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Weather Journal

with Kevin Myatt

Hot weather ... but not for long

Posted Aug26, 2006 at 06:00 PM

Roanoke's high of 94 today was the hottest we've had since the early August heat wave that ended with a high of 96 on Aug. 4. It's our fifth straight day of 90-degree heat and our sixth in seven days. This is a much drier heat than what we experienced in early August, as dew points are hanging in the mid 50s to low 60s as opposed to the mid and upper 60s in early August.

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But there are important changes on the way, beginning with a cold front forcing its way into the warm air early next week. This is the same system that helped trigger a deadly severe weather outbreak in Minnesota and the Dakotas on Thursday. It won't have that kind of punch here, but expect an increase in showers and thunderstorms as it approaches. More importantly, there are signals that a mass of cooler air is likely to begin building near Hudson Bay. This feature, called the polar vortex, would bring much cooler weather into the eastern two-thirds of the country if it develops, as the embedded map from the Climate Prediction Center shows in the 8-14-day time period. (Click here for a bigger version).

So expect a few more days of 90ish heat, and then some changes that will probably drop things into the 70s for highs and 50s for lows by late next week. Ernesto continues to be the wild card in all this, but this changing weather pattern may well serve to keep forcing Ernesto's track farther and farther east.

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Mug of Kevin Myatt

Kevin Myatt works on the copy desk for The Roanoke Times and is its principal weather geek, writing a weekly weather column and advising the newsroom on weather topics. He helps guide students on a storm chasing trip to the central U.S. each May and was an editor for "Hurricanes and the Middle Atlantic States."

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