Slight change in weather pattern is coming

The late-afternoon thunderstorms that have developed on a daily basis this week are a good-news/bad-news kind of thing.

Just about everyone appreciates that the storms drop temperatures to more tolerable levels and produce rainfall, to compensate for the very high levels of drying that take place at this time of year.

But nobody is a big fans of the damage these storms sometimes produce. That has been the case each day so far this week, and the power of summer thunderstorms was on display Wednesday afternoon in Lincoln County. Strong winds blew trees onto houses, and there also was damage in York, Iredell, Alexander and Catawba counties.

We can expect more of the same over the next few days, forecasters say. The only difference is a slight decrease in temperatures.

Charlotte had a high of 93 degrees Wednesday, and the temperature was climbing toward the mid 90s again Thursday at the time of this writing (mid-afternoon). Forecasters say that by Thursday or Friday, high pressure responsible for this mid-June heat wave will slide off the Gulf Coast, and its grip over the Carolinas will lessen.

If you've been watching to the north over the past few days, you've seen several clusters of thunderstorms sweep from west to east across the Midwest and Great Lakes. As high pressure weakens over the Carolinas, those clusters of storms will take a more southerly track and will affect the Charlotte region by Friday or Saturday.

What does all that mean?

It means highs probably will be closer to 90 than 95 this weekend and early next week, and it means the scattering of afternoon and evening thunderstorms will increase. Some of those thunderstorm clusters moving out of the Midwest could arrive in the overnight hours, so we could get an overnight storm or two.

If you've lived in the Carolinas for any length of time, you know that this is typical summer weather. It's how we get our rainfall at this time of year.