Heat to get cranked higher, rain chances eventually creep up

It has been too dry for too long at the wrong time for area farmers in Dillon, Marion and Marlboro counties, especially those growing corn. The next three days will see the heat increase and not much relief in the lack of rain. Mostly to partly sunny days will prevail Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Highs 90 to 94 Friday and 95 to 99 Saturday and Sunday. The chance of an afternoon storm will begin to creep up as triopical moisture comes in off the Atlantic Ocean to areas not far to our south. No widespread rain is expected. Here is the total rain forecast from the GFS model for example through Saturday.

The rain chances may increase a little from late afternoon storms early next week. Here is the GFS total rain through Tuesday for example.

That is still not much rain, and the trade off is continued heat. In fact some towns in our three counties (Dillon, Marion and Marlboro) may reach 100 if storms fail to materialize in a given location Monday or Tuesday.

In the tropics, the first tropical storm of the season, Alberto, has fizzled inland after causing flooding and damage in northern Mexico and South Texas. The National Hurricane Center is still tracking a disturbance just north of the Bahamas. They give it a 50% chance of becoming a weak organized depression or storm before moving inland to Florida or Georgia, As mentioned above, most of that moisture will stay to our south.

The system labled as number 2 could be something to watch in the southern Gulf of Mexico the next few days, but will have no impact on us locally.