Forecasted highs/record highs and years Monday: 100/99 (1987) Tuesday: 101/100 (1957) Wednesday: 100/105 (1947) Thursday: 96/100 (1935) Friday: 94/102 (1935) Saturday: 93/104 (1935)Source: WRCB-Channel 3
Brace yourselves, Chattanoogans: Mother Nature and the sun are teaming up to bring you one very hot week.
Today, Tuesday and Wednesday are forecast to break the 100-degree mark, and if all goes according to plan, WRCB-Channel 3 meteorologist Neal Pascal said heat records could be broken.
"We could tie or break records here Monday and Tuesday," he said, referring to today's predicted high of 100 and Tuesday's 101.
Though no heat records have been surpassed this summer in Chattanooga, Pascal said this summer has been "a bad one."
He noted that June's average temperature was six degrees above normal, and for July, it was four.
"That may not sound like much, but July is already hot anyway," Pascal said.
Sunday's high reached 99 degrees, a number that ties the record for Aug. 1, previously set in 2006, Pascal said.
But those in and around the Scenic City shouldn't feel as though they're the only ones baking in Tennessee. Nashville's overall July average high of 87.8 degrees was surpassed by this July's 92.6, and Memphis' 92.1 degree high average for last month was shattered by this July's 93.8, said Mary Black, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service's Morristown, Tenn., office.
"As far as I have seen, it looks like the whole state has been hotter than normal," she said.
The record high in Chattanooga for the upcoming week - today through Saturday - was set at 105 degrees on the first Wednesday in August 1947, Pascal said.
The reason no records have been broken this summer, he said, is because they are "real hard to break."
"It's one thing to be warmer than normal. It's another to set records," Pascal said.
Another heat suppressant Pascal identified is rain.
"(This summer) is not as dry as some of the hottest summers," he said. "And that's what probably saved us."
Summer heat levels fluctuate, Pascal said, and they're not the easiest thing to predict. He added that this past winter's extreme cold didn't foreshadow anything about this summer's temps.
Black agreed, saying winter's are easier to predict because of phenomena like El Niño and La Niña.
"Unfortunately," she said, "you have to wait to see what happens (during the summer) in order to find out for sure if it's going to be above normal or not."
And now that it's here, Pascal said, many Chattanooga residents are feeling the monetarily painful effects of high electric bills from air conditioning.
But others have a more outdoor-oriented view of the summer. These are the many folks who can be seen soaking up rays along the riverfront and walking downtown with an ice cream cone in hand.
"It gets pretty busy, especially when it's as hot as it is outside today (Sunday)," said Erica Vaughn, an employee of The Ice Cream Show downtown.
For Terri Carbone and her daughter Sasha, it's all about water during the summer.
"If we're not down here at this water (outside the Tennessee Aquarium), we'll be at the fountains (at Coolidge Park)," she said. "And if we're not there, we're on the lake."
Rob Bade and his three daughters, Sutton, Camdyn and Presley, had the same idea Sunday - splashing in the creeks and fountains outside the aquarium.
"You can't do much about the heat," Bade said, "except to try and just live with it."