Crank up the air conditioning! Hot and humid weather is here to stay a while. High temperatures Tuesday afternoon will range from the upper 80s at our beaches to the low 90s inland, but the humidity will make it feel more like the upper 90s to near 100.

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On these hot summer days, our bodies sweat to try to cool us off. That cooling process actually comes from the sweat evaporating off our skin. When the humidity is high, that evaporation is not as effective, and it makes the temperature feel hotter. That is why meteorologists developed the heat index, or feels like temperature.

The heat index should be near or slightly above 100 across much of eastern North Carolina each afternoon for the rest of this week.

The afternoon heat and humidity should be fuel for a few late day storms each afternoon through the rest of this week. There's a 30 to 40 percent chance for those storms each afternoon and evening through Friday. While not everyone will see rain, some of the storms will produce localized downpours, frequent lightning, and gusty winds.