SALISBURY – After days of temperatures in the mid-90s, the Piedmont should see some more reasonable temperatures starting Friday afternoon.

The Salisbury area will see a high of 94 degrees on Friday, but humidity and other factors could make it feel hotter. The normal high is 90 degrees for this time of year in the Charlotte area. The record was set in 2011 at 101 degrees, which is also Salisbury’s record from 1942, according to climate data from the National Weather Service.

Steve Monday of Rowan County Weather said Friday will be a high heat day, which is typical in late July and August.

This time of year, it also is typical to get deep ridges of high pressure pushing temperatures to an extreme, Monday said. He noted, while not a good thing on the whole, tropical storms and hurricanes alleviate some of that when they pass through.

A cold front is expected to come through beginning Friday afternoon with a chance of rain during the weekend. Temperatures should drop back into the 80s.

The heat is a concern especially for people who work outside like landscapers and farmers.

He said the best way to be safe when working in extreme highs is to take more breaks by going into air conditioned places for at least 15 minutes at a time and drinking an excess of water.

Jeffrey Taylor, a meteorologist at the Greenville-Spartanburg National Weather Service Forecast Office, reiterated the importance of people not overexerting themselves in extreme heat.

Monday noted Rowan County is currently in an abnormally dry state according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The Salisbury area is about 6 inches of rainfall behind normal this year. A large part of the Piedmont also is in an abnormally dry state, the lowest level of drought. Though, most of the state and East coast has no drought problems.

“The big thing with drought is it is the number of days you go without rain than the days you go with,” Monday said, adding dry spells add stress to local farmers and hopefully weekend rain will begin a rebound.

Things could be significantly worse. Taylor pointed out the disparity between the East and the West Coast, where huge swaths of states have been in an extended state of extreme or exceptional drought.