SAVANNAH, Ga. () — The new month started out with seasonably warm afternoon temperatures with highs in the lower to middle 80s.

A strong northeast breeze helped to make conditions feel more comfortable with drier air moving in.

Thursday and Friday will remain cooler than normal since the strong northeasterly breeze will remain in place. Afternoon highs both days will be in the upper 70s to lower 80s.

Thursday will be a mainly sunny day with clouds returning in the evening. More clouds for Friday will help a few stray showers to develop. However, most locations will remain dry Friday afternoon and into the evening.

The strong breeze that will help the next couple of day to really feel like fall will also continue to lead to dangerous beach and surf conditions. There is a high surf advisory in place along with a high risk of rip currents for Georgia and South Carolina from now until the weekend.

A small crat advisory has been issued along with a gale watch for the coastal waters of Georgia and South Carolina until Friday 6 a.m. Friday. Wind gusts will be over 35 kts and seas will be around 9-11 ft. Exercise caution if planning on heading out on a boat.

Cloud cover and more moisture will move back into the Coastal Empire and Lowcountry just in time for the weekend. A few isolated showers are possible Saturday afternoon. Higher rain chances are in the forecast for Sunday and into Monday.

Afternoon highs will be back to near-normal in the low to mid 80s.

Next week looks to be a little drier again, but the temperatures will be back into the mid to possibly upper 80s.

October is a month of change through. High and low temperatures drop dramatically throughout the month.

The average highs on October 1 is 83°F and it drops to 75°F by the 31 for Savannah. The average low is 65°F on the first and drops to 53°F by the 31.

Even with the dramatic drop in temperatures, it can still be a hot month. Many record highs for early October are still in the mid to upper 90s.

The record hottest days are October 2 and 4 at 97°F. The all-time record low is 28°F set on October 30, 1952.

TRACKING THE TROPICS

The National Hurricane Center is tracking Hurricane Imelda as it races closer to Bermuda. As of 8 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Imelda has 100 mph sustained wind with gusts approaching 120 mph. It is moving quickly to the east-northeast at 24 mph.

It is located just about 100 miles west-southwest of Bermuda.

This system will pass over Bermuda tonight and into Thursday morning as a category 2 storm. Imelda will continue to move east-northeast Thursday, but it will begin to turn northward on Friday.

It will gradually weaken and transition into a post-tropical low over the weekend and merge into a cold front.

Hurricane Humberto became a post-tropical low as of 11 a.m. EDT Wednesday. Humberto merged into a cold front over the north Atlantic. This is the same front that Imelda will merge into over the coming days.

Elsewhere in the tropics, the NHC is monitoring a tropical wave that will move off of the west coast of Africa over the next couple of day for further development.

It has a low (20%) chance of becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm over the next 5-7 days once over the Atlantic Ocean. The environment will become more conducive for gradual development is this system moves westward.

There is no threat to the U.S. at this time.