Tracking another day of near record heat Tuesday

TONIGHT: Mostly clear, warm, and muggy with lows in the lower 70s.

TOMORROW: Mostly sunny and hot with highs in the upper 90s. Heat index readings will be near 100.

EXTENDED: Columbia crushed the old record high temp of 94 set back on a hot day in 2000. Tomorrow looks just as warm with highs in the upper 90s and a heat index around 100. The record high in Columbia is 98. It's breezy so that will be our only saving grace from the heat, but I am tracking a dramatic cool down by Thursday and Friday with a cold front bringing a chance for showers and storms Wednesday night into Thursday, and a temperature drop into the upper 60s to around 70 for a top temperature on Thursday. We recover only slightly on Friday with highs in the lower 70s. A series of weak fronts move through Friday into Saturday and potentially again Saturday night, with 0.25" or so of rain possible between the next several days. Temperatures rebound a bit early next week into the upper 70s to around 80 as the upper pattern begins to flatten out, but that temperature is considered average for this time of year.