Temperatures down some but humidity high

Our dew points are in the upper 60s and lower 70s in Atlanta right now and as the COPD Foundation graphic above shows, and as it feels... the air is thick out there.

The old saying is “it’s not the heat it’s the humidity” and that will be quite true this week into next weekend. In fact, temperatures will be lower than normal for this time of year through Wednesday (we are in the Dog Days of Summer July 3-August 11) then temperatures will rebound to about normal by the weekend.

The good news is any extreme heat wave now looks off the table at least for now, just regular summer heat coming back by the weekend and next week.

The sticky, muggy air is best measured by dew points. The higher the dew point the greater the amount of evaporated moisture in the air.

Another good measure of total water vapor in the air is PWAT (precipitable water). The higher this number and the higher above average it is the more moisture is available for discomfort but also for clouds and rain.

This will be aided by a potential tropical depression or storm moving with low pressure moving from the NE Gulf to off the NC shore by Thursday.

In this type pattern rain is possible anytime of the day or night but the higher odds and heavy rain with thunder and lightning come in the late afternoons and early evening.

The high humidity will keep the air conditioning humming even when it’s not hot.

There tends to be more clouds than sun but also more clouds than rain in this type pattern, despite a shower or thunderstorm being likely at times.

Thunderstorms and showers also tend to be efficient rain makers with large raindrops and slow moving cells allowing real gully washer frog strangers, but also plenty of dry hours before and after any rain.