Kevin Myatt is The Roanoke Times' weather columnist.

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The tropics are finally hopping, but it's having little effect on Southwest Virginia.

As Tropical Storm Cristobal scraped by North Carolina's Outer Banks on Sunday, spinning out a few showers and gusts, temperatures soared into the 90s in Roanoke as the midsummer sun cooked relatively dry air.

Tropical Storm Dolly formed in the Caribbean, likely headed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and then maybe toward southern Texas. The only way Dolly would affect us is if some of its remnant moisture gets pulled into storm systems crossing the nation from west to east, many days out.

These tropical storms follow on the heels of Hurricane Bertha, which stayed well east of the United States during its two-week life cycle. That cycle finally ended Sunday when the storm became extratropical.

Showers and thunderstorms are expected to gradually increase this week in our area, but that will have little or nothing to do with tropical systems.

Instead, it will be familiar inland features that will return this summer to a stormy pattern as the week advances.

After a week under dry and increasingly hot high pressure, the jet stream will again dip southward into the Eastern U.S., helping to bring cold fronts and disturbances toward us as Gulf of Mexico moisture is lifted northward.

So, let's keep an eye on the tropics, but keep looking over land for what is likely to affect us most.