This Week's Weather: Cooler Temps

Last week's first official heat wave was pretty intense as temperatures reached the middle 90s for three consecutive days. While thunderstorms missed a number of locations on Friday, other places were drenched with heat busting relief that allowed us to enjoy a very nice weekend.

That niceness gets reinforced with a cool front crossing our region on Monday, although a price will be paid with some showers and storms accompanying the frontal passage through the region.

Tuesday and Wednesday shape up as pretty nice days, with a relatively cool Tuesday by late June standards. High temperatures are unlikely to top 80 degrees.  There could be a shower up toward Allentown and in the Poconos, thanks to cool air aloft getting agitated by June sunshine, but those shower chances are somewhat limited and not widespread.  Wednesday will be a bit warmer but also sunnier — arguably the "nicest" day of the upcoming week.

As that cool air retreats later in the week, heat and humidity build back in.  This heat ridge has been percolating over the weekend across the Great Plains and will get a nice shove east through the course of the week.  Some of the more aggressive computer modeling suggests 90 degrees is possible as soon as Thursday.  I didn't put that in the forecast at this point, since it is a bit of an outlier, but we could get pretty close by Thursday afternoon.  Friday and Saturday look toasty as temperatures get into the lower or middle 90s on both days.  Along with the heat comes a chance of thunderstorms both days. Saturday poses a higher threat for thunderstorms than Friday as a frontal boundary tries to slip through Philadelphia.  That front struggles to completely clear the area, though, and we could see thunderstorm chances continue into Sunday and in the days running up to the Fourth of July.

As for the Fourth, odds don't favor excessive heat, but with next weekend's frontal boundary perhaps lingering in the area, we could see a chance of thunderstorms.  Thankfully, there's a good bit of time between now and next Wednesday so the outlook may change.

Tom Thunstrom is the editor and publisher of Phillyweather.net. You can also follow Phillyweather.net on twitter at @phillywx or on Facebook.