"I have good news and bad news."

You hear this so often these days it's now cliche. This applies well to U.S. temperatures.

As a cold front brings relief from summer's searing heat to one region, a warm front lifting north returns torrid temperatures and oppressive humidity to another region.

This is precisely the case later this week. So, which do you want first? I'm an optimist by nature, so let's start with the glass half-full.  [ weather.com ]

Values in the upper 60s and 70s, shown by the orange shadings below, denote the humid air still left over from southern New Jersey into Virginia and parts of W. Virginia. More "comfortable" air with lower dew points will settle into the interior Northeast and New England.

Model forecast dew points Wednesday afternoon Image: Wright-weather.com

The real relief will be felt Thursday and Friday. As the center of high pressure builds into the eastern Great Lakes, the cold front will push as far south as the Carolinas and Tennessee Valley, a bonus for this time of year.

Ninety-degree heat will be swept out of the Mid-Atlantic States Thursday, and Friday.

Friday's relief in the East

Often in July, "relief" manifests itself as a break from humidity rather than significantly cooler temperatures. That will be the case Thursday and Friday.

Below is another model forecast dew point map similar to the one above, this time for Thursday afternoon. Compared to the Wednesday map above, note the drier air, shown by the green and yellow contours, penetrates south through Virginia, even into parts of North Carolina.

Model forecast dew points Thursday afternoon Image: Wright-weather.com

More comfortable humidity for mid-July should hold in the East for a few days, before summer's heat and humidity attempts to encroach, slowly from the west.

Now, the "bad news" ... a major heat wave is lurking ahead!