We will move into a slow warming period over the next week, which should help ease off the brisk winds that have kept our fire danger high. A ridge of high pressure over Texas will slowly build back into the southwest, boosting our high temperatures into the lower 90s Wednesday, after which they will steadily climb into the mid-90s by Friday, the upper 90s by the weekend, and into triple digits by next Tuesday. For now, there doesn’t look like there’s much of a chance of getting any thunderstorms out of the pattern, but it’s not impossible to see some creep into the region early next week.

Speaking of the wind, I’ve had a lot of people ask me if this summer has been “windier” than what we usually get. It’s actually not the easiest parameter to put a number to, since the winds vary so much throughout the valley, but I would say in general terms we have been pretty breezy this summer when compared to average. And we are breezier for the same reason that we haven’t had a lot of thunderstorms this summer. I’ll explain tomorrow.