Get ready for the heat 

Get ready for the heat

DURHAM, May 01, 2012 (Menafn - The Herald-Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --Well, that was a pleasant month, wasn't it?

Nice, moderate temperatures -- warm enough for outdoor activities, cool enough to be comfortable. April wasn't cruel at all.

But April is gone. Welcome to May -- and welcome to some blistering summer heat.

Starting today, high temperatures will be up in the mid-80s and we could hit 90 degrees later in the week. Oh, and the humidity will be pretty high, too, with some thunderstorms possible.

"We have a high-pressure system coming in, and that's going to bring a warm flow from the south and the southwest," said Kathleen Carroll, a meteorologist with the Raleigh office of the National Weather Service.

"The air will be warm and moist, and there's no major system that's going to knock the high-pressure out of there until at least the weekend."

By Wednesday, the rising mercury could even threaten high-temperature records for the last few days of the week, which are in the low 90s.

"I don't think we'll break any records," Carroll said, "but we'll get pretty close. We couild hit 89 or even 90 degrees."

April didn't set any records at all. In fact, the average temperature for the month was just about average and was cooler than the average temperature for March.

"That's pretty unusual, but it's because April was pretty normal and March set records for how warm it was," Carroll said.

The good news about the warmth heading our way is that it should ease up a bit by this coming weekend. High temperatures should only be in the mid-80s then.

___ (c)2012 The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.) Visit The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)
at www.heraldsun.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

Copyright (C) 2012, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C.