Heat index hits 100 degrees Thursday, Friday

The heat index will top out at 100 degrees by 6 p.m. before dropping to 88 degrees by 8 p.m.

Posted 4:39 p.m. Aug 21, 2014 — Updated 6:23 p.m. Aug 21, 2014

RALEIGH, N.C. — For the first time in a long time, the heat index in the Triangle will reach 100 degrees on Thursday.

“We haven’t had a lot of hot days in August,” WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner said, adding that the mercury reached 90 degrees or higher at Raleigh-Durham International Airport only twice this month.

By noon in Raleigh, it was a humid 87 degrees with a heat index at 94. The heat index will top out at 100 degrees by 6 p.m. before dropping to 88 degrees by 8 p.m.

Gardner said a warm front hovering north of the state is responsible for the muggy heat.

“We’re just on the wrong side of this warm front,” she said. “It’s where all the heat and humidity are.”

The heat index is also expected to hit 100 degrees on Friday.

The topping temps are a change in August's unusually cool trend. Through the first 13 days of August, RDU averaged 81.7 degrees for highs for the month. That’s 5.8 degrees below the average monthly high for August from 1945-2013.

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