Tepid Temps To Tone Down

The day lilies across the area have been beautiful lately in spite of the dry weather. It was "Photo Friday" on Channel 3 Eyewitness News Today, and this picture was one of the nice shots shown this morning. Thanks to Matt Hansen for sending it. Great job! There's one home on my daily wog (walk/jog) that has several varieties out front. And they really look nice right now.
Wow was it hot part deux..........yesterday we hit 98 officially, the first time we've been that hot since August 2nd, 2002. And only two degrees short of the record 100 in 1988. (Again the specter of a 100 degree day or hotter in Chattanooga this summer looms large. Something that hasn't happened here since September 6th, 1999. That year we hit 100 or 101 six times.)
The way to stop an official 100 degree day is to keep the ground wet. Last year the tropics really helped us out. June was a wet month with 7.05" of rain. .74" came up from Tropical Storm Arlene. During July of last year we recorded 6.05". But almost all of that came from Hurricane Cindy: 2.50", and Hurricane Dennis: 2.46".
Again, I'd hate to see anyone on the Gulf Coast get slammed with a storm, but a slow moving tropical storm could help us out a bunch. But there's nothing imminent on the horizon. But a tropical wave east of the Bahamas will approach Florida over the next few days. And at least one of the models brings some moisture as far northwest as Chattanooga late in the weekend into early next week. The caution is, this model has also been wetter with our weather lately as well. So I'm not putting much stock in that solution. So I'll label it "a wave of interest" and keep a casual eye on it.
A weak front is sagging into Tennessee this morning, with showers and thunderstorms draped along it from Nashville to Memphis. We should see another steamy day today with scattered storms developing. Hit and miss storms Saturday and Sunday, with rain chances tapering off Monday and Tuesday. Highs this afternoon should hit 93, then in the upper 80s to near 90 Saturday through Tuesday.
Have a great weekend!