Heat continues. Scattered rain and storms next few days, possibly widespread on Saturday.

An Excessive Heat Warning continues for all of our Tennessee and Mississippi counties and Lauderdale, Colbert, and Limestone Counties of Alabama in our viewing area through Friday evening. Franklin, Lawrence, and Morgan Counties in the Alabama part of our viewing area remain in a Heat Advisory for the same time period. The Excessive Heat Warning is issued when heat index values are expected to meet or exceed 110 degrees, and the Heat Advisory is for a heat index of 105 degrees or higher.

Temperatures across our area range from the mid 80s where rain and storms have been in place the last couple of hours to as high as the mid to upper 90s where it's mainly been dry. In those same areas, the heat index values range from the mid 90s to as high as greater than 110 degrees.

Showers and thunderstorms are still in scattered variety today, but still fairly widespread, especially across southern middle Tennessee. There also have been a few heavier downpours extending down into northwest Alabama and even north Mississippi. If you get under one of these this afternoon, they will cool your temperatures down to the 80s. Elsewhere, expect afternoon highs between 95 and 100 degrees.

The hot and muggy conditions will continue through Friday and Saturday before a week cold front brings daytime highs back into the upper 80s and lower 90s by Sunday and into early next week with slightly cooler and drier air moving in. Before then, expect daytime highs between 95 and 100 through Friday with heat index values in the 105 to 112 degree range. Daily chances of scattered showers and storms will be with us the next few days, but rain and storms may be more widespread on Saturday as the frontal boundary approaches. Models are in good agreement on storms being more widespread, but disagree a bit on the exact timing. A few storms may be strong the next few days, with gusty winds the main concern, but organized or significant severe weather is not expected. Still, we can't rule out a few severe thunderstorm warnings here and there the next few days for gusty winds, as we can often see with any afternoon storms during the summer months.