The heat is on.  And that’s not just a song from Glenn Frey.  Temperatures are starting to sizzle just in time for the first day of Summer.  The heat has finally made the push from the central U.S. into the East. 

Forecast High Temperatures

 We will probably not see any records broken in Hampton Roads, but the heat will be a big change from conditions a couple of days ago.  A large ridge of high pressure is building into the eastern U.S.  This is allowing for lots of sunshine in the region and a general southerly wind over the next 3 days.  (Today Southwest, but then east at 5-10).  

Today's Forecast

 We could see a stray shower or storm far inland, but the chance is very low.  With the humidity, the heat indices will rise to the upper 90s in many locations.  Tonight high pressure will provide for mostly clear skies. It will be muggy and hazy with lows in the low 70s.  Highs will be in the low/mid 90s through Friday.  However, Friday evening a cold front will arrive with some scattered showers and storms.  This will knock the high temps back into the mid/upper 80s for the weekend, and should lower the humidity.  We will have another cold front late Monday that will drop the highs back to the low/mid 80s by Tuesday. 

On top of the heat…there is some smoke this morning.  This smoke is coming from the wildfire (that started as a controlled burn) down around New Bern, North Carolina. Fire

There were some air quality alerts issued just south of our area, but a few may get posted farther north later today.  We did have quite a few reports from folks this morning that smelled the smoke, but it was only thick in a few cities.  We could even see the smoke and haze this morning on our tower cam:

Haze On Tower Cam 10

 What generally happens is, as the day goes on the air warms and rises.  It also mixes.  So the smoke will lift later this morning except for closer to the fire.  Residents in North Carolina near the Albemarle Sound will have to stay tuned for air quality updates. 

And last but not least….Tropical Storm Chris formed last night pretty much out of the blue.  It is over the Central Atlantic about 1000 miles east of Norfolk and it is heading east.  So it will not affect the United States, but it may affect mariners as they head out into the Atlantic.  The latest sustained winds were about 45mph.  Chris will continue to move over cooler waters, and then will eventually dissipate or become extratropical.

Tropical Storm Chris

Well…I think that’s it.  Oh…There is an area of disturbed weather down near Florida that could turn into a tropical system in the next couple of days.  Some of the models do develop it and run it to the northeast early next week (well offshore from us).  In fact some of the long range models have it becoming a strong extratropical storm and heading into the northern Atlantic towards northeast Canada.  If that were to happen, then it would pull down some really cool air into the eastern U.S. Late next week.  Stay tuned.

Meteorologist: Jeremy Wheeler