forecast remains muddled.
FURTHER OUT: The European global model is showing major storminess setting up over the Southern Appalachian region later this month, which would result in significant rainfall and much cooler temperatures. However, that’s an extreme outlier solution for now. With that said, there’s growing reason to suspect that we’ll take another step downward in temperatures around the end of next week or next weekend. The first “cool-down,” early next week, will take us from the 90s to the 80s, and the second cool-down at the end of the week could take us into the 70s. Above-average temperatures will likely remain the general outlook through the remainder of September and into early October, but hopefully this ridiculous, record-setting heat may be on borrowed time. It remains to be seen whether we’re in for a temporary reprieve or a true arrival of fall.
RIVER CONDITIONS: Below-average streamflows continue. The Big South Fork River is flowing around 80 cubic feet per second (cfs). Further upstream, New River is flowing around 30 cfs and Clear Fork is around 20 cfs. Water temperatures continue to top out in the mid 80s during the peak of afternoon heating, keeping the summer swimming season going.
TROPICAL OUTLOOK: A tropical storm 800 miles east of Bermuda has an increasing chance to become the fifth named tropical storm of the 2026 hurricane season later this week. It does not appear to be a threat to the U.S. mainland. Otherwise, tropical storm formation is not expected for at least the next seven days.
