With some model guidance suggesting that the upcoming week could be the hottest of the summer so far for the northern Cumberland Plateau, here’s the latest GFS model output statistics for this week:

The GFS is currently depicting a high of 94 on Tuesday, 94 Wednesday, 92 Thursday, 92 Friday, 90 Saturday and 88 Sunday. A slight cooling trend? We may not get close to 100 here in East Tennessee, after all. Which isn’t too surprising for the northern Plateau; we rarely climb above 95 degrees at this elevation and latitude.

Earlier in the week, when temps are predicted to be at their hottest, humidity levels should be relatively low. That allows more efficient cooling at night, so overnight lows could drop into the lower 60s at least a couple of nights on the Plateau, which allows for a much more comfortable feeling than those humid, 70-degree nights. As we get later into the week, more moisture begins to saturate the atmosphere. That increases the chance for storms and rain, but also brings back the warm, muggy nights.

However, higher humidity also hampers daytime heating, which is part of the reason for the slightly cooler temps depicted by the GFS late in the week.

Could the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season be on the horizon?

The tropics are certainly warming up a bit this week, with a couple of tropical waves impacting the Atlantic. First was Tropical Storm Don that fizzled over Texas earlier this weekend. Now, a second wave is being watched closely by the National Hurricane Center.

For now, it’s simply called Invest 91L. But there’s a good chance that it will get a name soon. The NHC is currently giving it a nearly 100% probability of developing into a tropical depression within the next 48 hours. It’s currently situated more than 700 miles east of the Windward Islands.

This one has the makings of a big-time hurricane. The good news, however, is that it probably won’t effect the continental U.S. if it becomes a major storm. There is a trough situated just off the east coast that should cause this thing to recurve into the Atlantic. The various ensemble members of the GFS model depict this pretty well. However, the models overall have drifted this storm a little further west than where they had it positioned yesterday. That could be nothing.

Or it could be a sign that the storm is going to stay a little weaker than anticipated, which will allow it to slide further west before beginning its northward jaunt. If that’s the case, it could avoid getting caught up in the trough and wind up in the western Caribbean and perhaps in the Gulf of Mexico before all is said and done.

The most likely scenario, though, if the storm does in fact remain weaker than anticipated, is that it manages to get far enough west to strike Florida. The good news in that case is that it might be a tropical storm at best, unable to gather enough strength to become a major hurricane.

Dr. Jeff Masters on the storm, which will be the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season whenever it does develop.

Despite the general feel that this summer has been very hot, National Weather Service data shows that it hasn’t been much warmer than normal.

In Oneida, for example, the average temperature in July has been 75.1 degrees. That’s only slightly more than a degree above the rolling 30-year average of 73.9 for July. June was similar, with an average temp of 71 degrees, above the 30-year norm of 69.8.

The daily high temperature in July has averaged 85.6 in Oneida. That’s the exact same as our 30-year average. In June, we averaged a daily high of 83.7, which was somewhat warmer than the 30-year average of 81.9.

But there are signs that even more heat could be on the horizon.

The GFS model is painting some very hot temps for the first few days of August, towards the end of next week. If — with emphasis on “if” — the GFS is right, Knoxville could top 100 degrees with the northern Plateau not far behind.

For now, the National Weather Service is forecasting highs of 93 on Wednesday and Thursday and 91 on Friday here on the northern Plateau. For Knoxville, the forecasted high is one degree warmer each day.

The debt ceiling wrangling on Capitol Hill is going to ruin Christmas. At least that’s what the White House is saying:

On MSNBC this morning, top Obama adviser David Plouffe made a similar claim, pointing out that the Boehner plan would ensure that “this whole debt ceiling spectacle” will be “repeated again a few montsh from now over the holidays.”

“The debt ceiling debate would ruin Christmas,” Plouffe said. He was apparently ad-libbing the line, but now it’s found its way into the White House’ s official talking point

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Boys, I hate to break it to you, but if you think the average American is going to let your childish bickering ruin his Christmas, you’re probably mistaken.

(Via Congressman Scott DesJarlais, who tweets, “I had no idea that our efforts to keep this nation from becoming the next Greece were threatening Christmas!”)

Derek Dooley has the SEC’s best shoe collection, Steve Spurrier’s favorite athlete as a kid was UT runningback Johnny Majors and other tidbits from the SEC’s coaches.

New NASA data blows gaping hole in global warming theory:

NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth’s atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

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Defensive tackle Damien Jacobs has verbally committed to Tennessee. The 6-3, 294 native of Houma, La., isn’t ranked by Rivals.com because he is a junior college prospect and JUCO players aren’t yet ranked by the recruiting service.

Coming out of high school, Jacobs was ranked as the No. 75 DT in the nation. He signed with Florida State but did not qualify academically.

Duped by Twitter.

LSU publicly announces that its athletics director, Joe Alleva, has drawn interest from Tennessee. Then they give him a pay raise to stay put.

UT chancellor Jimmy Cheek has been schooled. Given the way he’s overseen the athletics department at Tennessee since wresting control away from Mike Hamilton back last September, that’s not much of a surprise, frankly.

For the record, though, it looked for all the world like Tennessee was set to hire Alleva this afternoon. And that would have been a bad thing. Duke lacrosse rape accusations in 2006, anyone

? Do. Not. Need.