Hot as Atlanta

After several days of mild weather--temperatures in the 80s under mostly cloudy skies--real Atlanta summer returned Wednesday.

It was sunny and hot, with temperatures in the 90s. Humidity was reasonable, about 50%, but that is due to change.

The forecast for today, Friday and the weekend was for more 90-degree days, increasing humidity under mostly cloudy skies with occasional thunderstorms. Showers are expected Friday afternoon and evening, just in time for opening ceremonies.

If that forecast doesn’t pan out, most people here will be thankful. But it will also mean that a forecasting system touted as the most advanced in the world didn’t work.

The National Weather Service, with an office about 40 miles south of Atlanta, says it will be able to predict whether winds will be so high as to endanger divers, if the morning dew will be so heavy on the velodrome that cyclists will have problems or whether lightning might be a threat to spectators.

But according to Los Angeles meteorologist Tim McClung, working here during the Games, folks in town for the Olympics need really only keep two words in mind, Atlanta and summer.

“High temperatures and frequent afternoon and evening thundershowers are the normal pattern here,” he said.