By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- It's coming, we promise. Really.

Relief, blessed relief, is just around the corner.

Well, comparatively.

"After what we've been having, it'll actually maybe seem a little cool" beginning late today and Wednesday, said Scott Sharpe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Raleigh.

After 10 consecutive days of a high temperature above 90 degrees, after a span of 19 of the last 20 days when it soared above 90, the mercury is coming down. Get ready for a return to the almost balmy 80s.

A weak cold front is moving into the area late today, and as the front progresses southward, cooler, drier air will move in. "The cloud cover we get should really bring the temperatures down," Sharpe said. "And the humidity should be tolerable, too. It'll feel a lot more pleasant than it has been feeling."

That's good, because the average daily temperature for June has been a scalding, record-setting 81.5 degrees. "That's running almost two degrees above normal for the monthly average," Sharpe said. "That may not seem like much, but for meteorologists, that's pretty significant. Two degrees is a lot."

But with the approaching cold front, today's high should only reach the low 90s. Wednesday's high will only reach the low to mid-80s. That should be the deal for Thursday, too.

And there might even be some scattered thunderstorms today and Wednesday, with some local areas getting relief from the baking we've received for the past couple of weeks -- although many areas, the weather service warns, could still stay dry.

That's the good news.

Here's the bad news: "The respite will be pretty shortlived," Sharpe said.

The temperatures will be climbing right back up as we head into the July 4th holiday weekend.

By Friday, the skies will start clearing up again and the mercury will ascend once again into the 90s. By the 4th itself, it'll feel just like ... well, the way it's been feeling.