Weather: First heat, then rain

Published 7:00 pm Monday, July 1, 2019

VALDOSTA — High heat and dry conditions should give way to more moderate daytime highs and increased storm chances by the weekend, according to forecasters.

A ridge of high pressure sitting over the South will shield the region from excessive moisture, causing the dry conditions, said Federico Di Catarina, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Tallahassee, Fla., office.

The weather service expects daytime highs as high as 97 degrees for Valdosta through Wednesday, with heat indices — which combines temperature with humidity to show how hot it actually feels — hitting 108, he said.

Rain chances will only run to about 30 percent through Wednesday, the weather service forecast for Valdosta shows.

Storm chances should start to pick up Thursday as the high-pressure ridge starts to weaken, allowing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico to circulate north, said Tom Kines, senior meteorologist with the private forecasting firm AccuWeather.

“As the threat of storms increases, temperatures should slack off a little,” he said.

The weather service predicts highs dropping down as low as 92 by Saturday; Kines said 92 is the average high for this time of year.

While neither meteorologist saw much chance of severe weather, Kines said there was concern that thunderstorms late in the week could produce heavy downpours. He said it would not be impossible for a storm to bring as much as two inches of rain this weekend.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.