FORECAST: High temps returning after brief relief for Labor Day

Didn’t Labor Day feel great out?

Well, it was nice while it lasted as the National Weather Service in Peachtree City expects temperatures to get back into the mid 90s, and a heat index up into the triple digits again.

Some positive news? The forecast also includes increased chances for rain later in the week.

Look for highs in the mid 90s, but no heat index with a slight breeze around Northwest Georgia, and more sunshine and clear skies on Thursday with highs in the mid 90s, and heat index into the upper 90s and around 100.

Rain chances are coming up on Friday, with highs in the mid 90s for the day and chances of rain up to 50%, with a 40% chance of rain lingering through Friday night and lows down into the 60s.

Look for a Saturday forecast of 80% chances of showers and thunderstorms, and a high up to the low 90s to open up the coming weekend. Rain chances will remain overnight and lows down into the upper 60s again.

Sunday’s high will get up to the low 90s with a 50% chance of showers that’ll taper off through the evening and overnight hours, with lows down in the upper 60s again.

Next week will start off with chances of rain as well, but is expected to be otherwise sunny with highs in the low 90s around the region, with a rinse-and-repeat forecast through Tuesday and the upcoming week heading into the official start of the autumn season.

Tropical swipes

After two storms were blasting the Eastern Pacific as major hurricanes, one broke up and swiped the California coastline with high surf and winds, and another passed by Hawaii and remains a tropical storm.

TS Lowell remains out at sea northwest of Hawaii, passing by the islands and also causing high surf, winds and rain but didn’t make any direct landfall.

With only the tropical storm remaining in the Central Pacific at the moment, with two regions off the southwest Mexican coast showing potential for development. One of those has a 90% chance of becoming an organized storm, and overlapping is a 40% chance of a disturbance forming.

Still no activity in the Atlantic basin or the Gulf region being tracked by the National Hurricane Center, with El Nino forming causing the decrease of system development with the change of upper atmospheric winds causing high shear.

Drought monitor

After a hot and blistering round of July and August and despite early summer rains returning, the U.S. Drought Monitor at the University of Nebraska is putting much of Northwest Georgia back into the abnormally dry column heading into final days of summer through mid-September.

Large portions of Chattooga, Floyd, Haralson and Polk counties, plus all of Bartow, Gordon Paulding and Paulding counties are back under abnormally dry conditions in Northwest Georgia. Moderate drought conditions are forming along the Savannah River, a large swath around south of Metro Atlanta through Middle Georgia, and a large area of the Georgia coast, and Southeast and Southwest Georgia. A small portion of Northeast Georgia is also under moderate drought.