After hottest day of year, temps cool slightly Wednesday

With the heat index, Tuesday's temperatures will feel like the low 100s in the Triangle and like 105 to 107 degrees in southern counties, where a heat advisory has been issued from noon to 7 p.m.

Posted 2:35 a.m. Jul 5, 2016 — Updated 6:04 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tuesday was the hottest day of the year so far, but temperatures are expected to cool slightly for Wednesday thanks to lower dew points.

Temperatures climbed into the 90s around the region on Tuesday and, at one point in Raleigh, heat index values reached 109 degrees. The heat of the day brought storms across the state, some of which resulted in damage and power outages.

The storms were blamed for at least one house fire in Wake County after lightning struck a house in Fuquay-Varina. In Selma, a storm caused a tree to crash onto a home on Trailer Park Road just off of N.C. Highway 301. No injuries were reported in either incident.

The region is not under any particular severe weather threat for Wednesday, said WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner. But the afternoon could still produce some storms.

"We're looking at just a very warm, sticky air mass today with thunderstorms potentially cropping up," said WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner.

Temperatures on Wednesday will reach into the low 90s, but won't hit the soaring highs the Triangle saw on Tuesday. The heat returns again on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, though, when the mercury will be in the mid- to high-90s.

"In order to have a heat advisory we;d have to see the heat index at 105 for several hours," Gardner said. "We're going to be close to that Friday. My guess is the weather service will issue a heat advisory, but we're going to be borderline for Friday."