It's no secret that Tennessee's deer seasons have gotten off to a smoking start. Not figuratively — this year's kill numbers lag well behind last year's kill numbers. But literally . . . well, almost.

Volunteer State hunters have sweated through unseasonably and, according to some, unbearably, hot temperatures through the first two weeks of the archery season for whitetails. With the exception of a brief cooldown due to a cold front late in the first week of the season, the temperatures have ranged anywhere from a few degrees above normal to nearly 15 degrees above normal.

But TnHunting.Com's Corey Andrews says that changes are imminent. Andrews, a TnHunting.Com contributer and weather enthusiast, says that a cold front will provide welcome relief for Tennessee hunters by mid-week.

"Basically, it's going to feel more like fall," Andrews said. "Every bow hunter longs for the first day when the high temperature is in the low 60s and the low temperature is in the 30s."

While those temperatures might be a bit of a stretch, some areas might find themselves close to it by week's end, according to Andrews.

"What's going to happen, basically speaking, is a low pressure weather system is going to develop in the northern Plains and Great Lakes region early in the week," Andrews said. "When it starts moving towards Tennessee, it's going to suck some of that cool Canadian air down with it."

Cooler air is expected to settle across Tennessee by late Wednesday. By Friday, areas in southwest Tennessee might not get out of the low 70s for a high temperature, Andrews said. That's a far cry from the mid 90s experienced this weekend.

"It's certainly going to be a change for the better, even if it's a short-lived one," he said.

Areas to the north and east will generally be cooler. Nashville might not get out of the 60s, according to Andrews.

"If you live in areas like the upper part of the Cumberland Plateau or the mountains of East Tennessee, you could be looking at high temperatures in the low 60s for Friday and Saturday," he said.

Andrews warned that the system is still forming, and might change before it reaches Tennessee later in the week. "Even over the last few hours, we've seen indications that the air will be warmer than what we had been anticipating," he said. "Obviously if that trend continues, the forecast will change. But for now, this next weekend looks very nice and very different from the first few weekends we've hunted."

Officially, forecasts from the National Weather Service call for temperatures ranging from the 60s in Knoxville to the 70s in Memphis, very similar to what Andrews points out is possible.

Does this mean that fall has finally arrived?

"This time of year, it's almost impossible to look more than a few days out and tell what's going to happen," Andrews said. "But there are indications that we'll begin to warm up pretty quickly after next weekend. So, unfortunately, we could be talking about a situation where we see some cool temperatures and then go right back to hot weather again. But at least we'll get a little reprieve, something hunters can enjoy while it lasts."

Hot weather is believed to be one of the contributing factors to Tennessee's decreased deer harvest so far this season. Two weeks and three hunting weekends into the season, this year's harvest is running around 20% behind last year's record-setting harvest. On opening weekend and again this weekend, many areas of the state set or matched record high temperatures.