HOT For One More Day; More on Dolly

Here are the High Temperatures around central NC for Monday July 21, 2008.

CHARLOTTE : 96
FAYETTEVILLE : 97
GREENSBORO : 97
WINSTON-SALEM : INT 97
LUMBERTON : 97
RALEIGH-DURHAM : 97
ROCKY MT-WILSON : 95
ROANOKE RAPIDS : 95

Definately one of the hottest day of actual summer, but not the hottest day during the June, July, August period as one should remember the early season 100+ spell we had in early June. Not so much at Greensboro and Winston-Salem as they have not seen as much rain as we have here in the Raleigh area, but recent rainfall and much wetter grounds than what we have seen here in a very long time may have played a role in stopping the temperatures short of 100 today. The suns energy went in to evaporating this moisture and helped hold temperatures down slightly from what was being forecast by many TV stations, agencies, and computer models. They were all slightly too warm, but computer models were several degrees too warm.

Here are some forecasted highs for RDU for Tuesday from local TV, The Weather Channel, and the National Weather Service as well as from Computer Model Guidance.

WRAL (CBS): 100
WNCN (NBC): 99
WTVD: (ABC): 99
TWC: (Weather Channel): 99
AccuWeather: 100
NWS (National Weather Service): 99
GFS( Global Forecast Model): 101

Pretty close forecasts by all above with a few at 100 and of course a computer model being the warmest of them all. My hunch is that we will come short of hitting 100 once again on Tuesday for very similar reasons as today except there will slightly increased cloud cover. Across the western parts of the Piedmont of Winston-Salem and Greensboro, there is a chance of storms that could hold temps down also. Storms wont be possible to after max heating across our area here in Raleigh. I do not expect to see the humidity drop at all tomorrow which is being predicted by the GFS so it will stay very very humid making heat indices above close to 105 at times. I would not be surpised if eastern NC is put in an Heat Advisory for this reason by the NWS in the morning. I am going with these predictions for the following select cities

Raleigh-Durham : 98 (yes I gonna be lower than everyone and am willing to be wrong )
Fayetteville: 99
Greensboro: 96
Winston-Sale: 96
Charlotte: 98

I will post the actual highs tomorrow evening to see how accurate I am.

Real Quick on Dolly. She is slowly intensifying in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently packing winds at 50 mph. She is predicted to become a hurricane tomorrow and make landfall somewhere near the US/Mexico border near Texas. More tomorrow as well.