Friday Morning . . .

Once again allow me to apologize for the tardiness of the post here. Still dealing with the wintry weather across the area. Luckily our forecast for SE LA was pretty good as the freezing line remained just to the northwest overnight. Lots of ice though from Baton Rouge westward and then some snow up along the I-20 corridor around Shreveport. We also had some thunder and lightning earlier, along with some of the sleet and snow flakes mixing in with the rain. What a crazy system! Thundersleet is pretty rare for anybody, and especially down here. Just a really dynamic system as the surface low works it's way south of our coast and then begins to turn up into the Carolinas

Of course rain is overspreading the Carolinas as we speak. There is a freezing rain advisory for much of western North Carolina until midnight tonight. While I don't expect this to be a huge issue . . . as we mentioned yesterday some of the colder spots and elevated road surfaces could get slick at times so be careful driving around tonight. Most of the area right now though is above freezing so that is good news. After rain tonight and the first half of the day on Saturday, things should clear out in time for a nice Sunday.


The next chance of some showers will be on Monday however this system looks fairly week. What's interesting is the potential for another massive shot of arctic air by the end of next week. Take a look at this . . .




That is the GFS surface forecast for 192 hours which is next Saturday morning the 12th. Now granted this is still over 7 days out, and I never really trust any model or forecast over about 3 to 4 days. However what's important to note here is the large arctic high over MS and AL, and the -10 Celsius degree temperature line down into the area!!! That is very cold air, as the freezing line is pushing all the way into the gulf. Now again this has several days to change, but if this were to happen it could be some of the coldest air this season. Certainly will be something to watch.

Ok that does it for me today. I hope everybody has a great weekend. I'll try to jump on for another update tomorrow or Sunday as Matt will be driving back from Disney on Sunday.

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Thursday . . .

Sorry for the late post today everybody. Been dealing with some rare wintry weather in the deep south here. Right now we have a freezing rain advisory for our parishes north of Lake Pontchartrain with winter storm warnings just out of the viewing area to the west. Crazy stuff. Always a borderline situation in the deep south as you know for winter weather. That freezing line has been bouncing around a little bit this morning. New Orleans metro will see all rain but we could see a little freezing rain north, and then of course bigger ice problems both farther north and farther west through tomorrow morning. Here is the latest winter radar . . .

You can see quite a bit of frozen precip. Of course all of this associated with a huge upper level system currently diving into the western part of Texas right now. As it does so it will develop either a surface low in the gulf or an inverted sfc trough. This feature will continue to lift north into southern Georgia and eventually north of there over the next couple of days. Look for moisture to spread into most of western North Carolina by tonight and then through much of your Friday.

Now most of this activity will fall as rain. However at the beginning of the event tonight into early tomorrow morning we could see a wintry mix, especially in some of the higher elevations and colder spots. While no major accumulations should occur, be careful tonight for some slick spots if you are traveling around, especially on elevated surfaces. Otherwise mostly rain for your Friday before things clear out the rest of the weekend.

Sorry this was a bit less in-depth that usual. Hope everybody has a great day!

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Groundhog Day, Signing Day, Wednesday . . .

Sorry for the delay of the post here. I've been too busy following National Signing Day for college football. Hoping my beloved MSU Bulldogs can continue their trend of improvement the past couple of years.


Of course today is Groundhog Day as well. Punxsutawney Phil did not see his shadow today which means an early spring, I'm sure to the delight of most of the country. Keep in mind half the time I don't even know how they tell because he's out before that much sun even comes up. Frankly today it looked fairly clear up there so I figured he would see his shadow. Last year I thought it was cloudy and he didn't. But I digress. Here's a quick photo of the preceedings . . .



Ridiculous I know. But anyway . . . let's talk about the weather. As soon as this storm system has moved out another one is ready to move in over the next couple of days. Another in a train of gulf lows will be developing by Thursday south of Louisiana and then marching northeast. This will bring rain through much of North Carolina by the time we head into Friday morning. Keep in mind I did say rain here. While a wintry mix is possible in some spots Friday morning and again later Friday night, most of the event here should be rain across the area. The surface low once again moves farther to the north as opposed to along the coast like the last few, meaning warmer air is brought into the system.


However there could still be a few trouble spots during the morning and nighttime hours with this storm system so keep it to your local stations for the exact details each day. Looks pretty soggy for Friday and most of Saturday too before the rain moves out just in time for a dry Super Bowl Sunday.


In the meantime enjoy a dry and fairly sunny day for your Thursday with highs in the low 40s. Also keep an eye on the lower MS valley and Texas the next couple of days. While most of my area in NOLA here should get rain . . . you may actually have accumulating snow for the third year in a row around Houston, and a potential icy mess a little farther east into central LA and southwest MS. Hope everybody has a great day!

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