It's been a while since we've had a hot stretch here in Michigan. We have some sizzling late August weather on the way after a few very comfortable, almost cool days early this week.

Let's cut right to the chase. Here are the high temperatures forecasted by the most accurate model in this situation. Notice the cool temperatures today through Wednesday, then the warm-up starts. By the weekend we really heat up and continue hot weather into early next week.

I believe this warm-up. Notice the upper-air shift from a very cool northern upper-air wind to a medium-sized dome of hot upper-air moving over the Great Lakes this weekend. I carry the forecast out into next week to show you this hot spell won't last very long. As has been the case all summer there eventually will be a storm system to knock down the hot ridge and bring at least a few day cooldown. This cooldown probably won't come until late next week.

One more look at the hot weather coming as I show you the temperature anomaly at around 5,000 feet up in the atmosphere. Remember- it has to be hotter than normal aloft to become hotter than normal at the ground. We definitely see the hot weather forming by Friday or Saturday.

I guess it depends on what we Michiganders call hot at this time of year. Here is the long-term average high temperature for August 27. We are losing some heating power of the sun, and the days are getting shorter. Our long-term average high temperature peaked in July and has cooled about three degrees so far. By the time we get to next week our average high temperature is 79 degrees to 81 degrees for the southern half of Lower Michigan. Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula have long-term average highs between 73 degrees and 77 degrees.

If we head toward 90 degrees this weekend, or even eclipse 90 and warm into the low-90s, temperatures will be 10 to 15 degrees warmer than normal. This isn't record heat, but it's hot for the end of August.

With the hot dome over us, Michigan looks to also be mostly dry through the weekend.

This week and next week look like a great time to use some vacation days and enjoy some of the last truly hot days.