If you’re tired of the extreme heat, you’re in luck (for a while) if you live across parts of the Southeast, Northeast, Plains and Midwest. For the Plains, below-normal temperatures will arrive by late this weekend, followed by below-normal temperatures arriving for the Midwest, Northeast and parts of the Southeast by mid-week–and overall continuing for the rest of the second half of July.

The drier/cooler air is due to a big dip in the jet-stream across central and eastern parts of the U.S. This “dip” will allow for periodic frontal passages to dive south and eastward, ushering in below-normal temperatures and lower dewpoints for the second half of July. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) concurs that an upper-air pattern change will occur, ushering in near to below-normal temperatures (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). The gray to blue colors indicate probabilities of temperatures near (gray color) to below-normal (blue colors).

Fig. 1: CPC 6-10 Day Temperature Outlook

Fig. 2: CPC 8-14 Day Temperature Outlook

While it won’t feel cold outside, temperatures will fall to below-normal values. Highs will be in the 80s for parts of the Southeast and 70s/low-80s for the Plains, Midwest and Northeast; with lows dipping into the 50s for these areas and mid-60 degree lows as far south as northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and northern Georgia. It is possible a brief return to above-normal temperatures will occur by the weekend before another cold front ushers in below-normal temperatures for the following week.