Monday, June 20, 2011

String of above normal temps could end as summer begins!

Since May 28, the Memphis airport has had only one day in which the high did not reach 90 degrees (it was only 89 last Friday). In that stretch, the average high has been 94.5 degrees and the average low 73.5 degrees, for an average temperature of 84 (or about 7 degrees above normal).  And it's not even summer yet!

The summer solstice occurs tomorrow, June 21, at 12:16pm CDT, marking the longest day of the year and the "official start" of summer (though meteorological summer began June 1). It's hard to believe that with an average high of 94 degrees over the past 3+ weeks that summer hasn't even started, but it's true.  The good news in all this is that it looks like summer may start with a return to more "normal" temperatures, which are a high of 90 and a low of 70.  A slow-moving cold front will moves towards the Mid-South Tuesday night then stall over the area into the weekend. With more cloud cover and higher  rain chances, especially Wednesday, we should see highs back into the 80s for a few days this week.  Plus, with the front hanging around into the weekend, we'll be expecting some "summertime" thunderstorms Thursday through Sunday.  Severe chances are not high, but we could see some storms pose a wind or hail risk on Wednesday before the front begins to weaken as it loses some momentum.

Visit the MWN Forecast for complete details on this week's rain chances and temperature trends.

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